Barnes & Noble is continuing its expansion of brick-and-mortar bookstores, with three new stores in Texas and South Carolina. All of the new locations — at Alamo Ranch in San Antonio and Southpark Meadows in Austin, and The Shoppes at Woodhill in Columbia, S.C. — were previously home to other retailers and were remodeled to accommodate the retailer’s new, smaller format, reports Chain Store Age.
“Watching the reinvention and reinvigoration of Barnes & Noble shows the continued strength of brick-and-mortar retail, and it is now a critical component of our tenant mixes,” said Greg Ix, executive VP of leasing at open-air shopping center owner and developer Big V Property Group. “Small, independent booksellers are a vital part of retail, but there really is only one Barnes & Noble. We are happy to have leased nearly 75,000 sq. ft. and reinvented rare vacant spaces to accommodate them and look forward to continuing our strong relationship.”
The expansion at the three centers comes on the heels of Barnes & Noble opening four stores in April.
Earlier this year, Barnes & Noble said it planned to open more than 60 new stores in 2025. In 2024, Barnes & Noble opened 57 stores — more than it had in the whole decade from 2009 to 2019. The company currently operates approximately 600 stores across the United States.
In Austin, Barnes & Noble’s 20,004-sq.-ft. store replaces an Office Max at Southpark Meadows. Barnes & Noble’s 17,996 sq.-ft. location also replaces an Office Max at Alamo Ranch in San Antonio. For the new South Carolina location, Big V Property Group re-leased a 25,000-sq.-ft. former Bed Bath & Beyond at The Shoppes at Woodhill to Barnes & Noble prior to selling the center in December 2024, reports CSA.
“We’re proud of our flexibility to help major tenants find new locations in thriving markets such as Austin and San Antonio,” said Pat Kelly, VP of leasing at Big V. “But Barnes & Noble deserves serious credit for developing a smaller, community-centric prototype that allows it to take locations of 20,000 sq. ft. or so and serve new markets. It’s a tribute to smart retailing.”
Barnes & Noble was acquired by British private equity group Elliott Investment Management in 2019. The all-cash deal was valued at about $683 million. The deal followed Elliott’s 2018 acquisition of Waterstones, the largest retail bookseller in the U.K.