In the midst of economic uncertainty, Bookspan's expansion during such difficult and trying times is a welcome commodity for the Village of Garden City. With 10 million book club members, the company currently makes nearly $1 billion in sales each year. The Chamber of Commerce held its kick-off luncheon last Wednesday, spotlighting the company and welcoming William Gatti, Bookspan's senior vice president of Human Resources and Administration.

The building, located at 501 Franklin Avenue, has been a village landmark since 1910 when Theodore Roosevelt first laid its cornerstone. It was originally the home of Doubleday and a fitting homage to England's Hampton Court.

Doubleday was later sold to Bertelsmann AG, a privately held international media company, in 1986. Approximately one year later, Bertelsmann declared the Garden City location book club headquarters. The '90s proved a time of change, Gatti said, with the company reducing its population in Garden City, outsourcing its labor to other places around the country by about 400 employees and making some real estate changes.

In March of 2000 "Book of the Month Club," then owned by Time Warner, which later became known as AOL Time Warner, and Bertelsmann AG formed a partnership. The two multi-media giants combined forces to form the biggest book club marketer in America. The merger practically doubled the size of the business, captured about 90 percent of the book market overnight, and changed its name to Bookspan, which soon became a common household name, attracting 10 million members in each of its approximate 50 book clubs.

"Our business now represents about 6 or 7 percent of the book market, nearly $1 billion in sales," Gatti said. Bookspan offers consumers a choice of general, specialty or professional book clubs. The general clubs offer mainly popular fiction and non-fiction books at discount prices; the specialty clubs, like Mystery Guild, target specific consumer markets; and the professional clubs focus on computer sciences, architecture and more.

The businesses newest channel is the Internet, encompassing approximately 10-20 percent of Bookspan's sales.

Shipping 50 million packages each year, with each package averaging 2.2 books, Bookspan delivers 110 million books per year to its customers from a warehouse headquartered in Pennsylvania.

"We're a big business, we're very prominent in the book world and in fact, we're growing. We've tried to respond to the changing nature of the marketplace," Gatti, who's also the chamber's director, said. "Some of you as business owners and residents are wondering what the heck we're doing down on the southern end of Franklin Avenue."

Back in 1987, Gatti said he was part of a group of people who wondered whether the company should move from Long Island. "It was a very difficult decision to make," he said, "because we had such great success here, a great history here. As it turned out, we decided to stay."

The company currently works out of five locations, Franklin Avenue in Garden City, another location at Roosevelt Field and three in Manhattan. In the next several months, Gatti said the company intends to bring more positions to its Franklin Avenue location.

By spring, Bookspan will have two main locations, one in Garden City and the other in the Time Life building near Radio City Music Hall. Approximately 200-400 employees are moving from the Manhattan sites to the Franklin Avenue location, combining forces with the already 600 employees currently working there. Most of them will be housed in the building now under construction.

"The beauty of the village's Central Business District is surpassed by the vitality and variety of retail, personal service businesses and restaurants which do business here. Bookspan and its predecessor, Doubleday & Co., have long been a vital part of our business community," Mayor Bob Lewis said. "We are delighted with the improvements that they are making to their facilities on Franklin Avenue and we look forward to welcoming their new employees to our village."

The vast acreage will have parking spaces for more than 1,000 cars, with a pedestrian bridge linking the two buildings, which provide approximately 250,000 square feet for Bookspan operations. The "resurrected" building, which has been under heavy construction for months, is 135 to 140,000 square feet.

"This building was a model of the 1910 Hampton Court, a mansion in England. Garden City was very focused on the fact that Doubleday originally wanted to use the space as a printing plant among the lawns and boulevards of the first planned town in America. That led to the new creation of what was the new Hampton Court, the structure you see now ... We hope to re-create some of that in our architectural planning and plantings you'll see in the spring," he said.

While preserving the architectural integrity of the building, Gatti said, "We [Bookspan] will continue on as the village's southern anchor. We are the largest employer in the village and plan to remain in Garden City during the years ahead."

Althea Robinson, the chamber's executive director, said Doubleday has always been a special place for her, especially as a child. Brought up right across the tracks from Doubleday, Robinson said she and her cousin were only allowed to cross St. James Street as 8-year-olds.

"We weren't allowed to roam Garden City but we were allowed to walk to Doubleday. There was a back entrance that we used, which allowed us to walk into these magnificent gardens. I don't know if Bill even knows this but Doubleday used to have a swimming pool for the use of its employees. How many firms have that? Anyway, I do remember with fondness the many walks we used to take through the Doubleday property at that time," Robinson recalled.

While explaining the company's lineage, Gatti offered condolences, noting Bookspan was also affected by the Sept. 11 tragedy. "We lost some of our immediate family members. We have a matching fund through Bertelsmann, one of our parents, and we hope to contribute back into the Garden City community."

Ross Mongiardo, a chamber member who works on Franklin Avenue as a certified financial planner, said Bookspan has been and will be a positive aspect of the Garden City community.