Bucks set for new site

The coffee bar, closed since October, will relocate to the new Dental School facility. The new Dental School building currently under construction near the corner of 40th and Spruce streets will be the new home of Bucks County Coffee Co., as well as one other unnamed retail outlet, according to University officials. Bucks -- which also has a campus location at 3430 Sansom Street -- closed its store at 40th and Locust streets last October following the announcement of a new movie theater that will occupy its former space. The coffee bar will cover 2,000 square feet of space on the ground floor of the 55,000-square foot Robert Schattner Center, according to John Greenwood, a top official with Trammell Crow Co., the company that manages most University properties. "It makes a lot of sense to have retail" in academic and other buildings, Greenwood said, citing examples like the shops in the 3401 Walnut Street complex. He noted that many office buildings in Center City have similar ground-floor retail arrangements. An additional 1,000 square feet of retail space in the Dental School will be occupied by another business, though no specific lease arrangements have been made so far, Greenwood added. Kathy Owen, Bucks County Coffee's vice president of retail, said the chain was "looking forward" to moving into the new building, which she called a "nice addition to the University." Owen, who is also a co-owner of the coffeehouse chain, said the store "probably will have better visibility in the new location," since students, faculty and staff members will go into the building every day. The Dental building is scheduled to open toward the end of 2000 and is costing $23 million -- $4 million of which is coming from 1948 Dental graduate Robert Schattner. Owen said that while she is not pleased to be without a store at 40th and Locust streets for the next two years, she is not very concerned about the store's long-term prospects. "We were doing very well there," she said of the 3-year-old location. However, she acknowledged that "the opportunity to move" will be better for the store. That location was closed in preparation for the scheduled start of construction this April of an art house movie theater. The project was announced last October by University officials and movie mogul Robert Redford, whose Sundance Cinemas will be a co-owner of the facility with General Cinemas. In addition to Bucks County Coffee, the 50,000-square-foot movie theater complex displaced private fitness center University City Nautilus, which was next to Bucks, and will force the Burger King at the corner of 40th and Walnut streets to close, Greenwood said. The gym will not reopen, while Burger King is currently working with the University to find new space, according to Greenwood.