It’s been a long haul for 37-year-old St. Mark’s Bookshop, which has been trying to reduce its rent or find an alternative space for nearly three years. But the end is finally in sight. According to a story in The New York Times, the beloved bookshop signed a lease for a new space at 136 East Third Street near Avenue A.
The store plans to move as soon as possible, co-owner Bob Contant told PW. Unfortunately, Contant and his partner, Terry McCoy, just got the keys to the new space, even though the lease began May 1, which will make it hard for them to be out of their current location, which is owned by Cooper Union, by the end of this month. They are working on getting an extension to stay through June.
Since late last year, Contant and McCoy have been trying to raise money to fund the move to smaller digs, which will cut the size of the store in half to 1,300 sq. ft. They are also considering a hybrid model that will allow store events to be nonprofit. An auction last December did not reach its goals, but the bookshop’s Indiegogo campaign, which ends on Friday May 16 has earned over $42,000.
While the prospects look good for St. Mark’s, another New York City institution, Rizzoli Bookstore, which closed last month, will soon be completely gone. The Real Deal reported that plans to demolish the building that housed the bookstore and an adjacent building to make way for high-rise condos were filed and approved earlier this week.
