U. offers retailers new campus spaces

High rents are among the concerns that have led popular stores like Classical Choice to consider leaving campus. The Pennsylvania Book Center will likely stay at Penn, officials announced this week. With The Book Store building at 38th Street and Locust Walk being demolished next fall to make way for a Wharton School building, Penn has offered space elsewhere to the displaced merchants -- but so far, Penn Book Center is the only taker. The popular, 35-year-old independent bookstore on the 3700 block of Walnut Street has signed a nonbinding letter of intent to move about two blocks west. But despite the University's recent efforts to help merchants on the block relocate to other sites on and around campus, many store owners say they are still unhappy with Penn's offers of rents that in some cases are twice as high as what they pay for their current locations. "The University has an inflated opinion about what space is worth," said Howard Gensler, co-owner of Classical Choice. "We would like to stay here but we are not going to go out of business to stay here." The announcement of the Penn Book Center's likely move ends months of uncertainty resulting from the November 1996 decision to build a new, 300,000-square-foot Wharton building on the site. The Book Store, which is operated by Barnes and Noble, will move this fall to the Sansom Common complex under construction at 36th and Walnut streets. The Penn Book Center would move to the shopping center on the 3900 block of Walnut Street, which houses the Cinemagic movie theater. Penn Book Center owner Achilles Nickles stressed that the agreement is not final, since he has not yet sign an official lease. Still, many retailers in the building continue to criticize Penn for offering them locations with significantly higher rents. University Jewelers received an offer to lease the former site of Sam Goody on the 100 block of South 34th Street. But store owners Fred and Lois Green said the rent would be twice what they currently pay. And Penn wants a clause giving it a certain percentage of sales, making the deal even more unpalatable, the Greens said. The Greens have yet to sign a new lease with the University, which owns most of the property in the area. For the past seven years, local fans of Bach and Beethoven did not have to travel far to find their favorites, flocking to Classical Choice for music. But next fall, University City's classical music fans may have to do their shopping downtown. Classical Choice, which is owned and operated by Penn graduates, has received a feasible offer at 21st and Walnut Streets, according to Gensler. Gensler said he is willing to move the store to Center City. But he would rather remain on campus -- as long as the price is right. Although the University offered the store a prime space at 3401 Walnut Street, the rent was far too high, Gensler said. Most recently, University officials have offered Classical Choice space on both 39th and 40th Streets. But Gensler said his store would not be successful at those locations. "Fortieth street is a year or two away from being what the University hopes it to be," Gensler said. "I don't want to be an urban pioneer for Penn. But if they make it worth our while to stay, we will." University Managing Director of Real Estate Tom Lussenhop said the addition of stores such as Classical Choice to the Hamilton Village shopping center on 40th Street will "make [the corridor] more incorporated into the day-to-day life of the University." But the Greens of University Jewelers share Gensler's complaints that the University is not offering a fair deal for the relocation of their business. Lois Green said the store, which has been a University City landmark for 60 years, must remain on Penn's campus in order to stay alive. "We are between a rock and a hard place," she said. "If we don't take this new location, we are out of business." Like University Jewelers, the Penn Book Center "would have to stay on campus," Nickles said. Many Penn professors have the store order books for their students. Lussenhop said that University City Associates -- Penn's for-profit real estate arm -- has been working to retain prominent local retailers such as Classical Choice, University Jewelers and the Penn Book Center.