The shiny, neon hues of the Moxy hotel at the corner of Telegraph and West Grand avenues may soon fade to black as the owners of the company appear ready to close it down.
According to a report in the San Francisco Standard, the hotel has stopped accepting guests and closed its colorful bar, which has recently hosted parties.
A call this morning from The Oaklandside to the Moxy global reservation desk found that even though the service operator believed the hotel was still taking guests, there was no room availability on any day over the next three months.
The hotel, which has offered 172 rooms at a modest price for the past five years, first appeared to be struggling financially when its operators, Tidewater Management and Graves Hospitality, defaulted on a $35 million loan from Acore Capital Mortgage this past August.
In September, the hotel came under the management of Michelle Russo, founder and CEO of hotelAVE, an asset management firm that prepares properties for high-end sales.
The launch of Moxy Uptown Oakland in 2021 was seen as a sign of downtown Oakland’s rebirth, which over the past 15 years has included brand-new apartment complexes on Broadway, new or upgraded retail, and new restaurants downtown and in North Oakland. Many of those businesses, such as the apartments and restaurants, have been successful, but some retail and hospitality businesses have struggled during and after the pandemic.
In August, The Oaklandside reported on the recent history of challenged Oakland hotel properties. One of the biggest stories involved the Hong Kong owner of the Oakland Marriott City Center defaulting on its property loan early in 2025, leading to a foreclosure and a sale to a creditor, Invesco, at half its original price.
The hotel’s general manager, Kevin Boland, told us then that a series of issues had led to a challenging hospitality industry in Oakland over the last six years. COVID halted almost all travel for years, followed by a “tech recession” in which many local firms laid off employees or cut back on business travel. He said Oakland’s national reputation for crime may have cut down on tourism.
In several Oakland social media threads, residents and hospitality professionals have been commenting on the hotel’s troubles for a few months, with some recently speculating about the reasons for the potential closure. According to city data, tourism spending ticked down from $617 million in 2023 to $583 million in 2024.
A few noted that the hotel wasn’t close enough to vibrant restaurants like the Kissel, a Hyatt-brand hotel located on the more trafficked Broadway strip. One commentator said they had their wedding party at the hotel a few years ago and were disappointed to hear the news.
The Oaklandside has reached out to Graves Hospitality, which managed the hotel since its opening, and Marriott Bonvoy, which manages reservations and the Moxy Hotels brand, for comment. None had replied at press time.
“*” indicates required fields