The storied Court Street Barnes and Noble is closing its doors at the end of the year, and turning the page on a new chapter on Atlantic Avenue, in a space formerly occupied by luxury department store Barneys.
“It has been a happy 20 years of bookselling at Court Street,” said James Daunt, Barnes and Noble’s chief executive officer, in a statement. “We are very pleased to be moving such a short distance, and to inherit the beautiful space created by Barneys.”
The nationwide bookseller’s lease at 106 Court St. expires at the end of 2022, and its management plans for a quick transition to its new 11,000-square-foot venue at 194 Atlantic Ave., right next to the Court Street Trader Joe’s.
Daunt remarked on the unique and “exciting” design of the former Barneys space, and said he believes it will be a creative way for Barnes and Noble to expand its operations to even more Brooklyn bookworms.
“Everyone who remembers their store will appreciate how exciting a building it is within which to be creating a new bookstore,” he said. “It will be a wonderful place from which to continue our bookselling in Brooklyn.”
Though the move is just a block away, it puts the Court Street bookstore once at home in Brooklyn Heights into neighboring Cobble Hill.
The new location is one of 16 new Barnes and Noble stores opening across the country — two of which are opening in spaces former occupied by Amazon Books, despite big box’s ongoing competition with the online behemoth.
Barneys’ Atlantic Avenue location closed at the end of 2019, leaving “big shoes to fill,” a local commercial real estate source told Brooklyn Paper’s sister publication Brownstoner at the time.
