Barnes and Noble coming to South Tahoe

By Kathryn Reed

LTCC's bookstore will be operated by Barnes and Noble as of November.

South Lake Tahoe is about to have a real bookstore again — sort of.

Barnes and Noble is taking over the running of Lake Tahoe Community College’s bookstore in November. The board approved this decision Sept. 8.

“It’s premature to say they would expand the bookstore, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility,” said Christina Proctor, LTCC spokeswoman.

Part of the college’s capital improvement plan for 2011 is to improve the bookstore. With the national retailer coming in, the expense could fall on their shoulders if they so desire. It’s possible the bookstore could be relocated on campus.

When the bookstore first opened Stanford Inc. was the operator. When they went out of business, the college took over.

In the agreement with Barnes and Nobles, LTCC will receive a percentage of the gross sales that will go into the general fund. Gross sales in 2008-09 were $753,000.

The retailer plans to upgrade the computer system and stock the store with different merchandise than what’s currently available.

This endeavor could bring a good chunk of change to the college, provide students with less expensive texts and give the South Shore a place to buy new books without leaving the hill.

Barnes and Noble is not new to college campuses — this will be the 27th one.

The board agreed to other improvements earlier this summer when it updated its five-year capital outlay plan.

Remodeling of the admissions and records area as well as the bookstore are slated to occur in 2011. Combined, the two projects will cost about $130,000. Of course the Barnes and Noble deal is likely to change the bookstore component.

The money is not in hand for those improvements. It’s something the college will have to fund.

The state will pick up the $1 million-plus cost of building a warehouse and vehicle storage. Plans aren’t expected to be drawn until 2013.

A parking lot is also on the to-do list. However, this will be something LTCC must pay for. The state pays for parking lots at the K-12, UC and CSU levels, but not for community colleges. This is a reason most two-year schools charge for parking. It is slated to be constructed in 2014-15.

Still on the list are the classroom building/faculty offices and tennis courts. But the reality is they keep getting pushed into the future and seem to be ideas more than anything else at this point.

“It’s a very real possibility that those time lines could be pushed to a further date,” Proctor said of all of the projects.