Barnes & Noble, Starbucks Coming to EGCC Downtown

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio ­– The empty site of the former Los Gallos Mexican restaurant downtown that decades ago housed the offices of The Business Journal will again become a place for the dissemination of knowledge. Starting this fall, Barnes & Noble College bookstore and attached Starbucks Café will open on the site.

“We’ve partnered with Barnes & Noble,” confirms Arthur Daly, dean of the Eastern Gateway Community College Youngstown campus. “It will really impact the downtown,” he says of the decision.

News of the Eastern Gateway B&N and Starbucks comes as Barnes & Noble opens its Youngstown State University bookstore today at the corner of Fifth and Lincoln avenues. This store will also have a Starbucks café.

Later this month, Barnes & Noble will begin operations in the space currently occupied by Eastern Gateway’s bookstore. This fall, the bookstore will move to the former Los Gallos site. Architects will soon be on hand to help ready the storefront for its future use, Daly says.

Barnes & Noble College Booksellers operates about 770 campus bookstores nationwide, including all Kent State University campuses, Ohio State University, University of Akron and Case Western Reserve University.

Not only will students have a new bookstore, they’ll have a place to purchase coffee and a place to study, Daly says. “Our students are underserved right now,” Daly says of those looking for coffee and comfortable study areas. “They have to leave the campus, but a lot of students want to stay put.”

He also expects that the new Starbucks will help bring people downtown. “As soon as people know that there’s a Starbucks downtown, they’ll come.”

Eastern Gateway will redesign the existing bookstore space to accommodate future growth, Daly says.

“The bookstore will become added space for new classrooms. We are heading in the right direction to increase our enrollment from last year, and we need the space to add new classrooms.”

Pictured: Eastern Gateway Community College campus in downtown Youngstown.

Copyright 2020 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.