The Los Angeles Times updates the situation on the Brentwood location of Dutton’s, threatened with closing when the owner decided to build 60 luxury condos on San Vicente Boulevard, where the bookstore is housed. Now, as Martha Groves reports, billionaire Charles T. Munger has changed his mind, opting for a two-story retail complex that would retain Dutton’s Brentwood Books in a new and improved space.
“I was wrong,” Munger said of his plans, made public in January, to build high-end residential units as part of a mixed-use development at the property just east of Bundy Drive. The idea sparked an uprising among residents and longtime fans of Dutton’s, who feared the store’s demise, and the neighborhood’s staunch opposition to the project and concern for Dutton’s prompted his change of heart. “Bookstores are fragile,” he said. “Jostle them slightly and they never reopen. The best thing is to make sure it never closes.”
The news is music to owner Doug Dutton‘s ears. He called the new scheme a “blow for literature” that was “wonderful for the store” and “wonderful for the neighborhood.”