Baltimore Grows

It was announced today that Baltimore City and the University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus have reached an agreement to open a new university bookstore on the northeast corner of Baltimore and Paca streets, just west of the Hippodrome Theatre.  The new bookstore will be operated by Barnes and Noble.  Even though the university could have placed the bookstore in one of their existing buildings, the thoughts are that a bookstore in this location would be a greater boon to the West-side revitalization.  In all likelihood, the University of Maryland Barnes and Noble will be similar to the recently opened Barnes and Noble associated with Johns Hopkins University in Charles Village.  Main complaints about these university bookstores are that they lack the kind of book selection that a standard Barnes and Noble would carry, since their main focus is textbooks.  No word on construction schedule or format for the recently announced store.