Hostel with «experience»: YellowSquare opens in Florence
The business of YellowSquare hostels is growing – with the opening of Florence following that of Milan, a model of informal hospitality combined with “experiences” invented by the brothers Fabio and Marco Coppola, who select the suitable property for the purpose, find an investor or a developer interested in buying and renovating it according to the agreed fees, and renting it to manage it. In the case of Florence, the developer was InvestiRE Sgr, which operated through the Secondo Re real estate fund, fully subscribed by the national pension and assistance fund for commercial doctors.
The six-storey building – built in 1935 as a dispensary for tuberculosis patients, then the headquarters of the local health company and finished at auction in 2005 – extends over 5 thousand square meters, is ten minutes from the historic center (in Viale Redi), near the university of Novoli, and required a total investment of around 10 million euros to be transformed into a hostel. The renovation was carried out by the Florentine studio Pierattelli Architettura which has kept the main structural elements typical of rationalist architecture. The almost monolithic character and the large ivory-colored portal of the main facade, which is accessed via a flight of steps, give essentiality and elegance to the structure.
The project
The hostel has 250 beds in dormitories from four to eight places (where you can spend the night paying a maximum of 45 euros) and 12 private rooms that are useful as a hotel. At guests’ disposal there are the swimming pool overlooking the Florence skyline and the relaxation area on the roof, garden and courtyard, space for coworking, dining area, shared kitchen for cooking classes, space for underground culture, several bars. On the walls stand out the works of the Argentine artist Valentina Chiappero. “YellowSquare redefines the very concept of a hostel – says the management – no longer a simple place to sleep, but a real experiential hub in which to make new acquaintances, try cooking lessons, do yoga at sunset and listen to music. live evening. A space that caters to a new type of traveler, a metropolitan explorer who wants to get out of his comfort zone, far from the traditional concept of a tourist ».
The objectives
Respect, inclusion and sustainability are the pillars of YellowSquare, which opened in Milan last September (29 private rooms and 19 dormitories for a total of 130 beds), and has existed in Rome since 1999. It will soon open in Pisa (the building has already been purchased by a private investor), while the Coppola brothers are negotiating in Verona, Genoa, Turin and Bologna. In Florence, when fully operational, YellowSquare expects a turnover of 4.3 million euros per year, estimated at the fourth year of life, “even if – explains Fabio Coppola, one of the co-founders – already from the second year the hostel should close positively “.