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A Barnes & Noble bookstore, complete with a Starbucks cafe, library seating and 30,000 square feet of merchandise, will be added to the front of Harrisburg Mall.
"Barnes & Noble will be front and center on the Paxton Street side of the mall flanking the front entrance," said Larry Feldman, chairman and CEO of New York-based Feldman Mall Properties Inc., which owns the mall. "It's one of the key cornerstones of the mall streetscape plan."
Feldman, who signed a lease with the bookstore chain yesterday, said it will join "a growing, powerful lineup of tenants at the Harrisburg Mall." They include Macy's, Bass Pro Shops and the Great Escape 14-screen movie theater complex under construction.
Mark Nobile, general manager at Harrisburg Mall, said construction of the one-story Barnes & Noble store will begin within three months and be finished by the end of next March.
Barnes & Noble has a store in the Camp Hill Shopping Center.
Nobile and Feldman called the new store a key part of the streetscape project that encompasses the Paxton Street side of the mall and includes Bass Pro Shops, Barnes & Noble, the movie theater entrance and some restaurants. Feldman said each of these businesses will have outdoor entrances on the Paxton Street side.
"Malls have become tired, uninspiring formats," Feldman said. "We're rejuvenating that by creating a lifestyle center. We'll have a shopping center that looks like a throwback to the 1950s with a town square with benches, distinctively paved surfaces to walk on, upscale shops and dining."
He predicted that the center will become "a hospitable place, a night and weekend entertainment zone, a place to hang out and enjoy the night or weekend. We'll have several restaurants and the best theater within 100 miles.
"We'll keep our shops lit until midnight and hope some shop owners extend their hours a bit, too," he said. "By doing this, we estimate that within a year, we'll have 2 million people come to the mall, including a lot who might not have come otherwise."
Nobile estimates the cost of the mall's "third phase" project will be $25 million to $30 million, including the Barnes & Noble store, new restaurants and retail space and improvements to the mall entrances.
"We look forward to seeing the mall's streetscape and lifestyle center," said Paul Cornell, Swatara Twp. administrator. "It's exciting to have a Barnes & Noble in our township."
Feldman said he's proud to be part of the "up-scaling of the Harrisburg Mall. It's becoming a true destination mall."
Waldenbooks, a tenant at Harrisburg Mall for more than 35 years, closed in January. Waldenbooks is owned by Borders Group Inc.
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