Nostalgia-themed hotel, cafe with rooftop bar expected to open this fall
CONTRIBUTED TO THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — Construction firm Robins & Morton marked the topping out of the Graduate Auburn hotel on Jan. 31 in Auburn.
The topping out ceremony celebrates installing the final steel beam, signifying the structural completion of the project.
The five-story, 177-room, nearly 140,000-square-foot hotel has direct views of Auburn’s campus and Toomer’s Corner. It will feature an indoor-outdoor rooftop bar, a ground-floor café, and meeting and banquet space.
Auburn legend Bo Jackson will open a coffee shop and bar in the hotel called Bo Jackson’s Beans.
The property will be the newest in the Graduate Hotels collection, which includes more than 30 locations in iconic cities and college towns across the United States and United Kingdom. Their designs are inspired by local culture, history and collegiate nostalgia.
During the topping out ceremony, the Robins & Morton team hosted the Auburn University Raptor Center — an educational and rehabilitation program that has treated and released thousands of birds of prey back into the wild — to perform a demonstration flight and education session for attendees.
“Auburn is truly one of the most welcoming, special places I’ve ever been,” Robins & Morton Commercial Division Manager David Green said. “In and of itself, it’s an amazing city with fantastic amenities. This hotel is going to be a statement property where locals and visitors will gather and enjoy the celebration of Auburn hospitality and culture.”
The project is scheduled for completion this fall.
Robins & Morton is the general contractor, and Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture is the architect.
ABOUT ROBINS & MORTON
Robins & Morton is a privately held construction firm based in Birmingham, with offices in Charlotte, Dallas, Huntsville, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh-Durham, San Antonio and Tampa. The firm specializes in the construction of healthcare, hospitality, higher education, entertainment, sports and government buildings. Since 1946, the firm has built a reputation as a trusted advisor to clients nationwide by cultivating a high-performing team that values integrity, safety and innovative thinking. Robins & Morton is consistently ranked as one of the top 100 contractors in the United States, and one of the top 15 in the Southeast. To learn more about Robins & Morton, visit: www.robinsmorton.com.
ABOUT GRADUATE HOTELS
Graduate Hotels is a hand-crafted collection of hotels that reside in dynamic university-anchored towns in the U.S. and U.K. Each hotel brings stories and traditions to life through one-of-a-kind experiences, which authentically reflect the unique spirit of each community they are located within. Launched in 2014, the Graduate Hotels portfolio consists of 37 hotels including two in the U.K. and four in various stages of development. Graduate Hotels is owned by Adventurous Journeys (AJ) Capital Partners, a Nashville-based vertically integrated real estate developer, owner and operator, founded by Ben Weprin in 2008. For more information on Graduate Hotels, please vis-it www.graduatehotels.com.