The Barnes & Noble store on 12th Street shuttered Jan. 2, which closes the last store of the book chain inside the city. (Courtesy photos)
The hustle and bustle of the Barnes & Noble downtown D.C. location seemed as if it was unending. From avid readers who used its store shelves as a marketplace for finding new books, to college students who made its café the perfect study hub, many took advantage of its location, hours, and accessibility.
However, the store closed the doors of its 2-story location on Jan. 2, forcing D.C. residents to not only lose the city’s only national book chain, but also a much-needed retail-community space.
While some reports suggest plans to close the store came on the heels of an economic downturn which projected the closure of 10 stores throughout 2016, Barnes & Noble Vice President of Development David Deason told the Washington Business Journal that the location simply lost its lease. “Despite our best efforts to come to an agreement with the property owner to extend the lease, they have decided to move forward with another tenant and the store will close at the end of December,” Deason said. “The Washington, D.C. community is extremely important to us.”
“The quality of life of District residents is being dictated by developers, who could care less about the literacy of our kids,” Carlos Solinas, a Ward 1 resident and literacy campaign organizer, told the AFRO. “What does it say about a major metropolitan city and the seat of the U.S. government that there is not a single major book retailer inside the city?”
Solinas points to the closure of independent bookstores like Sisterspace and Books and Karibu, which lost leases through redevelopment and eventually went out of business, as an early sign of things to come. Few people, he said, believed that same type of closure could take place with a book chain. However, 2011 brought the closure of Barnes & Noble stores in Georgetown and the Borders stores; and in 2013 the closure of the Union Station location – replaced with an H&M clothing store. The Booksa-Million store in DuPont Circle also closed in 2015.
“Lots of people are moving to digital books, but that is what makes stores like Barnes & Noble that much more functional,” Howard University student Amanda Tyson, who uses the university-operated B&N location connected to the campus, told the AFRO. “I’m sorry to see the closure of the store just because it maintained hours as late as 11 p.m. and was convenient to everything downtown.”
With the closure of the store, the building’s 32,000-square-foot off space, owned by MetLife and Norges Bank Investment Management, has become vacant.
Community activist Royce Neville, said the absence of a book chain in the city speaks volumes to residents about the priorities of developers who take possession of property. “The fact that a major retailer was placed on a month-tomonth lease that jeopardized the access residents had to a retail space where learning took place, demonstrates the value these outsiders place on our activities,” Neville said. “We don’t need another luxury apartment building, restaurant, or clothing store. At some point there has to be an investment in something more than turning a profit.”
