UPDATE: As I predicted, bookstore won’t shut down; 2-year deal is made. Go to welcome2thebronx.com for more info.
Headline a bit of a prediction, but quite likely nonetheless. Barnes & Noble in Co-op City was headed for closure because of a rent rivalry with Bay Plaza landlord Prestige Properties and Development. But last night, Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. announced a noon press conference today with both bookstore and landlord big-shots present in Bay Plaza at his sides. Bound to be good news, right? We shall see in a couple of hours.
Incidentally, back in 1999, as editor of the Norwood News, I wrote about then-Assemblyman Stephen Kaufman, who successfully hectored Barnes & Noble:
He doesn’t represent any of the neighborhoods we serve, but east Bronx Assemblyman Stephen Kaufman deserves credit for shepherding a Barnes & Noble bookstore to the borough. Like many Bronxites, he couldn’t fathom how a borough of 1.2 million people had only two small general-interest bookstores. Like few others, however, he did something about it. He bugged, bothered, cajoled and convinced Barnes & Noble officials, making a strong case that a Bronx branch would succeed “beyond their wildest dreams.”
And here’s my story about the opening 15 years ago.
“…[B]eginning this month, tens of thousands of titles are being pumped into the borough’s literary circulatory system, thanks to a new Barnes & Noble superstore that debuted on Dec. 1 in Bay Plaza.”
Bronx Matters 
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