The Ace Hotel in London has changed hands for £150m (US$222m, €205m). The 258-bed Shoreditch hotel, which includes the Miranda nightclub and Hoi Polloi restaurant, has been sold by Starwood Capital Group to Limulus, but will still be managed by Ace Hotel Group.

The hotel started life as a Crowne Plaza, built on the site of the Shoreditch Empire music hall. It opened as the Ace in October 2013 following a refit and was the fifth in the edgy boutique chain – the first outside the US.

Featuring all the hallmark Ace ingredients: flea market curios, vintage furniture plus vinyl and turntables in the bedrooms, the hotel won Best Renovation at the 2014 European Hotel Design Awards.

As with all Ace Hotel sites, the design is rooted in the locality. On this project, the hoteliers collaborated with Olympic torch designers, Universal Design Studio. Dark engineering brick, cast bronze and galvanised steel all feature in the interiors.

This sale represents how property prices are soaring in this hipster part of London. Nick Chadwick, vice president of Starwood, says: “We were early in recognising the potential of Shoreditch to emerge as one of London’s hottest neighbourhoods.

"We're thrilled that our ambitious vision for this hotel has come to fruition, and that we've been able to considerably enhance the value of this asset by positioning it to take advantage of the tremendous growth of the Shoreditch market.”

To read a feature on the launch of the ACE Hotel – from the Q1 2014 edition of Leisure Management magazine (p.46) click here.