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Barnes & Noble space is up for grabs
Maybe we should have seen this coming, but I didn’t want to face it: Newmark has a listing for the Barnes & Noble space nearly 40,000 square feet at 270 Greenwich, aka 101 Warren.
Bummer.
The listing calls it a “unique big box opportunity in the heart of TriBeCa,” which is certainly is. The chain has six stores left in the city; the Upper East Side location closed in summer 2020.
I’ve come to think of Barnes & Noble as mom-and-pop, now that Amazon has taken over the world. But it wasn’t so long ago that B&N was the bad guy, killing the independent bookstore in “You’ve Got Mail” style. At least we still have one treasure: The Mysterious Bookshop.
Of course the listing does not come with a closing date, and I doubt I will get one out of Barnes & Noble corporate, but I will try. The store opened there in 2007, and since then there have been other rumors of closures, though perhaps not as solid as this one.
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This is so upsetting. We can’t let it close.
very sad to hear this. This neighborhood use to be such a great neighborhood for raising kids. I took my two there all the time. Raised them down here. It doesn’t feel the same anymore.
There is no such thing as a neighborhood anymore. It’s only about greedy developers who want to build what this city doesn’t need any more of – residential monstrosities. These greedy cretins probably don’t even live in any part of the city and came from other countries where they couldn’t destroy their own neighborhoods. Where is the city council and other do nothing political hacks protesting this? Leave B&N alone!
Wow, closet racist.
It is not the immigrants but rather capitalism on steroids originating from a few blocks down.
I’m not sure that there’s anything to protest… Barnes & Noble is a for-profit company. If they have decided not to renew their lease, there is little anyone can do about it.
I love the store – it’s my go-to for birthday presents as well as books – and always appreciated a warm, friendly place to take my children on a cold day when they were small. I also appreciate that being a gathering place for people with small children to pass a few hours doesn’t necessarily translate into profits.
Oh no! I just got fabulous books there for my son in law who loves wine ( Corks for Dorks) and some classic children’s books for a baby shower both of which I wouldn’t have found without the help of their super staff. Are we to lose every local amenity we have down here? Must we buy everything on line? I refuse!!
Oh no I’ve been dreading this day… what is happening to this neighborhood.
This sucks. Even when I lived in Hell’s Kitchen, I used to take a walk down to this B&N. No matter who owns a bookstore, any that disappear is a lost.
Yes, there certainly are greedy developers but I don’t think we can blame them when bookstores disappear.
Books are an expensive item. By cost alone, they can be considered a luxury although real readers consider them as necessary as food and rent. And paperback editions are no more expensive than many movie tickets.
Books have survived motion pictures, radio, television, computers. Real readers will always find them. And thoughtful gift givers will always give them to a favorite child for birthdays and holidays. It’s up to us to make them a traditional gift in our lives and to make them important in our lives. Buy books and support libraries. Our culture will be poorer without them.
Betty Heller
(retired book editor)
McNally Jackson is at the Seaport.
This has been a self-fulfilled prophecy for a long time now. Barnes & Noble has been making their stores much less interesting and welcoming for years, so, to no one’s surprise, people stopped coming.
As much as I mourn this loss, it’s a wonder it survived this long.
I love McNally Jackson. Be ideal if we had one immediately in neighborhood.
I’ll second or third the shout out for McNally Jackson.
McNally is not as nice as BNTribeca
Man, that’s too bad. Where are we going to go for our last-minute birthday gifts? This was also a great rainy day after school hangout spot. What a loss.
What should go in there? If it has to be a big box, how about a craft store like Michael’s, or a mini-Loew’s or Home Depot? Kids clothing maybe? Please no more gyms, banks, Duane Reades or membership clubs.
I know. So very sad. And, yes to no more of what you mentioned.
Agreed on all.
A massive amount of floor space devoted to CDs and DVDs in the year 2021 is a sure sign of self-inflicted corporate death. With most people streaming music and movies nowadays, there was predictably zero foot traffic in that section at all times. I used to use it as a quiet place to read by the windows, or let my kids run around in knowing there would be no one there for them to disturb, and all the time wondering how much longer the store could stay in business paying for square footage not generating income. In a neighborhood full of kids, the empty CD/DVD section is twice the size of the toy department.
I certainly don’t blame the local store management – wonderful, selfless, hard-working people, to a fault. But corporate has been on a Sears-like trajectory, in this and so many other locations, for at least a decade.
This is sad news to hear. I’ve worked in Lower Manhattan most of my adult life (I live in Brooklyn). There were so many great bookstores out here, and, now, Barnes and Noble is going to close! In the early 1990’s, there was Waldenbooks. In the late 1990’s-2000, there was Border’s Books. The first one near the original World Trade Center was destroyed on September 11, 2001. A few years later, another Border’s Books popped up on Broadway. Sadly, that, too, went out of business. Thank goodness, I kept the free bookmarks I obtained with my purchases from Border’s Books! I still have the membership card as a memento.
Barnes and Noble (Tribeca) is the last great bookstore left in Lower Manhattan. I happily renewed my membership when I returned to work following last year’s Covid lockdown. Now, this location is closing. Just sad.
The dedicated sales staff are friendly and helpful – including those at the Starbucks counter, where I’ve purchased Margherita flatbread pizzas.
One exception: If Amazon (books, mostly) were to replace B&N, I will be cool with that! :)