Wilkes-Barre, PA -
There was a time when King's College and Wilkes University students came together only for the big basketball rivalry or the annual snowball fight. Soon they'll be sharing a bookstore.
A 20,000-square-foot “academic superstore” operated by Barnes & Noble College Booksellers Inc. will open in the former Woolworth's store, on South Main Street, sometime in mid-October.
The renowned bookstore chain operates more than 500 campus stores through its college division but this is the first time that one of its retail outlets is collaboration between two colleges.
The store, which will be open to the public, will occupy the first and lower levels of the historic building. Textbooks, school supplies and dormitory necessities will be sold on the lower level, and the ground floor will feature general trade books, a local authors' section, a Starbucks café and a spirit shop that sells King's and Wilkes items such as sweatshirts, T-shirts, pennants and mugs.
Patrick Maloney, Barnes & Noble College Booksellers executive vice president, said the cooperation of the two schools and community leaders made the deal more appealing.
“It was the vision that the two schools have, along with the chamber that made this very doable,” Maloney said. “It's a sizable capital investment.”
The $2.04 million project is being funded through the Greater Wilkes-Barre Development Corp., the development arm of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry; King's; Wilkes; and Barnes & Noble. Luzerne County provided a $1.2-million low-interest business development loan.
Wilkes and King's formed Joint Collegiate Bookstore, LLC, to lease the space from the Development Corp. Barnes & Noble will sublease the space from the Joint Collegiate Bookstore. Barnes & Noble has a separate operating agreement with the two schools to provide bookstore services.
The store also will serve Luzerne County Community College, which has a learning center on Public Square.
The bookstore is the largest retailer to come into downtown Wilkes-Barre in years, said Michael Lombardo, the chamber's interim president and chief executive officer.
Construction on the bookstore is scheduled to be complete by Sept. 25.
The chamber invested $6.3 million to transform the old five-and-dime into the Innovation Center @ Wilkes-Barre, which occupies the second and third floors. The business incubator opened in 2004, 10 years after Woolworth's closed its doors.
The store was founded in 1884 by Fred Morgan Kirby. The current structure, built in 1950, featured the city's first escalator.
Maloney, along with chamber representatives and federal, county and local officials spoke at Thursday's press conference announcing the new store.
Smaller bookstores that serve each campus will close around the time of the Barnes & Noble opening.
All employees at the King's and Wilkes bookstores have been interviewed but no one has been hired to staff the store, said Steve Falke, regional director for Barnes & Noble.
“We are coming up with a staffing plan but weren't moving forward until the initial announcement was made,” Falke said. “Next week we'll be making offers.”
The store will hire 12 full-time employees and numerous part-time workers, Falke said. A general manager has not yet been hired.
“This is a very different venue for us; it's not only a community store but it's an academic retail store,” he said. “We're looking for someone with a lot of community outreach and involvement as well as good strong retail background. It's not just about putting textbooks on the shelf. It's also about bridging between the two campuses.”
Barnes & Noble will strive to retain some of the charm of the 122-year-old department store founded by Fred Morgan Kirby.
“One of the things I told our design team to look at is to be respectful to Woolworth's and its history,” Maloney said. “We will incorporate historical items from the store and from the local historical society and the colleges, too.”
Economic-development experts have said for years that capitalizing on the image of a college town would be a vital force in a Wilkes-Barre renaissance. The idea of opening a joint college bookstore has been tossed around for more than a decade.
“This is a giant step toward a college town, this is for all of us to celebrate,” said the Rev. Thomas O'Hara, King's president.
