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Barnes & Noble Tribeca will close next month
Barnes & Noble, the bookseller on Warren above Whole Foods, will close on Jan. 14. And while it is perhaps no huge surprise given the retail landscape, it is still a blow. (Though it may be more about real estate than retail — see below. Or maybe it’s just us.) Thanks to P. for the heads up.
UPDATE from the @bntribeca on Instagram: “It is with great sadness that we announce the closure of this bookstore, as the landlord has chosen to redevelop.” Gosh, to what?? That must be 80,000+ square feet, with the Bed Bath & Beyond space…
The Instagram post included this quote: “I Wish There Was A Way To Know You Were In The Good Old Days, Before You’ve Actually Left Them” – Andy Bernard, The Office, and note: SHOUT OUT TO EVERYONE who showed so much love throughout the years ❤️ To our booksellers we thank you sooo much. Our managers thank you for always being there when needed the most & helping out through stressful days & forever having our backs. To our customers, words can’t describe how grateful we are for you throughout these years — especially our littlest ones 👶🏼👧! Tribeca was our home for years & we truly thank you! Until Next Time 🥹❤️ (Let me get my tissues ready 🤧)
That space, nearly 40,000 square feet at 270 Greenwich, aka 101 Warren, has been in commercial real estate listings since 2021. The store opened there in 2007, and since then there have been other rumors of closures along the way. The company has 600 stores nationwide, with six in the city, and though they have closed 100 stores in the past 15 years, Reader’s Digest reported that they are poised to open 30 new ones in 2023. And by many accounts, the chain is healthy. The Times had a story a year ago noting that sales are up from pre-pandemic levels.
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 independent treasure: The Mysterious Bookshop.
From P. earlier today: “Everything in the store was marked down significantly, which at first I just thought was year-end. Then I noticed the back where the albums were located is totally cleared and when checking out I noticed they were cleaning off the shelves behind the register.”
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No!!!!!! There is nothing to do in the area at lunch
This was my go to spot. This is just awful.
I agree. I live in the area and it was always a beautiful haven of respite. Terribly sad to see it gone
There was a time when Barnes & Noble was the bad guy, and now it is going out of business in Tribeca what a drag
At this rate, NYC will be nothing but over sized, horrible ideas of architecture residential buildings. I miss the NYC of even 20 years ago (before 9/11).Where are the local politicians fighting for the businesses? I guess they only come out when it’s time to keep their jobs.
How long before a cannabis shop goes into the space, right next to a .99 cents pizza at former bed bath and beyond space. it’s what this city is turning into. keep voting progressive though
Really? You’re playing the vote card? Ok, Just ignore high rents, Customer online shopping habits, Not enough local shoppers, much much less foot traffic (because not enough companies are enforcing coming back to the office full time), you know the wfh idea?!? You think those issues have anything to do with this? You think a conservative city government can convince ppl to not shop from Amazon or landlords to lower their rents?
Another indication of dying city with untenable commercial rents.
You’re right, keep voting in big govt politicians and this urban decay will continue.
Wow. What a shame. Another bookstore gone. I was there last Friday & noticed the music section practically gutted with board games, etc and no real “new” music. Totally agree with Sherri here, soon all we’ll have here are ugly residential buildings left. No one cares anymore about anything, least of all books. What a sad end.
Yet pot shops are opening up daily, sometimes 2 or 3 on every block stinking up the city. What angers me is that there are very few that are actually legal, yet landlords are allowing stores to come in that aren’t legally licensed.
Our local government has done nothing to support local brick and mortar retail businesses. They could have adjusted sales taxes and occupation tax. Now we will be left with a ghost town of vacant storefronts and the expensive rentals will be worthless. In the meantime Adam’s brings immigrants to live here. What a bunch of thugs running the show
Local government also allows and encourages carts and street vendors of all types. They don’t invest in the community, they don’t have a permanent presence, and you wanna tell me how many of their employees have health insurance? Compare the regulatory enforcement that this B&N had to deal with against the regulations imposed on people selling fruit from a cart on the subway.
You don’t shop online? Of course you do
All of you complaining about the city government; did you not read the piece? It seems this is a landlord-driven decision, as they want to redevelop. Or I guess you only believe the private sector can do what they want when it fits your preconceived narratives. (And, it should be noted, I absolutely loathe Eric Adams, and left him completely off my ballot.)
It’s a shame to lose the convenience of B&N, beyond just books. Luckily McNally is a short walk away, and an independent, city-based, and locally-owned store. You usually don’t get the big box discounts, so you may have to pay a little more. But for big new releases, they often have signed first editions if you go early on.
First blame the landlord, then Amazon, same songs every time.
What’s happening is a lot scarier and people are either in denial or just oblivious. A list of retail businesses that no longer exist would probably wake people up. But again for the generation born after the digital revolution, that’s all they know. We are living in science fiction, the future is now.
and by the way the founder/owner of McNally is Canadian, that says a lot.
Gym. Equinox gym.
Even though not a surprise, it’s still sad and a loss for the neighborhood and the employees..
Today, as I was shopping for food molds, I repeatedly thought to myself, “We could really use a food equipment store..” Especially as we’ve lost the BB+B.. I’m thinking a Sur La Table (recognizing we recently lost the Crate and Barrel) .. I was thinking in the old King’s Pharmacy space before reading this news..
There simply isn’t enough foot traffic to sustain big businesses like Barnes & Noble or Bed, Bath & Beyond. And even smaller shops, too. Tribeca is a low-density area.
Highly recommend McNally Jackson.
When I see all the vacant stores in New York City it really blows my mind. In London-a city I would never trade anyplace for, particularly New York, you normally don’t see book stores closing as we have so many. Book stores are really appreciated. I hope the toxicity of New York never spreads to the UK.
I heard a rumor that Flashdancers Downtown (fka Dolls) was looking at the space to expand. Probably not a terrible idea, it’s a lot of quality space.
That seems unlikely since he owns his building and others on the block…
Interesting. BN had a 20 year lease with the building signed in 2007. So there was either a proviso in the contract stipulating the possibility of an early closure, or this was via mutual agreement.
The closing of Barnes and Noble is disappointing, and a loss for the community, because it is difficult to see where they could reopen elsewhere in Tribeca with a comparable footprint given “market rents.” In Bergen County on Route 17 a large B&N that had operated for 28 years closed in early 2023, and then reopened in a new location nearby on Black Friday with a refreshed layout, cafe, and enhanced lighting and presentation. It can be done when there is a will and support:
Regarding bookstores: scroll about halfway down in this Washington Post piece from last week and you’ll see interesting data on where bookstores are concentrated. You’ll also see interesting data on one of the underlying woes facing booksellers: people are reading less and less.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/12/22/christmas-spending-spree-bookstores/
I can’t believe it. Terrible loss for our neighborhood. It was our place to go during winter time, raining days or Sunday afternoons. The staff was always so great!
Noticed this on Saturday and was devastated; spoke with some staff, they said B&N had been looking to relocate elsewhere in the area for a while but the landlord’s decision was sudden and unexpected so there aren’t any imminent plans to reopen elsewhere downtown. B&N is trying to work out relocating current Tribeca staff to other stores in the city. Really sad news, one of my favorite parts of the neighborhood and especially sad that it was driven by the landlord and not the economics of the store itself—though it gives me hope they’ll eventually reopen, especially since it’s happening at a time where B&N seems to be on the rebound.
The B&N in Brooklyn Heights moved just around the corner to the old Barney’s space on Atlantic in Cobble Hill.
I wonder if B&N could have some success in one of the old fancy Duane Reades. The one on Broadway used to be a Borders, and the one at 40 Wall is also closed now.
More than twenty years ago people declared ‘ print is dead’, then I went to other countries and saw how their bookstores were thriving! There is almost no reading culture in NYC anymore. Very few independent bookstores left. Bookstores have to supplement their income by selling coffee and trinkets.
Of course you can buy a book — just about any book — on line. But what you can’t do, really, is BROUSE. I would imagine a large portion of of book store sales are the result of browsing. What a shame that is no longer possible in our so-called neighborhood.
I suppose the landlords of the building want to convert the space into “luxury lofts” (that horrible term) so more of the 1% can move in to fashionable, supermarket-less Tribeca.
To find streets lined with lively, small mom-and-pop stores lining the streets you have to go to Crown Heights other lucky neighborhoods outside of Manhattan. What a shame.
How about the Rite Aid space in Brookfield Mall?
Damn.
Our fav destination.
What city specifically? No mention of.