Barnes & Noble’s return to Coral Springs coming soon
Book lovers won’t have to wait much longer for the return of iconic bookseller Barnes & Noble to its longtime home in Coral Springs.
Four months after confirming that the retailer will be reopening in at its longtime home in The Walk at University, the company says it plans to reopen “on or about” Sept. 29.
Spokeswoman Amelia Mulinder confirmed the date via email on Tuesday, saying details of a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony are still being worked out and will be announced as the date gets closer.
Job applications are being accepted and “we’ve had a great response so far,” she said.
The chain moved out of its longtime home in the shopping center in February 2020 after telling its landlord, Amera Group, that it could no longer afford to rent the 27,000-square-foot building it had called home since 1993.
Amera Group then agreed to split the space into two stores and lease half of it to Barnes & Noble. But when the pandemic shut down most non-essential retailers in spring 2020, Barnes & Noble was forced to temporarily close several of its stores and did not immediately commit to returning to the Coral Springs location.
Meanwhile, Amera Group found another tenant for the vacated half — specialty grocer Trader Joe’s, subject of a grassroots email campaign by northwest Broward residents who wanted a location closer than Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Pembroke Pines and Davie. Trader Joe’s opened in the northern half of the building on Oct. 30.
Barnes & Noble finally agreed last spring to lease the southern half and announced intentions to reopen in the fall.
Just as emails from fans helped persuade Trader Joe’s to come to Coral Springs, Mulinder said local Barnes & Noble fans responded to the company’s call to let their voices be heard if they wanted the bookseller to return.
“We had close to 400 emails from the community when we temporarily closed the
Coral Springs store in 2020,” Mulinder said. “The responses were overwhelmingly positive, and it was so incredible to see what an impact Barnes & Noble made on our customers [in the city]. We are thrilled to be reopening in just a few weeks.”
Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. You can reach him at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com, on Twitter @ronhurt ibise or by phone at 954-356-4071.