DAVID HARDEN/Arizona Daily Wildcat The nearly completed UofA Bookstore will showcase American Indian art, a Clinique counter, a kids' reading corner, an Office Depot and a CD-trading center.

After 13 years of planning, new bookstore doors set to open; but will students buy the upscale image it promises

If you had walked through the UofA Bookstore with its director Frank Farias one year ago, he would have pulled out artist renderings, administrative deadlines and taken you on an imaginary tour ÷ sifting through drawings every two minutes to show you what would theoretically come around the corner.

Take the tour today through the new 68,000 square foot bookstore under construction within the Student Union Memorial Center and Farias will walk you through like a giddy child in a candy store ÷ showing you every crevice and corridor, the structure complete minus only additional dŽcor and bookshelves.

But with the opening nearing of the gigantic, multi-level, multi-service structure ÷ a testament to 3 and a half years of construction and 13 years of planning ÷ jitters are setting in for Farias and his team.

"It's like throwing a big party and your Îre not sure if the people will show," he admits.

In fact, Farias conceded that his last minute anxieties are not about construction, staffing or security ÷ those things are all taken care of and have been for months. Now it's just waiting to see how campus responds to a UA-esque mega-bookstore.

The bookstore, a structural fetus of the $60 million, half-a-million square foot student union, will increase its space by 38,000 square feet ö and just this semester students have seen the closest thing to the finished product thus far.

The attention for the past month has been on the new $100,000 American Indian-themed staircase that takes students down to a newly expanded textbook section ÷ expanded in space and services ÷ but that's just a drop in the bucket.

A massive increase in sales space equals an increase in retail sales ÷ and store spending.

Once completed, the bookstore, Farias said, is estimated to bring in $1 million more than the year before in its added services only. He also estimates a 15 to 30 percent increase in sales for other merchandise ÷ not including textbooks, which he said should not increase in sales. Textbooks make up 58 percent of the bookstore's income.

This week, referred to as rush week by bookstore people, has seen sales in line with last year, said Tony Major, business manager for the bookstore.

Comparing the day-by-day traffic in the store, Major said Tuesday was the busiest day ÷ with 7,800 people through the door. And sales for Monday were around $60,000.

Overall, however, he said book sales are down just slightly from the year before.

Farias said in an average year the bookstore brings in $18 million ÷ $12 million from textbooks.

But he said his staff has not nailed down a number on how much the cost to run and operate the facility will increase.

"We are still estimating costs," he said.

He did admit though that the increases will inflate significantly to pay for everything from air conditioning to maintenance. Farias will not, however, hire on any more staff than the 60 employees it has now.

Erin Lynch, a microbiology senior, is one of those 60 employees.

"It's been really confused telling people how to get around the store," she said, referring to the yellow police-like tape that closes off areas of the store that students can right now only see but not touch. "Overall, though, there's a lot more selection."

And there will be more selection. The $1 million that Farias hopes to take in from extra services will come in the form of a children's corner, a Clinique counter and an Office Depot affiliated supply center ÷ part of an addendum to UA's new contract with the company.

That's where the jitters set in.

Can UA students and faculty support a store of this magnitude?

Farias himself isn't sure if all the services will last.

Neither is Richard Mandziak, manager of Rothers Bookstore and Arizona Bookstore, both located on Park Ave.

Arizona Bookstore will eventually be moving to a new location within the Marshall Foundation's property, with a slight drop in square footage but not in merchandise, Mandziak said.

"We're not too worried about Clinique," he said. He said there's only a small group of people that something like that will appeal to.

One of those people, apparently, is Heather Miller, a family studies senior who has watched the bookstore grow from its past life in the old union to its infancy during construction on the new one.

It was worth it, she said.

"I will definitely use that," she said, adding that she won't need to go to the mall for her make-up anymore.

Deniela Castro, a public relations senior, also seemed intrigued by the thought of a make-up counter, but felt that the road to get to this point ÷ from demolition to ribbon cutting ÷ was long and difficult.

And it has. Farias knows that better than anyone.

It was nearly a year ago that an angry parent stopped him outside the bookstore, thinking he was the university president, and fumed over the fact that her daughter was going through college without the UA Mall, which was filled with construction vehicles at the time.

Now it's just a process of waiting, and doors to the finally completed bookstore will fly open on Oct. 26 for family weekend if Farias gets his way ÷ a premier to the entire opening of the new union in December.

And despite the new UofA Bookstore's heavy flexed muscles and massive size, Mandziak said the campus area's other two textbook stores are not ready to jump out of the ring.

"We think that students recognize that our textbook price may be lower," he said. "They know us as a good source for used books."