Bookland, a regional chain with 12 stores in Maine and New Hampshire, will open its 13th store late this year in downtown Portland. According to general manager Stuart Gerson, "The new store will be at least 24,000 square feet, but it is still being designed. The construction schedule is not yet set." Bookland also announced that it will be relocating its offices near the store.
The new Bookland store, which will be in an industrial warehouse in a part of Portland that is undergoing gentrification, qualified for a tax break of $650,000 over the next 20 years under the city's tax increment financing plan.
Gerson noted, "It's an area of Portland that's part of a development plan, and the city felt that opening [a] Bookland would be a jump start to redevelopment. In making that decision, they realized it would be a high risk for us."
