As word of The Bank Vault closing has spread through Auburn, students and regulars of the bar gave their opinions on the closure of the historical space.
The Bank Vault will be closing May 31 because of an increase of rent. They will not be relocating according to Ben Barley, general manager.
Brooke Rocholl, senior in nursing, said that she was sad when she heard about it closing. Rocholl and her friends are fans of the Taco Tuesday event The Bank Vault has weekly.
"It's a fun place to kind of have a chill night at the bars rather than when everyone's going crazy at the other places," Rocholl said. "It's a good time to just watch the game and have a great time with your friends."
Rocholl's friend Shannon Rooker, senior in nursing, said that she hopes they will replace it with something similar.
"I feel like for the older crowd like us that are of age, we're not looking for craziness every night so hopefully something similar," Rooker said. "Hopefully another bar. It's the only really relaxed place that a lot of the older people like to go."
Tom Sherburne, Auburn resident, goes to The Bank Vault almost every day with one of his friends, usually to watch "Jeopardy."
"I used to come here when it was The Coffee Bank," Sherburne said.
Sherburne said t they would miss all of the staff as well.
"All of them are wonderful," Sherburne said.
Jeffrey Robinson, employee at The Bank Vault, has been working there for two years. Robinson joked that his first thought when he heard about them closing was that he was going to need to find another job.
"There's not going to be a bar for grad students and professors and people who don't like crowded, rowdy bars," Robinson said. "It's just going to be a vacuum that needs to be filled."
Robison said that he imagines places like Avondale and Mellow Mushroom will be the places that The Bank Vault crowd starts to go to after they close.
Drew Goodner, one of the owners of the property, said they don't have anything set in stone right now for what will go in the space next.
"We are actively looking for tenants right now," Goodner said. "A restaurant or a bar is kind of natural there."
Goodner said a lot of people have shown interest in having a Starbucks put there, since the only ones in Auburn are on campus. Other than local publicity however, Goodner said they haven't advertised anything or had any specific tenants show interest yet.
Goodner said whatever replaces The Bank Vault, they expect most of the features of the building to stay the same.
"We like the history of the building," Goodner said. "It's one of the few in downtown Auburn that you can date back to the early 1900s."
Goodner said they had to raise the rent on the space because right now the rent there is not current market rent. Goodner also said they want to put something that's new to Auburn in the space, but that it won't be just any business.
"Obviously rent is important, but we want the right tenant for that space," Goodner said. "We want something that students and locals and people that come down here are going to enjoy."
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