The Brief

The Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles is closing at the end of January, and with that the most recent chapter in the Spanish Gothic building’s storied past.

A spokesperson for the Ace Hotel, an international chain, told LAist that the owners of the building, which includes the Theater at Ace Hotel, will be converting the property to a “limited-service, rooms-only operation, managed via a tech platform.”

The location at 929 South Broadway has gone through many transformations, including an office conversion, an arts theater and a church. While there’s little known about what exactly the change will look like, it’s a marked difference for downtown.

The building’s history

Groundbreaking ceremony for the United Artists Theatre, looking toward the grandstand. The theater was built in 1927 and was part of the Texaco Building.

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Security Pacific National Bank Collection

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Los Angeles Public Library

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Before it was a swanky hotel, it began in 1927 with a bit of a double life.

It housed the California Petroleum Corporation office, later known as the Texaco Building, in the spaces above, and behind that, the United Artists Theatre. Business up front, party in the back.

United Artists had been created less than a decade before, when a group of film legends including Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin left the studio system to form their own company. It gave them total control over the creation and distribution of their work, and the downtown theater was their flagship film spot for West Coast showings.

The 13-story building’s Spanish Gothic design mirrored trends of the 1920s, and some of the decorations are copied from the Segovia Cathedral in Spain. Pickford put so much money into the theater’s design that the plaster cast molds had to be re-used in Detroit and Chicago to cut down costs.

Jesus Saves

In 1989, the property took on a new life. Televangelist Gene Scott acquired it to hold services for the University Cathedral Church until it moved out in 2011. He put giant neon “Jesus Saves” signs on the building, which had come from the Bible Institute of Los Angeles after it was torn down.

“Scott had bribed them, the demolition contractor, to take the ‘Jesus Saves’ signs back to their yard,” said Richard Schave, who leads historical tours around L.A. through Esotouric. “And he came and picked them up the next day. He saved the signs.”

One “Jesus Saves” sign is still on the downtown building, which has become a bit of an icon. The building was listed as a city historic-cultural monument in 1991.

The Ace Hotel’s arrival

Guests attend Adult Swim's DREAM CORP LLC Season 2 Premiere at Ace Hotel on October 17, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.

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John Sciulli

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Getty Images for Adult Swim

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After the church closed, the building was renovated and the office space was converted into a hotel.

The Broadway district drifted away from its polished, energetic roots after corporations moved in and the streets became run down. When the Ace Hotel arrived in 2014, the operators were interested in “reactivating” the theater as a focal point for culture in downtown.

Since its stewardship, the Theater at Ace Hotel has held numerous big shows, including ones with the Sundance Institute and Cinespia. It’s hosted live reads and screenings like the Mad Men series finale. LAist has also participated in a number of public radio shows at the hotel.

Building ownership changed hands a few times but the Ace Hotel Group stayed throughout. While an Ace Hotel spokesperson declined to confirm the sale details with LAist, the building was reportedly most recently sold to an unnamed investor in November 2019 for $117 million. And through that time, the theater’s weird-yet-iconic “Cathedral of Our Lady Fingers” stuck around too.

Esotouric's Richard Schave and his wife, Kim Cooper, have led tours downtown for about a decade. During that time, they saw the area around the Ace Hotel change during former city councilmember José Huizar’s revitalization efforts, ‘Bring Back Broadway’ which started in 2008.

“It only worked down around the Ace,” Cooper said. “It created this sort of ripple effect where in the immediate vicinity of the Ace, things actually happened, as opposed to the dead zone from about — I think it’s 7th through 4th — where we just saw everything die.”

Cooper said they saw buildings get flipped and small businesses get evicted as new real estate moved in. She and her husband want to see the Broadway District revived to its former, busy glory.

What’s next

Downtown has largely been quiet since the pandemic as nearby offices go unused, so the departure of the Ace Hotel may not surprise some.

“We count ourselves fortunate to have made a home in Downtown Los Angeles for the past decade,” according to the hotel’s statement. “And while the neighborhood has been slow to recover following Covid, it was remarkable to be a part of the exceptional revitalization the area experienced during those years.”

With the Ace Hotel on the way out, there are unanswered details about the building’s future.

The theater will remain open, managed separately by an unnamed group. And there’s talk that the “tech platform” that will operate the hotel portion could be something like Sonder or Airbnb.

A spokesperson declined to answer whether the Ace Hotel Group would open another location in L.A.

“We’ll always have love for Los Angeles,” the hotel statement continued, “and look forward to sharing what’s on the horizon for the brand in the year to come.”

The Ace Hotel’s last day in the building will be Jan. 31.

Raul Malo, the leader of the country band The Mavericks and one of the most recognizable voices in roots music, died Monday night, according to a representative of the band. The guitarist and singer had been battling cancer.

He was hospitalized last week, forcing him to miss tribute shows staged in his honor at the Ryman Auditorium over the weekend. He was 60 years old.

"No one embodied life and love, joy and passion, family, friends, music and adventure the way our beloved Raul did," read a statement released by his family.

Malo's group, The Mavericks, mourned the loss of their leader in a social post.

"Anyone with the pleasure of being in Raul's orbit knew that he was a force of human nature, with an infectious energy," the statement read. "Over a career of more than three decades entertaining millions around the globe, his towering creative contributions and unrivaled, generational talent created the kind of multicultural American music reaching far beyond America itself."

Over a career that lasted four decades, The Mavericks lived up to the band's name, challenging expectations and following a roadmap crafted by Malo's expansive musical upbringing as the son of Cuban immigrants in Miami.

"I grew up in a very musical household. There was all kinds of music around always," he told WHYY's Fresh Air in 1995. "We listened to everything from Hank Williams to Celia Cruz to Sam Cooke to Bobby Darin. It didn't matter."

In 1992, Malo told NPR that his widespread influences weren't always understood or appreciated in his South Florida hometown, but he said that his struggle to fit in taught him to trust his instincts. Malo had become the guitarist and lead singer for The Mavericks in 1989, alongside co-founders Robert Reynolds and Paul Deakin, and his roaring, sentimental voice defined the band's sound and remained its constant as the group's catalog moved from slow, tender ballads to full-throttle rock songs. In 1995, the band released its biggest hit with "All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down," a swinging country song featuring an assist from Tex-Mex accordion legend Flaco Jimenez.

As the band grew in members and devoted listeners, The Mavericks continued to push the boundaries of American music, weaving a richly layered tapestry of textures and stories. With more than a dozen studio albums, The Mavericks collected praise and recognition from the Academy of Country Music, the Country Music Association and the Recording Academy. Although they took a hiatus for several years, Malo never stopped making music — and returned to his bandmates with renewed inspiration.

Following its 30th anniversary, the group released its first full-length Spanish album in 2020, aptly titled En Español. The record reimagined Latin standards and folklore-tinged popular tunes; it also made an implicit political statement about Latin music's contributions to American culture.

"In our own little way, if we could get somebody that perhaps is on the fence on issues and hears us singing in Spanish and perhaps reminds them of the beautiful cultures that make up what this country is trying to be and what it should be, so be it," Malo told NPR at the time. "Yeah, I'm OK with that."

The following year, the Americana Music Association recognized The Mavericks with the Trailblazer Award. In 2024, the band released its last studio album, Moon & Stars. The release coincided with news of Malo's cancer diagnosis, which he discussed openly with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe.

Before being hospitalized last week, Malo had been scheduled to perform with The Mavericks at a pair of tribute concerts held this past weekend at the legendary Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Over 30 artists, including Patty Griffin, Jim Lauderdale and Steve Earle, still gathered to pay tribute to Malo, with some of the proceeds of the night going to the cancer prevention organization Stand Up To Cancer.

According to his spokesperson, though Malo was too ill to attend, the concert was streamed to his hospital room Friday night.

Copyright 2025 NPR

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has mostly blocked efforts to investigate misconduct within its ranks, according to the county inspector general, who announced his retirement Tuesday after 12 years on the job.

In an open letter, Max Huntsman cited examples of how the county has thwarted his efforts to watchdog the department, which in the past has been plagued with accusations that deputies use excessive force and lie on the job.

Huntsman said one example is former Sheriff Alex Villanueva’s misuse of criminal enforcement powers to discredit critics, such as opening an investigation into former County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl.

Villanueva was sheriff from 2018 to 2022.

“My requests for investigation were rejected,” Huntsman’s letter reads. “Even after receiving an official subpoena, the Sheriff’s Department has failed to turn over records regarding the improper surveillance.”

He added: “Sometimes members of the public wonder if frightening new surveillance techniques will be used for improper purposes under the guise of criminal investigation. Sadly, the answer is yes.”

Before becoming inspector general in 2013, Huntsman, 60, was a deputy district attorney who specialized in public corruption. He told LAist on Tuesday that the inspector general job wasn’t something he wanted initially.

“I didn’t want to go work for politicians,” he said. “But the need to provide some kind of independent reporting and analysis was significant.”

The Sheriff’s Department issued a statement saying it valued the Office of the Inspector General and all county oversight bodies and that it wished Huntsman and his family well in his retirement.

The department said it “continues to make great strides in advancing the department in a transparent manner.”

LAist also reached out to the county CEO and county counsel for comment, but they declined.

After George Floyd

In the letter, Huntsman says the state of California has come a long way in strengthening the power of local law enforcement oversight bodies, in part because of the 2020 murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

After widespread protests — and lobbying by Huntsman — the state provided authority to inspectors general to enforce subpoenas requiring law enforcement agencies to hand over documents and authorized external investigation of police misconduct, including deputy gang conduct.

The Sheriff’s Department — backed by county lawyers — has resisted.

“Los Angeles County may not follow those laws, but it will not be able to avoid them forever,” Huntsman wrote. “The county refuses to require the photographing of suspected gang tattoos in secretive groups that the undersheriff has identified as violating state law.”

“Just a few weeks ago, we requested some information regarding an investigation, and a pair of commanders refused to give it to us,” Huntsman said in an interview with LAist.

Origin of the office 

The Inspector General’s Office was created by the county Board of Supervisors in 2013 in response to a scandal that included former Sheriff Lee Baca covering up the abuses of jail inmates.

Baca went to federal prison.

Since then, the office has issued dozens of reports with recommendations for improving living conditions inside jails that some have described as “filthy,” stopping abuses of juveniles inside juvenile halls and providing shower privacy for inmates as part of the requirements under the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

“All of these abuses were reported by the Office of Inspector General and recommendations were ignored,” Huntsman wrote. Often, it took court orders to enact change.

“When we first blew the whistle on the torturous chaining of mentally ill prisoners to benches for 36 hours at a time, it was only a court order that ended the practice,” he wrote. “Time and time again, this pattern repeated itself.”

Huntsman wrote the county has permitted the Sheriff’s Department to block oversight and defunded the Office of Inspector General by removing a third of its staff.

“It's not surprising the county has driven out two successive chairs of the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission,” he wrote.

“Government always claims to value transparency and accountability, but shooting the messenger is still the most common response to criticism,” Huntsman wrote.

Despite setbacks, Huntsman values work 

Huntsman told LAist on Tuesday that he was proud of his career as a public servant.

“I’ve really enjoyed the work and I’m sad to have it end,” he said.

It’s a sentiment he echoed in his letter, adding that despite the setbacks and roadblocks, he was proud of the people with whom he shared the office.

“It has been my honor to work with a talented, brave and tireless group of public servants to ensure that the public knows what its government is doing,” he wrote.

He noted the inspector general’s reports are fact-checked by the office and public.

“When government abuses occur, they are sometimes kept secret, but that is no longer the case for much of what is happening in Los Angeles County,” Huntsman wrote. “What you do about it is up to you.,”

Huntsman’s last day is Friday.

Topline:

The backstory: Last month, the council's Transportation Committee voted to bring a proposal forward to implement a policy change that allows the city to impound and immediately destroy abandoned or inoperable RVs worth less than $4,000. The change is inspired by new state law AB 630, which was created to prevent previously impounded RVs from ending back up on the street.

The motion, authored by Councilmember Traci Park, reports that abandoned RVs pose as public and safety hazards.

What's next: Councilmember Nithya Raman requested that an implementation plan be presented to the council's public safety and housing and homelessness committees.

Go deeper: L.A. pushes policy to make it easier to remove RVs from city streets.