The iconoclastic and politically active Midnight Special Bookstore in Santa Monica, Calif., is searching for a new location after being given notice by its landlord. The store's highly visible and heavily trafficked 5,000-sq.-ft. location on the Third Street Promenade is one of the most expensive real estate spots in the Los Angeles area. Also along the promenade are a 42,000-sq.-ft. B&N at one end and a 30,000-sq.-ft. Borders at the other.
Owner Margie Ghiz told PW that the store's landlord, Walter Marks, had been a strong supporter of the store and had been subsidizing the rent for the past 12 years, allowing the store to pay a percentage of sales as rent rather than the high market rates. She emphasized that the store is not being forced out; it simply can't pay the market rent.
Ghiz credits Marks with being a catalyst for the store's success, saying "I couldn't have done it without him. He just couldn't afford the subsidy anymore." She added that Marks is helping the store find a new home. "He's looking around, talking to other landlords and working on a deal for us. People talk about the ideal of capitalism, but this guy lives it."
In one example of the unusual relationship between landlord and tenant, one Christmas the store did very well, and Marks told Ghiz to take the money she would have normally paid in rent and give it as a bonus to the staff. In return, Marks and his family are given free books, though, says Ghiz, "he does everything he can to pay for them, including sending in his children to buy the books, and even once, considering wearing a disguise."
Midnight Special is planning to relocate sometime next spring. Ghiz believes that she has been "privileged" thus far and says that the move will be difficult. Though she would like to move into a larger space, she says that the current high rents means that she will likely have to pay more money for less space at a location that will have fewer customers.
She is girding herself for the challenge: "L.A. is a very real estate—tight town," she said. "We have to be somewhere we have visibility, because we want ideas out there. That's part of the store. I've got to have a place where I can do that. It's not so simple."
