SHAKESPEARE & CO COMING TO STATE
Dane Neller recalls when he learned Amazon 4-star sells books at The SoNo Collection mall, which he had long planned for his own bookstore’s first Connecticut location.
Neller’s iconic Manhattan shop Shakespeare & Co. is coming to South Norwalk regardless — and with its newfangled machine that can print and bind books on the spot from a library of some 7 million titles, offers perhaps the closest bricksand-mortar equivalent to the online Amazon shopping experience.
With The SoNo Collection now listing Shakespeare & Co. on a list of future tenants, Neller confirmed the plan on Tuesday to Hearst Connecticut Media, without providing a target date for a grand opening.
Neller, who has undergraduate and law degrees from Yale University, said he had hoped to open last year at The SoNo Collection, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced a delay.
“It is a beautiful new mall,” Neller said. “Malls got pretty hurt by the pandemic but it appears that, hopefully, we are coming out the other end.”
Since The SoNo Collection’s inception heading into the 2019 holidays, developer and operator Brookfield Properties has sought to differentiate the mall with a mix of unique retailers and an extensive menu of dining options.
Today, The SoNo Collection remains the only Connecticut option for those wanting to shop at Amazon 4-star, Bloomingdale’s and Camp. But the mall has yet to fill out a restaurant row on West Avenue that is the main gateway to its parking garages and street-level entrances.
After losing nearly $1.9 billion in the first half of 2020 when malls shuttered nationally to limit the spread of COIVD-19, Brookfield Properties rebounded with $1.4 billion in profits in the first six months of this year. Entering July, the company reported a 92 percent occupancy rate at its nearly 120 malls and shopping centers, which include Waterbury’s Brass Mill Center.
The SoNo Collection marks Shakespeare & Co.’s first store in a suburban market like Connecticut, with Neller having rebooted the brand in New York in 2015.
Shakespeare & Co. first opened in 1983 on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, later adding a shop in Philadelphia. The store is related only in name to the famed Shakespeare & Co. bookshop in Paris, with his company holding the U.S. trademark.
In New York City, Shakespeare & Co. recently introduced the “Espresso Book Machine” which can produce bound books in minutes from a catalog of more than 7 million titles in the public domain and “incopyright” otherwise.
Neller runs a separate company called On Demand Books that offers the service in several university bookstores in the United States and internationally, as well as at a Barnes & Noble in New York City. The Madison
shop RJ Julia Booksellers offered Espresso Book Machine services for a short stretch a decade ago.
Barnes & Noble closed in Norwalk seven years ago on Connecticut Avenue, with a Planet Fitness having opened earlier this year in the space. No bookseller has opened a store in Norwalk since the exit of Barnes & Noble.
Last year, Barnes & Noble relocated its Westport store into a smaller downtown storefront that offers better visibility than its former strip-mall location on Post Road East.
Neller said Shakespeare & Co. is closer in vibe to an independent bookshop, with a smaller footprint than Barnes & Noble and an inviting cafe that encourages people to linger. He admits checking out Amazon 4-star, however, on a recent visit to Norwalk.
“The first thing I said was, ‘how many books do they have?’” Neller said with a laugh.