TAMPA — Developers are poised to launch construction this week on one of Ybor City’s biggest new projects in years — a four-story, $50 million boutique hotel being created by a Chicago company that seeks out neighborhoods rich in color and character.

The 176-room hotel is planned for the 1400 block of E Seventh Avenue. It’s mostly a parking lot now but is loaded with local history.

“Ybor City kind of has it all from our perspective,” said Mario Tricoci, the CEO and co-founder of the Aparium Hotel Group, which will manage the hotel. “It’s close to the urban core. Lots to celebrate. Tons of soul.”

“We look at important markets across the United States that are under-served, at least from our perspective, by any real authentic or true hospitality experiences,” Tricoci. Tampa, like many cities, is chock-full of hotels at various levels of service, but, generally, he said, they’re places where “you don’t know if you’re in Tampa or Cincinnati or Detroit or L.A. They just all sort of look the same because they’re branded. They don’t have soul.”