Barnes & Noble Will Not Shut Down Its Only Branch in The Bronx

By Maryann Yin 

barnes_and_noble_logoThe Barnes & Noble at Bay Plaza will not close. This branch, opened in 1999, is the first and only bookstore within the Bronx in New York City.

The Observer reports that executives at Barnes & Noble and Prestige Properties & Development (the landlord for this store) signed a two-year lease extension agreement which dictates that the price of rent will not be raised. According to David Deason, the vice president of real estate, the initial decision to shut down operations at this store was made because of concerns about a rent increase. Ruben Diaz Jr., the Bronx Borough President, helped to oversee the negotiations.

Here’s more from The New York Times: “Stephen B. Kaufman, who was a state assemblyman from the Bronx in the 1990s, said he led the three-year community effort to bring Barnes & Noble to the borough after he tired of traveling to Manhattan or Westchester County for his books. Barnes & Noble mostly ignored the entreaties, he recalled, until he and other organizers took their campaign public with petitions that garnered thousands of signatures and contentious news conferences in which they called the chain ‘Barnes & Ignoble.'” What are your predictions about the future of brick-and-mortar bookstores? (via Bustle)

Editor’s Note: This story was updated as the story evolved.