Garfield Commons groundbreaking marks first step in area revitalization
March 04, 2006
The ceremonial shovelful of dirt that will be lifted on Wednesday, March 15 will mark one of the first visible steps in a planned renaissance of the Garfield Street area.
PLU and Lorig & Associates will break ground on Garfield Commons, a retail space that will house the PLU bookstore, on March 15. The official ceremony is slated for 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. at the corner of Garfield St. and Pacific Ave., where Garfield Commons will be located.
The idea behind moving the bookstore off-campus is to get students walking from campus along Garfield Street and shoppers moving from Garfield Commons down Garfield Street toward campus. The building is part of a plan to reinvigorate area businesses with increased pedestrian traffic and provide opportunities for further economic development of the area.
The PLU bookstore will be the anchor tenant of the building, occupying 15,000 square feet of the 30,000-square-foot building.
Mark Mulder ’93, ‘00 is PLU director of auxiliary services and a leader of PLU’s involvement in the greater revitalization of Garfield Street. He was in Texas last week presenting the off-campus bookstore concept to colleagues at universities nationwide during Campus Marketing Expo 2006.
Mulder’s presentation, entitled “Community: A Pathway to the Store of the Future,” described how moving the bookstore away from campus can engage the community at large and help forge closer ties. The physical location of the bookstore is just one part of the community bookstore vision, he said.
“It will have a foundation of serving the campus and students, but it will also now serve the community,” Mulder said. Partnerships with local schools and the local home-school association are aimed at creating a “grassroots independent local bookstore.”
The new store, which has yet to be named, will feature a community room for campus, as well as community, programming.
The building is slated for completion by December 2006. Lorig & Associates has also worked with PLU on South Hall, Xavier Hall and the newly opened Morken Center for Learning and Technology.
The idea behind moving the bookstore off-campus is to get students walking from campus along Garfield Street and shoppers moving from Garfield Commons down Garfield Street toward campus. The building is part of a plan to reinvigorate area businesses with increased pedestrian traffic and provide opportunities for further economic development of the area.
The PLU bookstore will be the anchor tenant of the building, occupying 15,000 square feet of the 30,000-square-foot building.
Mark Mulder ’93, ‘00 is PLU director of auxiliary services and a leader of PLU’s involvement in the greater revitalization of Garfield Street. He was in Texas last week presenting the off-campus bookstore concept to colleagues at universities nationwide during Campus Marketing Expo 2006.
Mulder’s presentation, entitled “Community: A Pathway to the Store of the Future,” described how moving the bookstore away from campus can engage the community at large and help forge closer ties. The physical location of the bookstore is just one part of the community bookstore vision, he said.
“It will have a foundation of serving the campus and students, but it will also now serve the community,” Mulder said. Partnerships with local schools and the local home-school association are aimed at creating a “grassroots independent local bookstore.”
The new store, which has yet to be named, will feature a community room for campus, as well as community, programming.
The building is slated for completion by December 2006. Lorig & Associates has also worked with PLU on South Hall, Xavier Hall and the newly opened Morken Center for Learning and Technology.