DEVELOPMENT |
|||
|
Aparium’ s first properties and remains part of its portfolio today. It’ s a hallmark example of an Aparium project: independent, hyperlocal, embedded within a trendy neighborhood and radiating a style that can only be described as storied and hip.
Tricoci is more to the point:“ It’ s the cool-kids neighborhood,” he said. Submarkets within larger markets, the Lower Garden District to New Orleans or Tribeca to Manhattan, where Aparium doesn’ t yet have hotels, but the distinction is clear. What it does have is Crossroads Hotel in Kansas City’ s Crossroads Arts District, where coffee bars and art galleries are speckled against a raw, industrial landscape, or the North Loop in Minneapolis, where sits Hewing Hotel, an adaptive-reuse project of
|
timber beams and red brick out of what was once a 19thcentury warehouse. Soon, Aparium will open a 150-key hotel in Wedgewood-Houston, known colloquially as WeHo, a neighborhood of Nashville, where you might find more hipsters than honky tonk. Coffee roasters and distilleries abound; Sony Music and William Morris have headquarters there. In 2022, the Academy of Country Music moved from California to Wedgewood-Houston and The Truth, a new 4,400-capacity live music venue, is opening there this fall. The Soho House in Nashville is in Wedgewood- Houston.
By 2027, Aparium is slated to add hotels in Louisville’ s East Market District, referred to as NuLu, and in Omaha’ s Millwork Commons, a now vibrant, mixed-use neighborhood, where
|
100-year-old gritty warehouses have given way to a thriving hub for tech, design and art.
Have warehouse will develop a hotel could be Aparium’ s unofficial pitch, but there’ s a truth to it that comes through in Aparium’ s current portfolio of nine hotels with the three more to come.“ There’ s soulfulness, there’ s grit— I love the juxtaposition of old and new,” said Tricoci. It’ s not just for show.“ You storytell around it; it gives you a running start in terms of creating something new and interesting,” he said.
LOCATION SCOUT A noticeable geographic pattern is evident in Aparium’ s hotels. Some are in so-called flyover states, like Surety Hotel in Iowa, or Jasper Hotel in North Dakota. Most of the portfolio is sandwiched between New York
|
and Los Angeles. The mapping makes more sense when you consider Tricoci’ s upbringing: A tried-and-true Midwesterner from Chicago, he went to undergrad under the beatific gaze of“ Touchdown Jesus” at Notre Dame and received a law degree from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. In a twist, google his name and his father, not him, commands the first page. Mario Tricoci, the elder, is a renowned hairstylist and founder of Tricoci Salon & Spa with 13 locations throughout Illinois.
“ I haven’ t really spread my wings,” Tricoci, who lives in Chicago, said. The idea when he started Aparium was simple.“ We needed to be able to drive within five hours or fly within one hour to create as much efficiency as possible,” Tricoci described the early
|
A guestroom at Hewing Hotel in Minneapolis. The hotel was adapted out of a 19th century warehouse. You can see the exposed brick and timber. Photo credit: Ric Stovall |
|||
22 hotelsmag. com July / August 2026 |