At Kansas City’s Crossroads Hotel, Aparium’s Quiet Bet That Hotels Should Feel Like Neighborhoods

The “third place” — that sociologists’ term for the spaces between home and work where community actually happens — has long belonged to cafes, pubs, and neighborhood plazas. Hotels haven’t really qualified. Travelers have historically drifted between unfamiliar rooms and bars that, however vibrant, rarely beckon them to stay past their last drink order. The hotel group Aparium is rewriting that equation, building boutique hotels that function as third places for travelers and locals alike — and serving as anchors in the urban renewal underway in cities across the country. Crossroads Hotel, in Kansas City’s downtown arts district of the same name, is what happens when a hotel is reimagined from the ground up: not a place to sleep, but a reason to visit the city in the first place.

I’d seen versions of this idea before. I’ve stayed at the Aparium-managed Heathman Hotel in Portland and both incarnations of Populus, the carbon-positive hotel concept Aparium manages in Denver and Seattle. Each reflects the character of its host city: Denver’s Populus is designed to mimic the Aspen forests of Colorado’s high country, while the Heathman channels Portland’s bohemian energy into a library headlined by fiercely independent authors. Crossroads is different in that Aparium wholly owns and operates the property, making this location a true palette for its community-first ambitions — and the clearest expression yet of what the group is actually building.

Crossroads Hotel is the ultimate “third space”

The bed features a throw from local maker Happy Habitat. Photo: Tim WengerLocal art headlines the guest rooms at Crossroads Hotel. Photo: Tim WengerFreight House contains several of Kansas City's most notable restaurants. Photo: Tim Wenger

Aparium Hotel Group was founded in 2011 in Chicago by hospitality veterans Mario Tricoci and Kevin Robinson to develop what the pair dubbed “translocal” hospitality. That is, a hotel experience that displays the character of its surroundings front and center. Crossroads Hotel opened in 2018, and here, that full-circle experience starts the moment you check in. A traveler arriving at Crossroads finds a thoughtfully outfitted room inspired by local art and artifacts. The local flavor extends to the lobby, which houses a rotating gallery of KC-inspired work alongside XR Cafe, the food-and-drink concept that drives the hotel’s community-building ethos.

I visited Kansas City in April on a work assignment, basing myself in a King Guestroom at Crossroads (from $128 per night). After dropping my stuff in my room I headed down to XR Cafe and grabbed a table in the back. I spent the next hour sipping local beer while finishing up some, and was hardly the only one doing so. At the table next to me, a pair of well-dressed guys sat over cappuccinos and a spreadsheet; across the bar a few individuals were scattered across community tables, each lost in their work.

“At Crossroads, the [concept of a third place] is brought to life through thoughtfully designed communal spaces that invite both guests and locals to gather, linger, and connect,” Mikel Ruder, general manager at Crossroads, told me. “The hotel is intentionally programmed to feel accessible and welcoming rather than exclusive.”

Surely, I thought, this was all part of a well-thought-out master plan to upend preconceptions of what a “nice hotel” is in favor of what a “neighborhood hub” should be.

“Kansas City stood out as a city with an incredibly strong creative identity and a deeply rooted sense of community,” Ruder said. “The Crossroads Arts District, in particular, offered a rare opportunity: a neighborhood defined by independent makers, galleries, and entrepreneurs, where a hotel could feel like a natural extension of the local fabric rather than an imposition.”

Crossroads Hotel is part of Kansas City’s broader urban renewal

The lobby at Crossroads Hotel, as seen from above. Photo: Tim WengerUnion Station is home to restaurants, museums, and remains an active Amtrak station. Photo: Tim Wenger

The building itself reflects the history of the Crossroads Arts District. The hotel consists of two buildings unified into one adaptive reuse project. The main building dates to 1911 and once served as Pabst Brewing Company’s bottling plant, while the second is an adjacent early 20th-century building associated with political boss Tom Pendergast. After decades of decline and vacancy, the buildings were redeveloped and opened in 2018 as a 131-room hotel.

“The design team drew inspiration from the surrounding Crossroads Arts District, incorporating work from local artists and makers to ensure the space feels distinctly of its place,” Ruder said, explaining that the goal was to “mirror the neighborhood itself.”

The surrounding area has evolved into one of Kansas City’s most walkable districts. On my first morning I walked a couple blocks to Cafe Corazon, the city’s first Latin- and Indigenous-owned coffee shop, for a Cubano and an empanada before hopping the free Kansas City Streetcar — which, as of May 18, runs all the way to the Riverfront and CPKC Stadium, home of the Kansas City Current and the country’s first stadium purpose-built for women’s sports. Heading the other direction takes you past the restored Union Station, a Beaux-Arts landmark turned cultural hub, and the adjacent Freight House, a collection of restaurants and businesses housed in an 1880s freight depot for the railyard, where I had lunch at the famous restaurant, Jack Stack Barbecue.

An elevated walkway leads to the Crown Center, where the Kansas City Royals will open a new downtown stadium in 2030. Galleries, restaurants, and the Power & Light District are all within reach on foot or via the streetcar, which goes as far south as the University of Missouri..

Crossroads Hotel is built around its guests — and its neighbors

Locally-produced art is on display at The Gallery inside the hotel’s lobby. Photo: Tim Wenger

Even with all that’s happening in the Crossroads Arts District and around the city, I spent much of my free time in the hotel anyway. Behind the restored red-brick facade of the lobby’s northern end is Lazia, a refined Italian restaurant that served the best radiatore pasta I’ve ever had, knee-deep in lobster acqua pazza. Returning to the hotel in the late afternoon, I’d pass time at XR. The industrial-chic architecture — exposed brick, tall warehouse-style doors, a large open atrium — left me feeling far more hip than I can typically muster on my own.

The bed in my King Guestroom held a throw from Happy Habitat, one of several current collaborations with local artists and makers that also includes custom-designed pizza boxes by the graphic artist Frank Norton and an in-room cocktail program from the pioneers of “Kansas City Whiskey,” J. Rieger & Co. The room was 282 square feet with Grown Alchemist bath products and a functional work space.

Crossroads has 131 rooms across king and double-queen layouts, suites, and a handful of specialty rooms — including the Pendergast Suite, named for the political boss whose old building forms the hotel’s second half. The hotel received one Michelin Key in 2025, becoming the first hotel in Missouri to receive the recognition. Programming is part of the experience here, Ruder told me, with events like yoga and DJ-led dance parties happening regularly.

“Signature initiatives such as Dia de los Muertos and the annual New Year’s Eve celebration further reinforce the hotel’s role as a place for the community to come together, regardless of whether you’re staying overnight,” he said.

The seasonal reopening of the rooftop bar Percheron coincided with my stay, and I spent an evening here taking in views of the city over a drink and conversations with a few others who’d also wandered in solo, many of whom were locals who, like the remote workers at XR, know the hotel as that “third space” where they can meet friends after work. It was here, on my final night in Kansas City, that I realized I’d uncovered Aparium’s greatest accomplishment. Its properties are themselves a reason to visit a city or discover a neighborhood you haven’t — not because they’re cool and cozy, but because they bring together the things that make a neighborhood great: its businesses, its personality, and above all, its people.

More like this

Food + DrinkThe Complete Guide to Kansas City Barbecue, and Where to Try It