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Grand opening: coffee and cachet

A new big-chain bookstore in downtown St. Petersburg shows “the city’s changing,” says one delighted visitor.

By MARY JANE PARK, Times Staff Writer
Published October 25, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG –– Barnes & Noble, the newest star in the downtown constellation, held its grand opening Tuesday, and it didn’t take long for book lovers to fill the aisles.

The University of South Florida Jazztet  played as visitors sipped free Starbucks coffee, sampled pastries and took home Frisbees in USF green and gold.

“Very nice,” said Jimmy Aviram, a developer and one of the donors to the recently announced Dale Chihuly Museum. “If a store like that decided to come downtown, the city’s changing.”

Numerous visitors expressed their delight at having the new chain retailer east of Tyrone Square Mall.
They ordered up lattes and perused rows of latest in murder mysteries, cookbooks and biographies.

“Isn’t this cool?” Mayor Rick Baker said. “I love it. I love books and bookstores, and I love coffee. So this is a perfect combination for me. It rounds out downtown.”

Ross Preville, who lives in a condominium five blocks away, said his 17-year-old daughter Catherine is an avid reader. He sent a text message to her bragging that he was inside the Barnes & Noble USF St. Petersburg Bookstore, 500 Third St. S.

“It’s a neighborhood bookstore for everyone,” he said.

“We’re excited to have it,” artist Carol Mickett said. “The focus should be on the quality of their books and the depth of their selection.”

But not everyone shared the enthusiasm.

Haslam’s on Central Avenue, which calls itself “Florida’s Largest New & Used Book Store,” has long been the downtown area’s biggest offering.

Co-owner Ray Hinst said he was under the impression that the new Barnes & Noble outlet was just an expansion of their textbook shop.

“We were kind of chagrined to learn that it was going to be a full-blown store,” he said.

Still, he expects to survive the competition because of his specialty market, which relies heavily on referrals.
Bayboro Books, a smaller independent seller, is only a few hundred steps from the new store.

Marianne  Rucker and Martha Rudy Wallace, two of the four original investors of Bayboro, expressed some concern about the future of the campus store they opened in 1982.

But current owner Susan Comas seemed undaunted. “Textbookwise, we’ve been competing with them for several years,” she said, referring to Barnes & Noble’s university bookstore in Coquina Hall. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Barnes & Noble will move its textbooks operation to the new store once a mezzanine and stairs are added.

[Last modified October 25, 2006, 06:42:48]