Bridge Street next chapter for bookstore on University

The Barnes & Noble store on University Drive will close next summer, and a new Barnes & Noble will open in the Bridge Street Town Centre in Cummings Research Park.

The move, announced by the bookstore chain Tuesday, will be coordinated to allow the store across from Madison Square Mall to close one day before the new store opens.

The Bridge Street development is scheduled to open next summer. The 550,000-square-foot center will feature shops, a restaurant, offices, a movie theater and Alabama's first Westin hotel.

California-based O&S Holdings is developing the project. A company spokeswoman said Tuesday that O&S has talked with Barnes & Noble for several months.

"We're very excited," spokeswoman Rachel Forman said. "It enhances the property tremendously. It will bring strong use from the Research Park, drawing a lot of people to the property because of Barnes & Noble."

Forman said the company hopes to break ground on the Bridge Street store, at Interstate 565 and U.S. 72/255, in the next few months.

The new store will also sell music and advanced music listening, a feature offered by Huntsville's other Barnes & Noble, in Jones Valley off Carl T. Jones Drive, but not the University Drive store. It will also offer Wi-Fi service, the company said.

It will stock close to 200,000 book, music, DVD and magazine titles and include a caf.

Barnes & Noble, the world's largest bookseller and a Fortune 500 company, operates 797 bookstores in 50 states. Its shares closed Tuesday at $32.88, down 36 cents.