they’re bringing Dutch bikes
with them.]
The Ace Hotel — Seattle’s “leading design hotel” — is set to open in Portland on January 30th of next year.
I confirmed today with jorg&olif CEO Rob MacDonald that he is partnering up with the hotel to have a standing fleet of 6-10 Dutch city bikes and possibly even a cargo bike for use by employees and guests.
The company currently offers this service at their Seattle location and they’re hoping to have an even larger presence in Portland. Several Ace employees have already been outfitted with jorg&olif bikes and they’re excited for the partnership.
Ace PDX’s Natasha Figueroa says employees will use the bikes to run errands,
“We’ll have two restaurants inside the hotel and I can imagine a courier service using the cargo bikes to deliver food to local businesses.”
MacDonald says jorg&olif are actively pursuing retail store opporunities in Portland and that given the positive tone of recent talks with investors, we could be seeing a jorg&olif retail store opening here as soon as June 2007.
No details yet on where the store would be located, but the owners of the Ace Hotel are big Dutch bike fans so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a jorg&olif retail operation in the lobby of their new hotel.
I can see it now, “Here’s your room key sir, and don’t forget the key to your U-lock.”
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More Dutch bike news:
I found out today that yet another source for Dutch bikes has opened up in North America. If you live in Canada, you can order the Azor/Workcycles/Bakfiets.NL line through Victor Cuevas Jr. in Vancouver BC. Contact him at raincitybikes[at]gmail[dot]com for more information.
The Magpie Messenger Collective already offers dutch cargo bike service if you don’t want to wait for the hotel to open. we also offer French style porteur bike service, Portland style porteur bike service, and S.F. bleach blonde dreadlocked punk rock basket bike style service. Sorry, no fixed gear service.
We are already for Alice tomorrow night…got us a room at the Ace Hotel.
The Dutch bikes are still on their way they say – late spring time.
Though they have one in their lobby on display…a very nice Dutch ‘oma fiets’.
I called the Ace recently and they only have 2 bikes. First come first serve.