EXCITING NEWS ABOUT OUR AREA

Pier Park Borders to open in May By Daniel Carson, News Herald

PANAMA CITY BEACH
Visitors to Borders’ planned Pier Park store will be entering one of the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based retailer’s new “concept” stores, with an emphasis on more digital features and Internet access, a company spokeswoman said Friday.
    Borders District Marketing Manager Mimi Sandoval said the company’s Panama City Beach store will hold a soft opening May 2, with a grand opening celebration on Mother’s Day weekend, May 9-11.
    The Pier Park Borders location will include a digital center, Sandoval said. Customers can download pictures, books and music, make their own customized CDs and make travel plans online through the digital center’s Wi-Fi Internet access.
    The Pier Park location will be the company’s third concept store to open this year, following store openings in Ann Arbor and Las Vegas, Sandoval said.
    “We’re rolling out 14 this year,” Sandoval said of the concept stores.
    Other features at the new Borders include a Paperchase shop, with a variety of paper and stationery items from the United Kingdom-based Paperchase Products Limited, and more than 200,000 book, music and movie titles.
    The 23,000-square-foot store will employ about 45 people, Sandoval said.
    Sandoval said Borders already hired its management team for the Pier Park location but still had openings available for book and cafe sellers. “We’re actually hiring right now,” Sandoval said.
    Once open, Borders will join other nationally known anchor stores such as Target, Dillard’s, JCPenney and Old Navy at the Panama City Beach development.
    Pier Park spokesperson Molly Parrish on Friday said 40 stores would be open at Pier Park by April first.