In the past two years, two of the Boston area’s iconic bookstores have changed hands, Harvard Book Store in Cambridge in fall 2008 and Wellesley Booksmith (soon to be renamed Wellesley Books) just two months ago. Yesterday, New England Mobile Book Fair in Newton Highlands became the third to go on the shopping block, and will be represented by Paul Siegenthaler, of Ridge Hill Partners Inc., who brokered the two earlier deals.
The Strymish family, which owns the 53-year-old bookstore/wholesaler, one of the last remaining stores to stock its inventory by publisher, is putting the Book Fair name and inventory up for sale. “The main thing we want to do is preserve the legacy of the family and Lou Strymish [who founded the store], which is why we’re focusing on the bookstore,” said COO and general counsel Steve Gans, who is also a part owner in the store. The Strymishes will continue to operate Jessica’s Biscuit, their e-commerce cookbook site (ecookbooks.com), and the 30,000 sq. ft. warehouse, which serves as its distribution center. The family will lease the 30,000 sq. ft. bookstore and 104-space parking lot to the new owner.
The reasons for the sale are threefold, said Gans: philosophical differences on the day-to-day strategy, long-term succession issues, and recent health concerns of one partner. “All in all we have decided to try this,” Gans said. “I want to make clear that we’re doing this now rather than later so there won’t be any negative connotations if we did it in January that we didn’t have a good holiday season.”
While New England Mobile is just at the beginning of the process, Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C., has begun to narrow the field of potential bookstore buyers. Several have contacted other booksellers as they weigh the feasibility of buying a store in the aftermath of the Great Recession, even as a number of stores like Harvard, which got its start during the Depression, continue to thrive.
