[bigsmooth]

i saw this concept at georgia tech and it is quite different than a regular barnes and noble.

Barnes & Noble proposes LU bookstore
By Ron Brown
rbrown@newsadvance.com
November 5, 2006

Liberty University officials are considering a proposal from Barnes & Noble Booksellers to put a new freestanding, 20,000 square foot bookstore on the school’s Lynchburg campus.

“We haven’t decided yet what we’re going to do,” said Jerry Falwell Jr., LU’s vice chancellor.

The proposed store would cost about $2 million and would be located on the corner of University Boulevard and Ericsson Drive. It would be on the same side of the street as the LaHaye Ice Center on a corner next to Williams Football Stadium.

It would replace the school’s current campus bookstore, which has been managed by Barnes & Noble for about 10 years.

The current bookstore is located in an 8,000 to 10,000 square foot space in the Demoss Learning Center on main campus.

“It’s not out where everybody can see it, so we’re losing a lot of business,” Falwell Jr. said.

He estimates the new bookstore could help double sales, simply by making it more accessible to the public.

If the new store were built, the current bookstore would be converted to classrooms.

In addition to books, the new store would sell music, clothing, gifts and other items with LU’s logo attached.

“They do this on a lot of university campuses,” Falwell Jr. said.

Initially, Barnes & Noble proposed putting a 20,000 square- foot dining facility on the other side of the building.

“I suggested a visitors center,” Falwell Jr. said. “The city has been looking for a place to put a visitors center on this side of town.”

He said Barnes & Noble does not seem concerned about the campus store’s impact on the existing Barnes & Noble store on Wards Road.

“It’s a totally different division of the company, so they don’t see it as competition,” he said.

[A.G.]

Great idea--especially the idea about another cafeteria. A visitor's center? Come on, Junior, you can do better than that.

[SuperJon]

Another dining place would be good. A lot of schools have a second one.

[thepostman]

yeah, our schools has reached the point where it really would be wise to have a second dining area, or food court or something along those lines...the hanger doesn't quite cut it for food court....

[JDUB]

there's campus north cafe inside of ericson. it's pretty good, but its really small.
they took a survey a while back of what kind of fast food places we would like to see at north. i never heard anything else about it though.
i agree that another food court would be great.

[SuperJon]

The problem with where they said they would put it is that right now there's a ginormous hole there. The other side of the street (directly across from the FOC) would work though. That would get a lot of traffic after the new road/tunnel is built.

How long after it opens is there a Facebook group whining about how far away it is?

[JDUB]

i'd say less than a day

[qkslvrsrfrboy]

i bet the facebook group exists before they even open it, and some moron will accidently name it the new bookstore is going to be so far away, so then when it actually is open the name wont fit.

[PeterParker]

The dining area idea seems better than a visitor's center...seems like the dining area would get much more use than a visitor center for the city. IMO, a city visitor center would be better on a exit off the highway or something like that.

[qkslvrsrfrboy]

im bored and going through stuff for no reason, but is this actually happening or no word

[Hold My Own]

that dinning piece still isn't the answer...you'll see LU making big strides in this in the near future...heck, they have to....to many kids!

[JDUB]

i can confirm that they are building a huge new bookstore. when i don't know, and i haven't heard anything about dining places either. but i work at the bookstore and the manager confirmed a 20,000 sq ft new building

[ATrain]

*sigh*-JDUB, they'll confirm a lotta things. I've had "confirmed" to me: going upstairs, expanding the walls outwards, and many other things. Truth is, they don't know much more than we do. I hope she's right though, the bookstore does need a much bigger space.