Gottschalks going, bookstore moving?

Although a lease has yet to be signed, plans for Gottschalks’ replacement at Kitsap Mall are in the works with the county recently approving a commercial tenant improvement permit for Barnes & Noble Booksellers.

Gottschalks is shutting down in Silverdale on April 23 and already store closing signs adorn the outside entrance.

“Replacement plans include (an) exciting exterior face lift and lifestyle center choices that broaden the depth and mix of retail selection and services at Kitsap Mall,” stated Kitsap Mall Senior Manager Dan Engelhard in a prepared news release.

Mall officials are unable to announce store names of replacement tenants, but a search of county records revealed a construction permit submitted by Barnes & Noble on Dec. 27, 2005.

Plans are in the works for Cost Plus World Market — which features home decor, furniture, collectibles and gifts — to share the space, according to an anonymous source familiar with the project. Currently, the nearest Cost Plus World Market is located in Tacoma.

Repeated calls to the corporate offices of both Cost Plus World Market and Gottschalks were not returned.

Abbe Ruttenberg Serphos, Barnes & Noble director of communications in New York, could not comment on future plans.

“We work closely with our Real Estate department on all of our new store openings. We are notified when there is a signed lease for a new store and we then issue a press release. At this time, we have not been notified of a Barnes & Noble at Kitsap Mall. We do not comment on store openings until we have a signed lease,” she stated in an e-mail to the Central Kitsap Reporter.

Serphos did not say whether or not the current Barnes & Noble on Randall Way will remain open or if all operations will transfer to a new mall location.

At 50,000-square-feet, Gottschalks is the smallest of the five department stores at Kitsap Mall. In 2000, Fresno, Calif.-based Gottschalks purchased the Kitsap Mall Lamont’s store as well as 33 others. A total of 16 Gottschalks stores were closed by the end of

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