If you’ve driven down Garland Avenue near the University of Arkansas recently, you’ve probably noticed the new facade on the Garland Center, the near-complete parking garage and mixed-use retail facility near the corner of Lindell Avenue.
The university announced on Tuesday that the center is almost ready for a few tenants, and that the University of Arkansas Bookstore will be moving from their long-time home in the Arkansas Student Union into the new facility on July 26.
The general bookstore, textbook department, computer store, Razorback shop, and all of the lab supply departments associated with the University Bookstore will be relocating in the move, scheduled to take place the weekend of July 23.
Rendering of Garland Center
In addition, the bookstore will introduce a “store-within-a-store” concept in the new location, featuring a technology store with Dell, Apple, and HP computer products, a coffee shop, a card store, a Nike store, a Clinique cosmetics counter, a Russell Athletics store, a Jones and Mitchell store, and an Office Max school supply store.
Garland Center boasts 30,000 square feet of retail space, and the university also announced that several private businesses are planning to set up shop in the new facility.
“Although leasing is still under way, these shops will include: a full service pharmacy (a partnership of the bookstore and the Pat Walker Health Center), Spoons Frozen Yogurt Shop, and a sandwich shop, to name a few,” reads the announcement.
Two levels of the new parking garage will be open when the University Bookstore relocates on the 26th, and the rest of the garage is set to open on August 23. The private retail shops will open as their respective build-outs are completed.
