Dive Brief:

• Alum launched Tuesday as a new luxury hospitality concept centered on college towns, bringing luxury condo-hotels, private members’ clubs, food and beverage and game-day and year-round programming near campuses nationwide, according to a Tuesday news release. 
• Alum properties will be “deeply rooted in the local college traditions and culture where they will come to life,” catering to “passionate” sports fans, alumni and others in the community, per the release. The concept, founded by a team of hospitality, real estate and sports industry veterans, is backed by Baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter. 
• The brand will debut in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, near the University of Alabama, with a groundbreaking expected in the coming weeks, per the release. The Alum concept comes as hospitality players, including Hilton and Travel + Leisure Co., bet on college markets in part due to their stable demand patterns.

Dive Insight:

The forthcoming Alum Tuscaloosa will be a 116,000-square-foot development with 68 luxury condo-hotel units, a private members' club, a rooftop lounge, dining, meetings and events space and a pool, per the release. A timeline or opening date for the project has not been announced. 

Alum also owns a site at the University of Oregon, per the release, and is in active talks with Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Kentucky and Notre Dame. It has plans to scale to 30 to 40 developments. 

“Every one of these towns has tens of thousands of people showing up on a Saturday and hospitality built for a different era,” Paul Brenneke, co-founder of Alum, said in a statement. “What's changed is that the capital finally sees college towns as year-round markets instead of six home games.” 

A hotel partner for Alum is yet to be announced. So far, the brand has partnered with Legends Global, a sports and live events company, to operate its private clubs and “drive relationships with university and athletic leadership across markets,” according to the release. 

The announcement comes after Hilton launched Undergraduate by Hilton in June, a conversion-friendly brand geared toward secondary and tertiary college towns. The upper midscale brand serves as a complement to Hilton's Graduate brand, a “fully bespoke” lifestyle hotel concept located in college towns. 

Meanwhile, in 2023, Travel + Leisure Co. acquired the rights to bring Sports Illustrated Resorts to U.S. college towns. The brand is working on a sports-themed lifestyle hotel in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, slated to open in late 2027.