Local & State Headlines

ASU bookstore to stay put

• For the time being at least, Albany State Univesity's student bookstore will remain strictly a campus fixture.

Barbara Rivera Holmes

ALBANY — Efforts to create more of a connectivity between Albany State University and the downtown district through an off-campus bookstore are on hold, said ASU President Everette Freeman, after failed negotiations with an Albany property owner.

In larger cities, especially, it’s common for university bookstores to be located within the central business district. Freeman wanted to bring that practice to Albany by housing the ASU bookstore in a Washington Street/Broad Avenue storefront owned by Peter Studl. The property, Freeman said, is a “leisurely” 15-minute walk away from ASU’s Old Radium Springs Road campus.

“One of the things that (we are) interested in is how we can extend the connection between ‘town and gown,’ ” Freeman said. “It seems to me that (the bookstore) was a possibility for us to demonstratively take the ASU community beyond the confines of (being) east of the river.”

But as an entity of the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents, Freeman said, “We have to be very circumspect in terms of following the guidelines ... with respect to leasing private property.”

Freeman wouldn’t say specifically what details couldn’t be worked out with Studl. As an example, Freeman said — and “this was not a sticking point,” he noted — the Regents “only permits year-to- year leases of property outside of its stock.”

Studl said he couldn’t comment. “It’s a business matter,” he said.

Asked if there were other off-campus sites being scoured, Freeman quipped real estate’s golden rule — location, location, location.

“Our focus was obviously downtown because the effort (from government and business) ... is to revitalize downtown,” he said.

“The fortunes of the city and the fortunes of Albany State University are intertwined,” he said. “If the city is able to grow its downtown, with our support, we readily want to (be a part of that).”

Ever the optimist, Freeman said that the school “will work to continue to find ways to connect the town an the gown.”

Already, he said, ASU and its students are involved with the Dougherty County School system, the Parks at Chehaw, the Flint RiverQuarium and the Boys and Girls Clubs, among other organizations.

More Headlines>>