Ben Weprin


Ben Weprin is the founder and CEO of AJ Capital Partners, a private real estate company based in Chicago, Illinois. Weprin and AJ Capital founded Graduate Hotels in 2014.

Early life and education

Weprin was born and raised in Oakwood, Ohio, a Dayton, Ohio suburb. He graduated from the University of Tennessee before moving to Chicago in 2001 as a real estate broker at his father's firm, Marcus & Millichap. He became one of the company's elite brokers in 3 years. Weprin and his wife, Mary Anne, took a 2 year sojourn in Nashville, where he started that city's Marcus & Millichap office, before returning to Chicago to begin his career renovating hotels. Weprin has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.

Career

In 2008, Weprin founded AJ Capital Partners. In Chicago, he restored the Hotel Lincoln, Chicago Athletic Association, Soho House and Thompson Chicago. The current portfolio includes projects throughout Chicago, as well as the Pontchartrain Hotel in New Orleans and the Thompson Nashville in Nashville’s Gulch neighborhood. He founded Graduate Hotels in 2014. Recent projects underway include The Armory in San Francisco; May Hosiery and Nashville Warehouse Company in Nashville, as well as the Rusacks Hotel overlooking the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, opening in 2021.

Awards