Barnes & Noble, the bookseller, announced Monday that it would close its most prominent location at One Lincoln Square, which is also known as 1972 Broadway, and an article today at therealdeal.com said that its four-story space in the base of the building, which is between Broadway and Columbus Avenue at 66th Street, will be leased to Century 21, a clothing store.
The departure of Barnes & Noble from the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts neighborhood is almost as severe a blow as the closing of the large Tower Records store across Broadway several years ago.
Tower Records was almost as important a destination in the city as Lincoln Center. While Barnes & Noble has other stores in New York at Broadway and 82nd Street, Fifth Avenue and 18th Street and 86th Street between Lexington and Third avenues, this location meshed nicely with the high-brow appeal of the performing arts center
Barnes & Noble is a classy "high-brown" store. Century 21 is a popular "bargain basement" "low-brow" store.
In an article in yesterday's edition of The New York Times, Julie Bosman wrote that Barnes & Noble indicated it will close the store at the end of January and "has been a neighborhood landmark since it opened nearly 15 years ago."
A spokesperson for the company told The Times that "the current lease is at the end of its term, and the increased rent that would be required to stay in the location makes it economically impossible for us to extend the lease."
The store has a national chain of more than 700 stores but "early this month," the article continued, "Barnes & Noble put itself up for sale and is now in the midst of a battle for control of the company with Ronald W. Burkle, the billionaire investor."
"For devoted theatergoers, it was a reliable site for readings and events that focused on the performing arts," the article said. While not the chain's official flagship store, it was very popular and had a cafe and very large magazine section with long reading benches.
The article noted that Barnes & Noble has closed two other large stores, one on Astor Place and one in Chelsea, in the last three years.
An article at observer.com today by Nate Freeman said that a press release from Cushman & Wakefield said that Century 21 is expected to open its new store in the fall of 2011. It will be the first branch built in Manhattan since the flagship opened at 22 Cortlandt Street in 2000.
The article said that "Gene Spiegelman, who brokered the deal for Cushman and Wakefield, was not one to down play the massive importance of the news. 'Century 21 presented the Landlord with the unique opportunity to replace one New York icon with another New York icon,' he said in the release."
The departure of Barnes & Noble from the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts neighborhood is almost as severe a blow as the closing of the large Tower Records store across Broadway several years ago.
Tower Records was almost as important a destination in the city as Lincoln Center. While Barnes & Noble has other stores in New York at Broadway and 82nd Street, Fifth Avenue and 18th Street and 86th Street between Lexington and Third avenues, this location meshed nicely with the high-brow appeal of the performing arts center
Barnes & Noble is a classy "high-brown" store. Century 21 is a popular "bargain basement" "low-brow" store.
In an article in yesterday's edition of The New York Times, Julie Bosman wrote that Barnes & Noble indicated it will close the store at the end of January and "has been a neighborhood landmark since it opened nearly 15 years ago."
A spokesperson for the company told The Times that "the current lease is at the end of its term, and the increased rent that would be required to stay in the location makes it economically impossible for us to extend the lease."
The store has a national chain of more than 700 stores but "early this month," the article continued, "Barnes & Noble put itself up for sale and is now in the midst of a battle for control of the company with Ronald W. Burkle, the billionaire investor."
"For devoted theatergoers, it was a reliable site for readings and events that focused on the performing arts," the article said. While not the chain's official flagship store, it was very popular and had a cafe and very large magazine section with long reading benches.
The article noted that Barnes & Noble has closed two other large stores, one on Astor Place and one in Chelsea, in the last three years.
An article at observer.com today by Nate Freeman said that a press release from Cushman & Wakefield said that Century 21 is expected to open its new store in the fall of 2011. It will be the first branch built in Manhattan since the flagship opened at 22 Cortlandt Street in 2000.
The article said that "Gene Spiegelman, who brokered the deal for Cushman and Wakefield, was not one to down play the massive importance of the news. 'Century 21 presented the Landlord with the unique opportunity to replace one New York icon with another New York icon,' he said in the release."
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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