BOOK CENTER BOOKING IT FROM ATHENS

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Orange and Brown
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BOOK CENTER BOOKING IT FROM ATHENS

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By David DeWitt


A Nebraska company has decided to shut down its Athens book distribution center at the Theisen Industrial Park near The Plains, a decision that will cost the area 31 jobs.

Specialty Books, which is owned by the Nebraska Book Co., moved in 2002 from another location in the park into what was built as a county “spec” building. The building was constructed in 1996 with the express purpose of attracting a job-intensive business.

Nebraska Book Co. spokesperson Sue Riedman said Friday that the company has decided not to renew its lease at the location, and the facility will close by March 31.

“Really, we just took a look at the changing market dynamics, the changes in the economy, as well as some changes within the industry, and we started to evaluate our business model,” she said. “And we just felt that we could better serve our customers and gain some additional synergies by consolidating all of the operations in our headquarters location here in Lincoln, Nebraska.”

She said that the Specialty Books location in the Theisen park is the company’s only other warehouse facility, adding that it had 31 full-time employees as well as some seasonal employees. Specialty Books was founded in 1987 in Athens, and bought by the Nebraska Book Co. in 1997.

Riedman said that the Specialty Books retail store on North Court Street is not affected by the distribution center’s closing, and will remain open.

The Athens County Port Authority owns the “spec” building. Athens County Economic Development Council Director Todd Shelton, who helps manage business related to the Port Authority, said that the current lease for the building extends to May 2011. This means that although the company is slated to leave the location by April, the Port Authority will still get payments until the lease is up.

“We’ve already worked with the company with regard to providing services to their employees if they need retraining or to go back to school,” he said. “We’ve had a good partnership with them. This took us by surprise but we understood that their corporation made a business decision.”

He said he hopes that some companies in Athens that are growing and need extra space will consider the location. Shelton said he is already in talks with the state about leads for companies that would potentially be interested in the location.

“We’re going to figure out when they’re going to move out and then we’ll take steps to market the building to some of our existing companies here, as well as companies that might be interested in relocating here,” he said.

When asked if the Port Authority is looking to lease the building again, or possibly sell it, Shelton said everything is on the table.

“Ideally, the goal of the Port Authority is to encourage companies to come in, and we want to make sure that they provide good-paying, quality, sustainable jobs,” he said. “So ideally, the Port Authority would lease the building to a company under those circumstance. That being said, if there is a company interested in buying the building outright, we would definitely be interested in that as well.”

He said another lease agreement is the most likely scenario, though. The building is 49,500 square feet, Shelton said. That includes about 39,000 square feet of warehouse space, with the remainder being used as office space, he said. The lease for Specialty Books is $16,000 per month, Shelton said.


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