Lower East Side’s rumored Ace Hotel will be called Sister City

The Bowery’s long-rumored Ace Hotel is nearing its debut and—surprise!—it won’t actually be an Ace Hotel. The 200-key lodging in the former Bowery Salvation Army building is by the same team behind the Ace, but will go by the name Sister City.

It’s a new hotel concept for the brand that’s inspired by “the functional perfection of Finnish saunas, Japanese bento boxes, rock-cut cliff dwellings of prehistory and John Cage’s ‘4’33,’” a press release for the hotel reads. Yep, they’re going there.

The micro-hotel concept is aimed at travelers and will bring “a new prototype for compassionate hospitality where efficiency and beauty find union” to 225 Bowery. The hotel will open slightly later than expected—the fall of 2018 rather than the spring—and will bring with it a 130-seat ground-floor restaurant and a rooftop bar to the site. The hotel lobby will be accessed by Freeman’s Alley.

Atelier Ace, the creative agency behind Ace Hotels, says rooms will range in size from 162 to 262 square feet, and will start at $259 a night.

Developer Omnia Group, with the backing of investor North Wind Group, paid more than $30 million for the 55,000-square-foot structure in 2014, after entering contract in 2012. Prior to its purchase, the building served as the Bowery Salvation Army Chinatown Shelter that served hundreds of meals a day.

• Sister City [official]
• Lower East Side’s rumored Ace Hotel could open in 2018 [Curbed]
• Ace Hotel’s Contentious LES Outpost Gets Renderings [Curbed]
• Freeman Alley May Be Jeopardized By Ace Hotel Conversion [Curbed]
• Bowery Salvation Army + $30M = City’s Newest Ace Hotel [Curbed]