Business
Former Ace Hotel in downtown L.A. reopens as 'Airbnb on steroids'
The former Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, which helped lead an economic revival on a historic stretch of Broadway a decade ago, has reopened as a minimal-service operation akin to Airbnb, following a strategy that has become increasingly common for struggling hotels in recent years
Now called Stile Downtown Los Angeles by Kasa, the 1920s-vintage hotel tower has resumed limited operations after shutting down nearly six months ago. Downtown hotels were particularly hard-hit by the pandemic, and some have changed owners or operators.
Ace Hotel Group had operated the 182-room hotel near Broadway and Olympic Boulevard since it opened in 2014, even as its ownership changed twice over the years. The chic brand made the Ace a destination for travelers as well as local residents who patronized its buzzy rooftop bar and restaurants.
Korea-based AJU Continuum, which bought the hotel in 2019, announced last week that it had brought in Kasa Living Inc. to operate the property.
Kasa, which is based in San Francisco and has a national presence, “offers the consistency of a major hotel chain with the convenience and character of a modern short-term rental,” AJU Continuum said in a statement.
Ace Hotel said upon its departure that the Broadway hotel would be operated in the future as “a limited-service, rooms-only operation, managed via a tech platform.”
The limited-service model under which guests typically receive codes to get into their rooms via their phones is “basically an Airbnb on steroids,” said Donald Wise, a hotel investment banker at Turnbull Capital Group. “You’re not going to someone’s house or a condo, but to a box that has no more or less service than an Airbnb would have.”
The independent United Theater on Broadway, which is connected to the hotel, will continue to operate as an open venue hosting concerts, performances and special events, AJU Continuum said. The hotel will have a rooftop wine bar, but no restaurants.
The site has had multiple identities since it was built in 1927. Constructed with backing from film luminaries Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith, it originally was meant in part to provide a theater for the United Artists movie production company they founded.
The Spanish Gothic theater was designed by C. Howard Crane and the tower by Walker & Eisen, the team behind other local landmarks including the Fine Arts Building downtown and the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills. It held offices for rent and a theater where United Artists pictures premiered, starting with Pickford’s film “My Best Girl.”
Other prominent occupants of the property through the years include California Petroleum Corp., Texaco and flamboyant preacher Gene Scott, whose broadcasts were heard nationally. He died in 2005.
The opening of the Ace in 2014 was a pivotal point in the residential renaissance of downtown that helped spur growth nearby, said Nick Griffin, executive vice president of DTLA Alliance, formerly the Downtown Center Business Improvement District.
“It was evocative of that particular moment in downtown, arriving as a kind of a hipster paradise,” he said. “That area of Ninth and Broadway was a particularly hip area with fashion and hotels at the intersection of the Historic Core, the fashion district and the downtown center.”
Two other boutique hotels created in historic buildings followed the Ace to the neighborhood: the Hoxton Downtown LA and Downtown L.A. Proper. Both are also on Broadway.
Short-term rentals in former traditional hotels and apartment buildings have been popping up downtown as business owners work to find financial equilibrium, Griffin said.
“The new model of short-term rentals is sort of indicative of this moment in downtown as we continue to evolve and innovate coming out of the pandemic.”
Griffin’s improvement district reported that average downtown hotel occupancy, which plunged during the pandemic, has reached nearly 69%, up a percentage point from a year ago. That’s close to what is usually considered a healthy rate but down from late 2019 when occupancy was closer to 80% and average room rates were higher.
“The downtown Los Angeles market is still lagging, hasn’t recovered fully to the numbers that were pre-COVID,” said consultant Alan Reay of Atlas Hospitality Group. “We are definitely starting to see more distress among owners.”
Challenges for hotel owners include a reduction in business travelers to downtown offices as more people work from home resulting in lower revenue. They also face high interest rates on their loans and rising labor costs.
Limited service hotels such as Stile may produce more profit for their owners while also lowering rates for guests who don’t mind having fewer services, Reay said.
new video loaded: Ferrari’s Stock Falls After It Unveils Its Latest Car
transcript
transcript
Ferrari’s Stock Falls After It Unveils Its Latest Car
The Italian sports car manufacturer received significant backlash after it unveiled its first electric vehicle, the Luce, earlier this week.
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It doesn’t shout Ferrari. And for a company whose entire history is based on making dynamic-looking, sleek cars, it’s maybe harder for Ferrari to get around than it is for other manufacturers.
By Jamie Leventhal
May 27, 2026
After nearly 50 years of selling all things comics, Dark Horse is closing its Things From Another World retail locations.
The publishing house, well known for series such as “Hellboy” and “The Umbrella Academy,” operated two storefronts in Oregon and maintained a flagship store at L.A.’s Universal Citywalk. The Oregon shops will close in June, and the L.A. location will close in September. The company said in a statement that these closures are a part of its efforts to “modernize.”
“This was not an easy decision, and we do not take lightly the impact it has on the people directly affected,” Dark Horse said in a statement.
As the company moves away from the retail business, the Oregon-based publisher said it plans to focus more on its creators and writers, “ensuring they have the development support, creative partnerships, and resources to bring their visions to life across film and television.” Over the years, Dark Horse has become one of the largest comics publishers in the country.
The company also recently launched a games division focused on providing creators with development opportunities in interactive entertainment.
Dark Horse added, “We believe these changes further focus Dark Horse on its successful core publishing and collectibles business and on deepening our relationship with our fans and the retail community alike.”
The structural changes came a week after Dark Horse Media, which oversees Dark Horse Comics, was rolled into a new parent company, Fellowship Entertainment. The Stockholm-listed entertainment business was formed through a company split at Embracer Group. Under this separation, Fellowship Entertainment is now home to companies such as Dark Horse Media and Crystal Dynamics, as well as IPs such as “The Lord of the Rings” and “Tomb Raider.”
Dark Horse was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson. He had initially opened Pegasus Books in Bend, Ore., in 1980, with plans to become an author. But as the retail business expanded, he instead decided to get into the publishing industry with Dark Horse. In the first few years of the company, he popularized comic series based on movies such as “Star Wars,” “Aliens” and “Predator.” Today, the company represents over 350 properties across comics, books, films, television, electronic games, toys and collectibles.
The closing of Things From Another World at Universal Citywalk marks the loss of another legacy comic store in the city. In recent years, many storied shops such as Geoffrey’s Comics in Torrance, Earth-2 Comics in Sherman Oaks and Hi De-Ho Comics in Santa Monica have all been forced to close due in part to a struggling retail market.
Ferrari’s first-ever fully electric vehicle triggered some fans who said it looks more like an iPhone than an Italian supercar.
The $640,000 Ferrari Luce, which was unveiled on Wednesday, looks like a distant relative of many Apple products. It was built with the help of Jony Ive, the person who designed the look and feel of the Cupertino company’s iPhone, iPod and Macintosh through 2019.
“Legend has it that if you pull the Ferrari badge off the side of the new Luce you see an Apple logo underneath,” one user wrote on X.
A meme circulated portraying the Luce with iPhone applications photo-shopped onto the top, and another showing the car upside down and plugged into an iPhone charger.
To accommodate more batteries and seats, the new EV is bigger and boxier than most classic Ferraris. Ive’s design firm, LoveFrom, which he started in San-Francisco after leaving Apple, was brought in to try to meld the traditions of Ferrari with the new functionality and form allowed by a battery-powered engine.
In a marketing video, Ferrari’s chief design officer, Flavio Manzoni, said he sees the Luce “acting as a bridge between San Francisco and Maranello,” the northern Italian city where Ferrari is headquartered.
The four-door, five-seat car comes onto the scene at a difficult moment for electric vehicles, an industry that has been battered by President Trump’s policies.
Trump has cut EV incentives for manufacturers and customers, prompting several major automakers to move away from EV efforts and focus on gas-powered options.
A luxury EV effort from Sony and Honda, a high-tech vehicle dubbed Afeela, was shut down before it ever hit the road due to Honda paring back its EV offerings.
Legacy automakers such as Ferrari face a particularly difficult landscape for launching an EV, as die-hard fans are attached to traditional, gas-powered models.
Ferraris are known for roaring engines and bold, angular designs, a far cry from the smooth, rounded exterior of the Luce.
To be sure, aggressive redesigns often attract ridicule. The early electric Mustang models were shunned by some but have become popular.
One X user posted a meme with a photo of fictional Italian gangster Tony Soprano saying, “I don’t want any California bulls—.”
The online launch page for the car emphasizes that the Luce is “100% Ferrari.”
Still, Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari’s former chairman, told reporters on Tuesday that the automaker is “risking the destruction of a legend.”
Ferrari shares have fallen about 8% since the launch of the Luce, signaling investors’ concerns that the car won’t resonate with customers.
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