USC foundation has purchased the property that’s home to Cool Beans Coffee. What we know
The University of South Carolina Development Foundation recently purchased the College Street property that has been home to Cool Beans Coffee Co. for nearly 30 years.
However, the foundation and Cool Beans’ owner each say the coffee shop isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Richland County property tax records show the university’s development foundation acquired the property at 1217 College St. in November 2024. That’s less than a block west of USC’s historic Horseshoe. Cool Beans has been operating on that property since 1997.
“The USC Development Foundation did purchase the property at 1217 College Street in late 2024,” foundation President Jason Caskey confirmed in an email to The State. “An opportunity arose with the former property owner to purchase the property and the Foundation seized on that opportunity.
“Cool Beans is a wonderful coffee shop and we are excited they will continue to be a tenant for the foreseeable future. The Foundation and the University do not have any plans for this property for the foreseeable future.”
Kitty Mirosavich is the longtime owner of Cool Beans Coffee Co. A USC graduate, she worked at the shop while she was in school and later purchased the business, according to a 2016 profile in The State. She also owns the College Grounds Cafe arm of the business, which operates in the same building.
When reached by phone earlier this week, Mirosavich said Cool Beans is rolling along at 1217 College St.
“We don’t have any plans right now to go anywhere,” she said. “We are here for the foreseeable future.”
The USC Development Foundation makes real estate transactions for the benefit of the university. The foundation made headlines in 2024 when it purchased the Hunter-Gatherer Brewery property at 900 Main St., just a short distance west of the Cool Beans property. A small parking lot, owned by USC, separates the two buildings.
Hunter-Gatherer was in the space at 900 Main St. for 29 years. The restaurant, which was Columbia’s first microbrewery, did not renew its lease at the end of 2024. Caskey said in December that the foundation purchased the Hunter-Gatherer property knowing it was “in the path of the future growth of the University of SC.”
Caskey also said in December that the Hunter-Gatherer property was “in one of the main areas of focus outlined by the University of South Carolina in its most recent Master Plan update, USC Next.”
USC Next is a plan of proposed improvements and capital projects designed to meet the needs of USC’s Columbia campus through 2034.
With the recent purchase, USC or its foundation own a number of parcels in the corridor down College Street, between Sumter and Main Streets, including, according to Richland County property records, 901 Sumter St., 1217 College St., 1211 College St., 900 Main St. and 820 Main St.
This story was originally published January 31, 2025 at 10:05 AM.
