Barnes & Noble Calls Lincoln Square Rents "Impossible"

The Lincoln Center Barnes and Noble in 2007 (Gothamist/Jen Chung)

Yesterday, Barnes and Noble announced that it will be closing its Lincoln Center location in January. Company spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating said it was "economically impossible" to keep the location open after their lease ends this year because of rent hikes, but they'll "reassign as many booksellers as possible to our remaining New York City and neighboring stores."

Keating also said the company plans on looking for a less expensive replacement space in the neighborhood for the five-floor, 60,000-square-foot store at Broadway and 66th Street, which opened in October 1995 (there is a smaller location at West 82nd Street and Broadway). The company would not reveal the amount of the rent hike, but insiders tell the Daily News that landlord Lincoln Triangle Partners can command $250 to $300 a square foot for the prime spot: "There isn't a bookstore in the world that can justify that price," said Faith Hope Consolo, a retail real estate expert for Prudential Douglas Elliman. She suspects the Barnes and Noble will become a clothing store: "That neighborhood has turned into a fashion corridor."

The Lincoln Center BID's President Monica Blum tells us, "It is very sad. Barnes and Noble has been a very important part of this community for a long time. We will miss their active involvement in our efforts and hope that whatever retail comes here will be as community minded as Barnes and Noble has been. Lincoln Square is a very vibrant, strong neighborhood and we feel confident that the space won’t remain vacant for too long."

Other reactions to the closing have been mostly elegiac so far for the physical store—as well as being another reminder of the slow death of the bookselling industry—Crain's NY seemed much less heartbroken, calling it "an epic case of what goes around comes around."

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By Ben Yakas in News on August 31, 2010 11:47 AM

Comments [rss]

YAMYAM

sign of the times maybe? there used to be a TOWER RECORDS across the street from this Barnes & Noble. I hate to say it but both these stores were casualties of either the iPod (TOWER RECORDS) or the iPad (Barnes & Noble). And interestingly enough, there's even an Apple Store store in the neighborhood.

EllenR2

Raising rents in this economy? That's crazy. Broadway has lots of empty store fronts. I hope the landlord gets burned and the lot stays unleased until the landlord learns some sense.

rammyh

Forgive, I may very well be stupid, but am I doing the math correctly?

60,000 sf at $300 a sf = $18 million. Is that a month?

Can't be, right? No retail is paying $18 million a month?

ed_Extinct

It's not the rent, it's the kindle and ipad. think of all the trees and less carbon footprint of shipping books there will be in the future. hmmm...

Turd McDildough

Right, because they don't destroy mountains or anything like that when strip mining for all the stuff that powers your iPad.

But I agree, trees are rad.

FunChop

I know that the B&N that used to be on 6th & 23rd closed because the rent increased somewhere around 2500%.

Perhaps the moral of the story is that huge bookstores belong in the burbs.

ProfessorVonNostren

The Astor Place B&N was pushed out by high rent, then replaced with a David Barton gym, essentially taking a business that served many and exchanging it for one that serves relatively few. I imagine the same thing will happen at LC - what a great way to quash a neighborhood.

Jenniferlayne

Nice store - I always enjoy hanging out there !

Chillinoncentral

ebooks, ebooks, ebooks... who buy hardcovers anymore? In the past, there weren't many ebooks available, but now the supply seems unlimited... and, the readers used for them used to cost an arm and a leg, but now only run about $100. Plus, the screens (which used to be dark grey) are so vastly improved. I can now download any book (even hard to find ones) to my laptop or even my cellphone! I now no longer to to bookstores (just like I no longer go to record shops). Changes are a-happening very quicly =]