|
APARIUM HOTEL GROUP CREATES A NICHE ALL ITS OWN.
By DAVID EISEN
|
Detroit goes by many names: Motown, Motor City, the 313, the latter an area code pushed to prominence by one of the city’ s famous native sons, rapper Eminem. In recent years, Detroit has picked up another label, Renaissance City, a nod to its urban revitalization efforts after years of neglect and financial mismanagement. Detroit navigated through a
|
rough patch just over a decade ago. Stark times. In 2013, the city filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy in what was the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in U. S. history by debt. Despite the grimness, it served as an inflection point: a moment for the city that birthed the American auto industry to have a rebirth of its own.
Downtown led the way. Long neglected, numerous new
Detroit Foundation Hotel was an adaptive reuse project of the former Detroit Firehouse Number One. Photo credit: Detroit Foundation Hotel
|
developments sprouted through public-private partnerships, many of which were adaptive reuses of neglected or underused landmark buildings. At the vanguard was Mario Tricoci. A trained-attorneyturned hotelier, Tricoci was no stranger to hotels, having co-developed one of Chicago’ s standout luxury hotels, The Elysian, which opened in 2009 and which now operates as Waldorf Astoria Chicago.
In 2012, Tricoci founded Aparium Hotel Group with an ethos to create hotels that are at once for travelers and locals— what the company affectionately refers to as“ trans-local.” Shortly after launch, the company acquired Detroit Firehouse Number One, a five-story neoclassical building that was completed in 1929 by architect Hans Gehrke. In 2017, Detroit Foundation Hotel opened as one of
|
July / August 2026 hotelsmag. com 21 |