Good news about bookstores on the Upper West Side in New York City: according to the New York Times, the Bank Street Bookstore, which was in danger of closing when its lease runs out in February, has found a new location five blocks from its current site, and Book Culture is opening a third store, at 82nd and Columbus, in the old location of Endicott Booksellers, which closed in 1995.
The Bank Street Bookstore's new location, at 107th Street, is "about one-third smaller, with 2,200 square feet of retail space, but the rent is half of what the bookstore has been paying," the Times said.
"I can't tell you how many people have said to me: 'You can't close this store. My kids have grown up in this bookstore,' " manager Andy Laties told the paper.
Book Culture, which has two stores near Columbia University in Morningside Heights, will open the third store in November.
Chris Doeblin, president of Book Culture, told the Times that he emptied his retirement savings to help pay for the new store's lease, which costs $35,000 a month. "The rents are definitely high in Manhattan, but where am I going to find a more condensed, more literary group of book lovers in the world?" he said.