Feature: Booksellers Navigate Rising Rents, Part 2

Over the past few months, Shelf Awareness has reached out to booksellers across the country to hear their stories about rising rents, lease negotiations and landlords, and to ask what advice they'd share with other indies in similar situations. The series, which began yesterday with a look at the Bay Area's Books Inc., will continue throughout the week.

During a public meeting held around Labor Day 2017, Nina Barrett, owner of Bookends & Beginnings in Evanston, Ill., learned of a proposed plan to build a 37-story tower on the same block where her store is located. Her landlord--the trust that owns her building--had nothing to do with the proposal; one of the things she learned from the meeting was that the land underneath her building is on a 99-year lease, due to run out in just a few years.

"We had no idea that our lease wasn't secure," said Barrett. "And I can't speak for our landlord but I didn't get the feeling they liked this idea."

She explained that although the developers behind the proposal did not seem to have the support of either her landlord or the landowner at that time, they did have the backing of the city government. City officials told Barrett that if she needed to move, they could try to help finance that, but there wasn't a specific plan, and the developer never said anything about buying her out or assisting with any possible move. Further complicating matters was the fact that Barrett's space, which had once been the building's garage and opened onto an alley, had a significantly below-market rent. The store's location in the alley was also a major part of its identity, branding and charm.

"Who we were in opposition to at this point was this developer and basically the city," recalled Barrett. "We and our customers fought this proposal from the very beginning, but we also looked at other spaces."

Despite her and her customers' efforts to stop the proposal, Barrett did start looking for a new location in Evanston in case it became necessary. She reported that the rents she saw on her search were roughly three times what she was currently paying, for less than half the space. Barrett acknowledged that a new space could have some benefits, including increased foot traffic, visibility and the potential for adding a cafe or food service component; nevertheless the search was "terrifying."

In the meantime, Barrett and her customers continued to fight the proposal. Barrett circulated a petition that garnered some 3,000 signatures, and during an economic development committee meeting around 25 customers showed up and "got up one after another and talked about how much they loved these businesses." Not long after that, the city ended the proposal. Remarked Barrett: "It was definitely our customers and citizens who saved us."

Even though the proposal was defeated, there is still a degree of uncertainty facing Barrett's store. The land-lease will be up in about two years, with Barrett reporting that the landlord is "working on it" and she is "hoping for good news." When asked if she was developing a contingency plan should her landlord prove unable to renew the land lease, Barrett said she hasn't yet, but if things don't look promising about a year out, she'll start then.

"The single most scary issue for me is if my rent increases substantially," Barrett said. She recalled that although there were times when the move seemed survivable, it never seemed like it would help the store thrive. "My immediate thought was that it seems like there's something wrong, if we're suddenly working 10 times as hard to make this much more money, and it's all going into a landlord's pockets." --Alex Mutter

Powered by: Xtenit