More room, more to offer: Barnes & Noble moving to bigger spot at Westfield West Park

Barnes & Noble's next chapter will be written at Westfield West Park, with the bookstore chain's decision to relocate to the Cape Girardeau mall and build a larger, more innovative store that will add music and movies to its shelves.

And, yes, the popular Starbucks coffee will still be available for those looking for their morning caffeine fix after the new store opens in November.

Construction has already started on the new store at Westfield, which will be next to Old Navy in the J.C. Penney wing, according to Westfield spokeswoman Lindsey Meyr. There's already a sign in the mall corridor announcing that Barnes & Noble is coming.

Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Abbe Ruttenberg Serphos said the decision was easy.

"Our lease was close to expiration, and we had the opportunity to increase the store size and offerings by relocating to an excellent space, currently under construction, at the mall," Serphos said.

Barnes & Noble doesn't disclose costs related to construction, she said. But the store will be bigger. The existing Barnes & Noble, at 3035 William St., is about 20,000 square feet and the new store will be roughly 27,000 square feet. The existing Barnes & Noble will close the day before the new store opens, she said.

Mall manager Paul Dobbins said he thinks Barnes & Noble will attract more customers to Westfield.

"I think it's just going to add an element we don't currently have," Dobbins said. "I've seen the drawings, and I've seen what they've done in other places. It's going to be a very attractive-looking store from the outside as well as the inside."

Like several mall stores, the new bookstore will have entrances to the store from the exterior of the mall as well as the interior, Meyr said.

The new store will stock close to 200,000 book, music, DVD and magazine titles and include a cafe serving Starbucks coffee. The addition will complement other additions and changes at Westfield West Park including Steve and Barry's University Sportswear and the new family lounge and restrooms opening this spring, Meyr said.

One store manager at the existing Barnes & Noble, who asked to not be identified, said that customers at first were apprehensive about the move, but now seem to be looking forward to it.

There are no tenants lined up yet for the existing Barnes & Noble spot, said Ollie Burger, director of operations at Drury Land Development, which owns the building that also houses Pier 1 Imports.

"But we're going to be looking for somebody to fill that space," he said. "Nothing's announced right now, but that doesn't mean we're not looking."

The new Barnes and Noble store will include several new features, including:

* Rapid special-order service. Barnes & Noble's massive warehouse inventory is available in real-time, enabling its booksellers to order and confirm the availability of over one million titles.

* Large-scale children's department. Bigger than most typical bookstores and stocking more than 15,000 titles in an easy-to-browse environment, "Barnes & Noble Jr." departments are designed to appeal to children, parents, teachers and librarians. Children's story hours will be held three times a week.

* Advanced technology music-listening system. The store's music department will feature RedDotNet, the most advanced listening technology. RedDotNet enables customers to listen to any CD in the store, sampling up to 200,000 music titles by passing it under a scanner. Connected to the company's online electronic music catalog, the store will also include listening stations.

* Wi-Fi service. SBC FreedomLink Wi-Fi service allows customers to use their laptop computers and personal digital assistants anywhere in the store or cafe to communicate online, surf the Internet and connect to corporate networks at speeds 50 to 100 times as fast as a dial-up connection.

Barnes & Noble Inc., the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 824 bookstores in 50 states.

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137