Bo Jackson opening coffee shop and bar in new Auburn hotel
Turns out, Bo knows coffee, too.
Auburn football legend, two-sport superstar and Heisman Trophy winner Bo Jackson will open a coffee shop and bar in the new Graduate Auburn hotel that is coming to downtown Auburn in 2024.
The Graduate Auburn is part of the growing Nashville-based Graduate Hotels chain, which began in 2014 and has a collection of 33 college-themed hotels in university-centered cities across the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Auburn location will be at 202 West Magnolia Ave. on the site of the former Anders Bookstore, which closed last year after 56 years in business.
The hotel’s coffee shop and bar, which will be called Bo Jackson’s Beans, “will honor (Jackson’s) contributions to the sports world and decades-spanning career which began at Auburn University in 1982,” according to a media release from Graduate Hotels.
“I have always pushed myself to be the best at everything I do while focusing on initiatives that deliver a positive impact,” Jackson said in the release. “Bo Jackson’s Beans will be an extension of this mission, and I am excited to be partnering with Graduate Hotels to create a unique and welcoming space that helps me give back to the incredible community that gave me so much.”
Each Graduate Hotel location is unique to its city and nearby college, and the rooms and common areas are decorated in school colors with photos and memorabilia of famous alums, memorable games and campus landmarks.
“We’re all about recognizing the people and stories that are the fabric of each Graduate community, and you can’t talk about Auburn without Bo Jackson,” Ben Weprin, Graduate Hotels founder and CEO, said in the media release. “Bo is a real-life superhero who epitomizes hard work, passion, and the dream-chaser attitude that we celebrate so wholeheartedly, and we’re honored to partner with him in the place where his legendary career began.”
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In addition to Bo Jackson’s Beans, the five-story Graduate Auburn will have 177 rooms, a rooftop deck, a dining area, on-site parking, and more than 10,000 square feet of meeting and event space.
The first Graduate Hotel opened in Athens, Ga., home of the University of Georgia, in 2014.
Other locations around the SEC footprint include Graduate Hotels in Oxford, Miss. (Ole Miss); Columbia, S.C. (South Carolina), Fayetteville, Ark. (Arkansas); Knoxville, Tenn. (Tennessee); and Nashville (Vanderbilt).
In addition to its Auburn hotel, Graduate Hotels has locations in development in Princeton, N.J., and in Austin and Dallas.
For more information about the Graduate Auburn, go here.
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