Imagine sipping a cup of your favorite specialty coffee while you browse among a large selection of new books. You find a book you like and sit down on a comfortable couch with the book and your coffee in the brand new Hornet Bookstore.

After a while, you get a little hungry, so you head across the store to a new restaurant, complete with patio seating under giant redwoods.

Your car is parked right next door in Parking Structure 2, so it won’t be any trouble to drop off your purchases.

This little daydream may soon become reality with the groundbreaking for the new $18 million Hornet Bookstore set to begin in September.

“We started the planning process for the new store three years ago,” said Julia Milardovich, director of bookstore services. “We are now working with a college store designer, but we don’t have a color pallet yet.”

Milardovich said trying to work in the current Hornet Bookstore’s nearly 50-year-old building has been a challenge. During their busy months, they have to clear out the back part of the store just to be able to handle the large volume of inventory. The new store will be twice the size of the old one.

“We are constantly rearranging everything,” Milardovich said. “We’re very excited about the new store.”

Brian Davey of shipping and receiving is looking forward to the extra room.

“It will make it so much easier to process the books,” Davey said. “The extra space means we won’t be working right on top of each other.”

One of the last hurdles to make the new store a reality is to submit the final plans to the board of trustees, said Matthew Altier, executive director of the CSUS Foundation.

The foundation can then secure a bond. The final plans are set to be submitted to the board of trustees in September.

This will be a system-wide revenue bond only available for capital projects.

“Anything the foundation does has to be self-supporting,” Altier said. “That means no state money.”

Both Altier and Milardovich said the bond payments would be paid by the bookstore.

“The bookstore is not going to raise prices to cover the payments,” Altier said. “With double the retail space, we can increase the volume of sales.”

Between the new bookstore and the University Union will be a new “European-style” plaza, Altier said.

Built simultaneously with the bookstore, it will include lots of seating for students and help to connect the bookstore to the Union, library and eventually the Recreation, Wellness and Events Center.

The building of Parking Structure 3 is also scheduled and will be finished around the same time as the new bookstore, Altier said.

They hope to have both projects completed by summer 2007.

Altier said that with the convenient parking and amenities, the foundation hopes to attract the large number of alumni in the area.

The foundation is also looking into a trolley system that would not only bring light rail passengers right to the campus, but would continue on a loop around the campus.

“We’re studying these sleek-looking narrow buses that run on very narrow roads,” Altier said. “They can hook up to each other.”

Altier said the buses would be powered by natural gas, hybrid or electric.

“We’re trying to find the best affordable way to get people from light rail to the campus,” Altier said.

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Karen Marie Watson can be reached at [email protected]