Hotel tycoon found dead in London

London Evening Standard/London

The founder of the fashionable Ace Hotel chain has been found dead in one of his London hotel rooms.

Alex Calderwood, 47, was found by staff at the company’s newest venture in Shoreditch.

Paramedics went to the hotel but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

 The company confirmed the death on its website and called Calderwood “our teacher, mentor, guru and, most importantly, our dear friend”.

Company spokesman Ryan Bukstein said: “His humility, spirit of collaboration and tireless work ethic has influenced our family at Atelier Ace and creatives across the globe. We all plan to continue moving forward with the ideals Alex championed so naturally. We are all in mourning.”

A spokeswoman for the London hotel said: “We are all very saddened that Alex Calderwood, one of our co-founders, passed away, but at this time we have no further information.”

Calderwood was reported to have had problems with drug and alcohol addiction in the past, but his cause of death is not yet known.

 Ace Hotels are thought of as some of the world’s “hippest” hotels.

In an interview with the New York Times in 2011, Calderwood told how he had been sober for five months, saying: “I am very proud of my sobriety. You get to a certain age, and you get to a certain point, where you realise this is just, like, dragging me down. It’s not fun any more. I’m not enjoying it.”

The son of a contractor and a newspaper columnist, Calderwood became a party promoter and vintage-clothing seller before opening a series of rock-themed barber shops. He went on to open a popular Seattle nightclub before becoming a hotelier, launching Ace Hotel in Seattle in 1999 with two friends.