Urban mall to house retail, hotel

Sansom Common will be the home of the new Barnes & Noble store. Maimonides High School '96 Newton, Mass. Making the area on and around campus into an attractive retail and relaxation destination has long been a unrealized priority for University administrators. This year, however, there is a delivery date for that wish. On July 15, Penn's new Barnes & Noble bookstore will become the first tenant of Sansom Common, a $73 million retail and hotel complex stretching along the 3600 block of Walnut Street. Penn officials say the complex is the first step in revitalizing University City. Four other stores -- Xando's coffeehouse, Urban Outfitters, Parfumerie Douglas Cosmetics and City Sports -- will join the bookstore by late August, completing the project's first phase. Only City Sports has yet to sign a lease. The second phase -- scheduled for completion by the fall of 1999 -- will include a 250-room hotel sitting on the building's top three stories and an additional two to three retailers. Penn's bookstore, to be operated by Barnes & Noble College Bookstores, Inc., is the centerpiece of the retail complex. The store will be the first of its kind, modeled after Barnes & Noble's highly successful superstore chain -- stores stocking in excess of 100,000 titles. B&N; College is owned by Leonard Riggio, CEO of Barnes & Noble, Inc., the nation's leading bookseller. Although the complex -- with guaranteed bookstore revenues of $1.3 million a year -- stands to be a huge money maker for Penn, administrators emphasize its role as a touchstone for retail development in the area. In announcing the construction plans in 1996, Penn President Judith Rodin said the project's goal was to create "a vibrant, round the clock, exciting destination" in University City. Penn Executive Vice President John Fry, whose office oversees the project, has called Sansom Common "the first stake in the ground." If successful, Fry has said the project could be expanded to the neighboring Mellon Bank Building and Graduate Towers complex. In a bid to attract late-night shoppers and browsers, the bookstore will remain open as late as 11 p.m. The current store --Ewhich will be demolished, making way for a new Wharton School facility -- is open no later than 6:30 p.m. But not everyone is singing Penn's hosannas. Many neighborhood activists have accused Penn of situating the project in the middle of campus to further shield students from the surrounding community. The land used in the construction has a troubled history, as well. The Sansom Common property was purchased from the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority in 1980. The deal had been conditional on Penn's agreement to develop the land, but Penn subsequently incurred $240,000 in fines for engaging in a practice known as landbanking -- holding large parcels of undeveloped land without definite development property. It is a practice neighborhood activists are quick to criticize as destructive for keeping land vacant. Additionally, Barnes & Noble's track record on other college campuses has raised concerns about the future of Penn's two independent booksellers -- House of Our Own Books and the Penn Book Center. The Book Center is currently in negotiations for a new location in the 3401 Walnut Street complex, as it must move out of its present location by August 14. A proposal by University Council's Bookstore Committee to require professors to post their book lists on the World Wide Web -- sparking concerns that the superstore would be able to undercut the local retailers -- met with fierce opposition from many faculty members, and was voted down. Penn's system currently allows professors to exclusively give their lists to the store of their choice. Many faculty members purposefully order their books from the independents to support the stores. Despite the controversy, Marie Witt, the Penn official responsible for the new bookstore, says allowing the bookstore to stock books for all courses would be in students' best interests. "I think there is an expectation that the University store will be as comprehensive as possible," Witt said. But Achilles Nickles, owner of the Penn Book Center -- the Penn bookstore's major competitor for professors' orders -- says professors' orders are vital to his store's survival. Even if the system remains the same, Nickles anticipates that Barnes & Noble's ability to offer discounts on bestsellers will force him into a more academic niche, adding that "its not going to be easy." Penn officials counter that the superstore will draw book buyers to the area, benefiting the independent sellers as well.