Retail complex opens doors

Sansom Common, containing the giant new bookstore and Xando, opened to rave reviews. Visiting the Penn Bookstore no longer means having to stuff your bag into a small locker, maneuver through cramped aisles or worry about whether an obscure novel is in stock. Instead, high ceilings, inviting lighting and a greater selection of books -- not to mention a pronounced lack of lockers -- have brought smiles to the faces of many of the students, parents and faculty members who have passed through the new bookstore's wood and glass doors. The new, two-story University Bookstore -- which is more than double the size of the former bookstore on Locust Walk -- opened in mid-July in Sansom Common at 36th and Walnut streets. University officials hope the building, one of the most ambitious retail projects in Penn history, will play a major role in increasing foot traffic and nightlife in University City. "It's gorgeous," said Helen Bayes, a first year Biomedical graduate student browsing through the textbook section of the bookstore. Bayes said she would use the new bookstore to entertain friends visiting from out of town. The red-brick and concrete structure, rising from a former parking lot, also houses a Xando coffee house and bar, which opened August 27. Two other stores, Urban Outfitters clothing and Parfumerie Douglas cosmetics, are scheduled to open this fall to complete the first, $80 million phase of the project. A fifth store, the City Sports athletic goods chain, had been slated to move into Sansom Common, but recently opted not to join the new complex. "The deal fell through," Justin Wildon, a manager at the City Sports store at 16th and Walnut streets, said Tuesday. "We are not opening one up [at Penn]." Penn officials could not be immediately reached for comment on the City Sports situation. In an effort to draw late-night browsers to Sansom Common, the bookstore will remain open as late as 11 p.m. The old store was open no later than 6:30 p.m. Xando, located on 36th Street, will remain open until 1 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends, the same hours as its downtown locations. The second phase of the project will include the 256-room Inn at Penn, occupying the building's top three stories, and an additional two to three retailers. It is scheduled to be completed by the fall of 1999. The bookstore's old home, along with the adjacent University Plaza shops on the 3700 block of Walnut Street, is set to be demolished later this year to make way for a new Wharton School facility. The new bookstore is the centerpiece of the retail complex. The store, operated by Barnes & Noble College Bookstores Inc., will be the first of its kind in the chain, combining Barnes & Noble's successful superstores -- which stock in excess of 100,000 books -- with the amenities of a traditional college bookstore. Barnes & Noble College is a private company owned by Leonard Riggio, chief executive of Barnes & Noble Inc., the nation's largest bookstore chain. The new bookstore is radically different from its predecessor. In addition to the usual supplies of textbooks and academic necessities, the store features a cafe serving Starbucks coffee, more posters and framed prints and an expanded clothing selection featuring both Penn-insignia garments and designer apparel from Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein. Also new to the bookstore is a second-floor music section. While the compact discs in stock are particularly strong in jazz, classical and international music, mainstays from Sinatra to the Spice Girls are also available, said Bookstore General Manager Dwayne Carter. The Penn-owned Computer Connection has followed its bookstore neighbor to Sansom Common, occupying a spacious 3,000-square-foot area on the store's ground level, with a separate entrance on Sansom Street. When University President Judith Rodin announced the plans for Sansom Common's construction in November 1996, she 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 said that if Sansom Common is successful, it could be expanded to the neighboring Mellon Bank Building and Graduate Towers complex, recently renamed Sansom Place. Despite excitement from University administrators and students -- the class of 1998 voted to place its Ivy Day stone in the bookstore lobby's floor -- the project has not been without controversy. While officials have said they hope the complex will attract people from all over the city, some neighborhood activists have accused Penn of placing the project in the middle of campus to further separate students from the surrounding community. The property where the complex is built has also been the source of strife. The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority agreed to sell the University the land in 1980, contingent upon Penn's promise to develop it. But Penn incurred $240,000 in fines and came under criticism from neighborhood activists for holding large parcels of undeveloped land without a definite development plan, a practice known as landbanking. Also, Barnes & Noble's track record at other colleges has raised concerns about the future of Penn's two independent booksellers, House of Our Own Books and the Pennsylvania Book Center. The Book Center, a longtime University institution favored by many professors, will move to a location in the 3401 Walnut Street complex in November, its owner Achilles Nickles said this week. Nickles said earlier this year that Barnes & Noble's ability to offer discounts on bestsellers will force him into a more academic niche, adding that it's "not going to be easy." Financing During the summer, the University decided to change the method it would use to finance the project. Instead of taking out a mortgage, Penn used $66 million from a reserve fund to finance about 83 percent of the project's first phase, according to Vice President for Finance Kathy Engebretson. The remaining funding includes $8 million from the 1996 transaction between the University and Barnes & Noble College, which gave the company control of the University Book Store, $3 million in donations and $3 million in interest income. Officials said last September that the first stage of the project would cost about $73 million, but revised that figure to $80 million as a result of the decision to move the Faculty Club from 36th and Walnut streets to the Inn at Penn. The total cost for all three phases of the project, however, is still $120 million, Engebretson said. While the complex, with guaranteed bookstore revenues of $1.3 million a year, will be very profitable for the University, administrators have stressed its role as a touchstone for retail development in the area. Daily Pennsylvanian staff writers Binyamin Appelbaum, Margie Fishman and Edward Sherwin contributed to this article.

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