The Social Hub Opens in Rome: A New Hybrid Hotel with Rooftop Pool, Coworking, and Gourmet Pizza
After years of waiting, Rome is preparing to welcome one of the most ambitious urban redevelopment and hospitality projects in Europe. On March 31, 2025, in the area of the former San Lorenzo railway yard, The Social Hub will officially open, a multifunctional giant created to revolutionize the way of living, studying, working and socializing in the capital.
Housed in the spaces of the historic former railway customs house, designed in 1924 by Angiolo Mazzoni, TSH arrives in Rome with a hybrid structure with 392 rooms, restaurants, bars, a gym, a public park, swimming pools, coworking areas and event spaces, in a format already tested in Florence and Bologna, but here taken to an even more audacious level.
A hotel that is also an urban campus
The concept is clear: a place to sleep, work, eat, study and live. The Social Hub is not just a 4-star hotel, but a real social hub with spaces designed to welcome students, freelancers, digital nomads, tourists and Roman citizens, thanks to flexible stay formulas, from one night to a whole year. The rooms – some with kitchens, balconies and advanced soundproofing – can already be booked, with affordable prices (under €200) and international hotel services.
Leading the Italian project is Michael Giuliano, Regional Director of TSH, who defines the format as “a third way between home, office and hotel”, a smart and sustainable alternative to the classic concept of hospitality. Everything revolves around the idea of connection between people, with spaces designed to stimulate meetings, collaboration and cultural contamination.
A 114 million investment to regenerate the former Customs House
The Roman project represents the fourth Italian opening for The Social Hub (after the two locations in Florence and the one in Bologna) and the 23rd in Europe. The Dutch group has invested 114 million euros in the reconversion of the former Dogana, transforming it into a vertical urban ecosystem within the San Lorenzo district, now at the center of a true cultural and gastronomic renaissance. The external park, of 2.5 hectares, will become a public space accessible to all, opening up an area that has been abandoned until now to citizens.
Breakfast, restaurant, gourmet pizzeria and cocktails on the roof
From a gastronomic point of view, TSH Roma has already turned on the stoves. The bar and restaurant on the ground floor are operational under the direction of chef Alessandro Stefoni (ex The Hoxton Roma), who creates a transversal cuisine between Italian identity and international taste. He is supported by manager Eleonora Di Paolo. Access is reserved for hotel guests and members registered through membership.
But the food offer does not end there. In April, on the ground floor, Berberè will arrive, the famous pizzeria of the brothers Matteo and Salvatore Aloe, with over 20 locations in Italy and 3 in London. It will be the brand’s twenty-fifth store and the second in the capital, after the one in the Piazza Alessandria area. The new venue will seat around one hundred people, with an outdoor space for the milder seasons.
On the sixth floor, a rooftop with an urban swimming pool and panoramic cocktail bar is being set up. The swimming pool will have an iconic sign on the bottom, as already happened in Florence, this time “Rome around the world”. Poolside, cocktails and tapas at sunset, also open to outsiders from 6 pm onwards. A way to enjoy an unusual Rome, with a view of the ring road but a metropolitan beach club atmosphere.
A place for events, fashion, art and training
In addition to hospitality and food, The Social Hub also hosts the headquarters of the Accademia Italiana, a school of Fashion, Design, Applied Arts, Photography and Graphics, as well as meeting rooms, spaces for cultural and corporate events, equipped coworking and hybrid environments designed for flexible working. The goal is to create a place in continuous transformation, where the concept of “hub” is truly experienced, and not just told.
A future yet to be written
The Dutch group has already announced that it is looking for a second Roman headquarters, a sign of an expansion that does not stop and that could transform TSH into a point of reference for contemporary hospitality in the Capital. In the meantime, Rome is enriched with a new cultural and urban center, capable of combining comfort, creativity and sustainability in a single vision.
