A storied San Francisco motor lodge that became famous as a touring hangout for rock stars like Kurt Cobain, David Bowie, Neil Young, Sinead O’Conner and the members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers is closing at the end of the year.
In recent years, the 44-room Phoenix Hotel at 601 Eddy St. in the heart of the city’s gritty Tenderloin neighborhood has become known as a kitschy 1950s-style throwback motor lodge that hosts Pride parties and daytime raves beside its famous swimming pool.
It began back in 1956 as a pay-by-the-hour establishment called the Caravan Motel. Its current owner, Chip Conley, bought the business in 1987 at the suggestion of Bay Area concert promoter Bill Graham and transformed it into the Phoenix, a metaphor for rebirth.
But in recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic and the city’s tough hospitality climate have taken their toll, and Conley and his business partners, Isabel Manchester and Jamie Flanagan, made the decision not to renew the lease at the end of 2025. The partners said in a statement that the hotel had been losing money since 2020, and the Tenderloin’s chaotic street conditions and San Francisco’s weak hospitality sector made it unlikely that it would turn a profit anytime soon.
“The Phoenix Hotel has long been more than just a hotel — it has been a sanctuary for artists, musicians, locals, and travelers from around the world,” the statement said. “The Phoenix Hotel quickly became a symbol of San Francisco’s counterculture and rebellious soul.”
Conley, who was just 26 when he bought the hotel, started marketing it in the 1980s to tour managers, selling them on a parking lot big enough for tour buses and a location within walking distance of downtown San Francisco music venues like the Great American Music Hall, the Warfield and the Fillmore. Conley also offered free massages for harried tour managers.
Rock star hotel
The motel quickly gained a reputation as a destination for rock stars. Cobain famously spent multiple New Year's Eves at the Phoenix with members of Pearl Jam and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. At the time of his death, it was widely reported that Cobain was found with a note to his wife, Courtney Love, that was written on Phoenix Hotel stationery.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Conley shook up the hospitality industry in California by parlaying the success of the Phoenix into a collection of boutique hotels that embraced the state’s image as a destination for free-thinking creatives. He sold his hospitality company, Joie de Vivre, which owned or operated dozens of establishments, in 2010. The Phoenix became a model for hospitality chains like the Ace and Bunkhouse, which converted midcentury motels into hipster destinations.
Last year, the San Francisco Baking Institute, a school run by French pastry chef Michel Suas, bought the property for $9.1 million. The sellers, the private Zeigler family, had been asking for at least $15 million for the 37,810-square-foot site. Newmark, which handled the transaction, had pitched the property in marketing materials as a residential development opportunity that happened to contain a historic hotel. “The hotel operator leases the 0.86-acre property through September of 2025,” the brokerage noted. “The buyer would then have the option to develop a residential tower with a max height of 80 feet and unit count of about 377 units or 450 units with a density bonus from the state.”
It was not immediately clear what the future holds for the property after the hotel closes at the end of the year. The downtown-adjacent neighborhood of the Tenderloin has long been a symbol of the city’s worst ills, though an official crackdown on open-air drug use and illegal vending has had an effect, locals say.
The Phoenix was part of a group of businesses and residents that sued the city in 2024, alleging that it was effectively treating the Tenderloin as a “containment zone” for drugs, and that addicts and dealers were being "herded" into the area.
“Since COVID, The Phoenix and its neighborhood have struggled mightily,” Conley said in the statement. “I feel deeply grateful that this no-tell motel is where I started my hotel career.”
He encouraged visitors not to delay in booking a last stay at the Phoenix, with rooms going fast as word spreads of the impending closure.