1st books arrive at the new St. Mark's Bookshop

[Bookmobile?]

EVG reader Yenta Laureate spotted workers moving the very first books/periodicals into the new St. Mark's Bookshop at 136 E. Third St. west of Avenue A this afternoon... to be in place for a possible Sunday (soft) opening...

About the design of the new St. Mark's Bookshop

[Last night via EVG reader Russ]

If all goes well, then St. Mark's Bookshop will open Saturday Sunday in its new home at 136 E. Third St. west of Avenue A.

Meanwhile, the owners offered a sneak preview of their space designed by Clouds Architecture Office here. (Warning: Architect speak ahead!)

The book shelving is designed to stimulate the ocular experience. Vertical supports are pulled back to pronounce the horizontal edges of the shelving. Sharp corners are eliminated, smoothed into a continuous series of horizontal bands which allow the eye to glide around the space without visual friction. Vision is further privileged by adjusting the form of the shelving. Lower runs are canted so as to tilt book spines towards eye level of the viewer. Section titles are literally etched into the wood of the shelving to maintain the continuity of the lines.

St. Mark's Bookshop left their home of 22 years at 31 Third Ave. and Stuyvesant Street at the end of June.

Workers quickly gutted the former St. Mark's Bookshop space

Workers spent the weekend (Sunday too!) gutting the shop's home of 22 years at 31 Third Ave. and Stuyvesant Street ...



St. Mark's Bookshop closed on June 29 ahead of a move to a new, smaller storefront at 136 E. Third St. just west of Avenue A. No official word just yet when the shop can open here. Some time this week, most likely.

St. Mark's Bookstore first opened on St. Mark's Place in 1977 ... they had locations at No. 12 and across the street at No. 13.

As for the future of 31 Third Ave., Jeremiah Moss writes: "What will greet me next in this space? A brainless bank, a soulless Starbucks, a fucking frozen yogurt emporium?"

Opening of the new St. Mark's Bookshop pushed back a week

St. Mark's Bookshop was set to open in its new storefront today... however, as you can see from their tweet yesterday afternoon, there is a slight delay...

We probably won't open at 136 East 3rd Street until next week. Call ahead: 212-260-7853
— St. Mark's Bookshop (@stmarksbookshop) June 30, 2014

They are now officially closed (as of Sunday) at 31 Third Ave. and Stuyvesant Street, their home since since 1992.



... and at 136 E. Third St. ...

New closing and reopening dates set for St. Mark's Bookshop

[Photo of new storefront from Sunday]

St. Mark's Bookshop was originally set to close on Monday ahead of their move to 136 E. Third St.

However, workers were still finishing up the new storefront just west of Avenue A. So yesterday store officials released new dates for everything to happen...

Confirmed: We are moving to 136 East 3rd Street on July 1 and will remain open at 31 Third Ave through Sunday, June 29.

— St. Mark's Bookshop (@stmarksbookshop) June 25, 2014

The bookshop has been at 31 Third Ave. and Stuyvesant Street since 1992, and in the neighborhood a total of 37 years.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: St. Mark's Bookshop prepping fundraiser ahead of possible move to Avenue A.

Is this the new home for the St. Mark's Bookshop?

Report: St. Mark's Bookshop signs lease for East 3rd Street space

Renovations at the future St. Mark's Bookshop on East 3rd Street

St. Mark's Bookshop closes Monday ahead of move to new home on East 3rd Street

[Photo by Jeremiah Moss via Facebook]

From the St. Mark's Bookshop Facebook page:

On June 23 we close at 10 pm and hope to open a few days later at 136 East 3rd St.

The bookshop has been at 31 Third Ave. and Stuyvesant Street since 1992, and in the neighborhood a total of 37 years.


[EVG file photo]

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: St. Mark's Bookshop prepping fundraiser ahead of possible move to Avenue A.

Is this the new home for the St. Mark's Bookshop?

Report: St. Mark's Bookshop signs lease for East 3rd Street space

Renovations at the future St. Mark's Bookshop on East 3rd Street

Renovations at the future St. Mark's Bookshop on East 3rd Street

As you likely know St. Mark's Bookshop will be on the move to 136 E. Third St. just west of Avenue A later this year... the rent-challenged store reportedly officially signed the lease last week.

Meanwhile, there has been activity inside No. 136, as the above photo by EVG reader Yenta Laureate shows.

The city OK'd permits for renovations here last week. Per the all-cap DOB style: "GENERAL CONSTRUCTION ASSOCIATED WITH BOOKSTORE TENANT FITOUT IN EXISTING COMMERCIAL SPACE

As the Times reported, the new store will be half the size of the current one, but the rent of $6,000 is barely one-quarter of the $23,500 charged by their landlord on Third Avenue, the Cooper Union.

According to the DOB permits, $36,500 is the estimated cost for renovations. On Friday night, the Bookshop wrapped up a successful crowdfunding campaign to raise money to finance the move.

Our @Indiegogo closed last night. Thanks for helping us raise $51,740 toward our move! http://t.co/7Wour7EH3C

— St. Mark's Bookshop (@stmarksbookshop) May 17, 2014

The space at No. 136 previously housed Landmark Bicycles, who moved last year to the northwest corner of East Third and Avenue A.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: St. Mark's Bookshop prepping fundraiser ahead of possible move to Avenue A.

Is this the new home for the St. Mark's Bookshop?

Report: St. Mark's Bookshop signs lease for East 3rd Street space

[EVG file photo of 136 E. Third St.]

St. Mark's Bookshop has signed the lease at 136 E. Third St. just west of Avenue A, The New York Times reports this evening.

The bookshop, which has struggled in recent years with the rents at its current Third Avenue home, expects to move this fall.

Details from the Times:

The new store will be half the size of the current one, but the rent of $6,000 is barely one-quarter of the $23,500 charged by their landlord on Third Avenue, the Cooper Union. The store has had support from writers and readers, and raised more than $40,000 on the crowd-funding site Indiegogo (the campaign continues through Friday). The new landlord is the city. The owners are exploring a transition to nonprofit status.

Back in November, Publishers Weekly reported that St. Mark's Bookshop had found a new retail space "in the East Village in a space near Avenue A and Third Street." We did a little guess-detective work and figured that the bookshop was moving to this space on East Third Street, where Landmark Bicycles was housed before moving to the northwest corner of East Third and Avenue A.

Jeremiah Moss was first to get confirmation of the move in March.

Finally some positive news amid all the closures.

St. Mark's Bookshop confirmed (most likely) for East Third Street

[EVG file photo]

Back in November, Publishers Weekly reported that St. Mark's Bookshop had found a new retail space "in the East Village in a space near Avenue A and Third Street." The article didn't mention where, exactly, the rent-challenged new store will be.

We did a little guess-detective work and figured the space was likely 136 E. Third St., where Landmark Bicycles was housed before moving to the northwest corner of East Third and Avenue A.

Anyway, meant to mention this sooner! Jeremiah Moss got the scoop last week: St. Mark's Bookshop co-owner Terry McCoy confirmed that this was the space.

Per McCoy to Jeremiah:

We've been sent a proposed lease, and we have a lawyer who has gone through it and sent comments to the landlord, who is the city, or NYCHA. There's a long way to go to signing a lease, though."

Meanwhile, the store continues with its Indiegogo campaign to help raise funds for the move. You can find more details here if this is of interest.

[Updated] Want to buy a dorm?

Was talking with an EVG friend the other day. The conversation turned to St. Mark's Bookshop and its likely move.

And my friend casually mentioned the building owned by Cooper Union that houses the Bookshop as well as other businesses, not to mention a dorm, is for sale.

Oh really?

Turns out that there is a listing (PDF) for the building…



The listing is active on Property Shark… with a listing age of 36 days…



Anyway, it's not a secret that Cooper Union is facing financial problems due to increasing operation costs and declining investment income, among other things.

The Student Residence here opened in September 1992 at Stuyvesant Street and Third Avenue. Here are details about the dorm via the Cooper Union website:

The Student Residence offers apartment-style housing for 178 students. Units range in size to accommodate from three to five people, with the majority of the apartments being two bedroom units shared by four people. Each unit contains a bathroom, common living area, and kitchenette. The building amenities include a study room, laundry room, the Residence Hall Office, and the Menschel Room.

As the flyer indicates, "the seller will enter into short term leaseback." Meanwhile, Cooper Union is one of the schools reportedly leasing space in developer Gregg Singer's dream dorm project at the former P.S. 64 and CHARAS/El Bohio community center on East Ninth Street.

------

Updated 6:02 pm
Robert Frischman, executive vice president, retail brokerage, at the EVO Real Estate Group, said that the building is not for sale. No word on how or why the listing appeared on Property Shark in the first place.

'Saved by the Book!' starts today to benefit St. Mark's Bookshop

St. Mark's Bookshop is holding a fundraiser to help them prepare for a move to a new location in the East Village, as Publishers Weekly first reported.

And here's information on the event via the St. Mark's Bookshop Facebook event page that we found:

We invite you to an Auction of Signed and Annotated First Editions to Benefit St. Mark's Bookshop

ONLINE AUCTION
Tuesday December 3 - Sunday December 15
LIVE EVENT
Thursday December 5 6-8 PM
$5 at the door

We are conducting an auction of over 50 rare signed and annotated first editions and ephemera from some of NYC’s best known writers. The auction will benefit St. Mark’s Bookshop, and help fund its upcoming move. Included are works from Yoko Ono, Anne Carson, Junot Diaz, John Ashbery, Patti Smith, Art Spiegelman, Walter Abish, Paul Auster, Bill Berkson, Charles Bernstein, Lydia Davis, Kenneth Goldsmith/Joan La Barbara, Richard Hell, Major Jackson, Wayne Koestenbaum, Phillip Lopate, Eileen Myles, Arthur Nersesian, E. Annie Proulx, Sam Shepard, Peter Straub, Lynne Tillman, Anne Waldman and Tsipi Keller.

Bidding begins December 3 online here

On Thursday Dec. 5, you are invited to come to the bookstore, where all the works will be on display for bidding and there will be a Live auction of selected works. If you can’t be present for the live event, you can leave an absentee bid online.

Join us and share wine and light refreshments.

The Bookshop is apparently moving to a new location near East Third Street and Avenue A (maybe here), though there hasn't been any information disclosed about this just yet...

Is this the new home for the St. Mark's Bookshop?

Last Thursday, Publishers Weekly reported that St. Mark's Bookshop had found a new retail space "in the East Village in a space near Avenue A and Third Street." The article didn't mention where, exactly, the rent-challenged new store will be.

According to the article, the shop will leave its Third Avenue home and its Cooper Union landlord for a space that "would be about half of the store's current size, or 1,300 sq. ft."

So where exactly is this relocation going to happen? We understand that the owners aren't ready to divulge the details. Readers made some guesses on Friday.

The most practical space is 136 E. Third St., where Landmark Bicycles was housed before moving to the northwest corner of East Third and Avenue A.

The NYCHA is the landlord at No. 136. Here is a description of the space:

136 East 3rd Street
Rentable Square Footage: 1,328
Rent: $60.00 per square foot
$79,680 per year/$6,640.00 per month

The square footage is right. And the space is ready for a new tenant. The NYCHA notes that an application is in process for the space.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Report: St. Mark's Bookshop prepping fundraiser ahead of possible move to Avenue A

Report: St. Mark's Bookshop prepping fundraiser ahead of possible move to Avenue A

Rent-challenged St. Mark's Bookshop is finalizing a fundraiser ahead of a move to Avenue A, according to a report at Publishers Weekly.

There's a fundraiser (online and in the store) set for Dec. 5 that will feature signed first editions donated by a variety of authors, including Ann Carson, Lydia Davis and Paul Auster.

Per Publishers Weekly:

But that is only one piece of the store’s fundraising plans so that it can stay in the East Village in a space near Avenue A and Third Street. The president of Cooper Union has offered to help the bookstore by letting it use the school’s Great Hall for a fundraiser and to contact some of the schools’s donors on the store’s behalf. Those details are still being worked out.

Cooper Union will reportedly allow the store to leave its current home on Third Avenue with four years left on the lease.

Back to Publishers Weekly:

The new location would be about half of the store’s current size, or 1,300 sq. ft. Co-owner Bob Contant regards the store's downsizing as a good thing. “The print book business isn’t as robust as it used to be,” he points out. “Where we sold 25 books, now we sell five.”

As for the new new location "near Avenue A and Third Street" … let the speculation begin!

St. Mark's Bookshop looking for volunteers to help 'reinvigorate the shop's identity'

[EVG file photo]

From the EVG inbox...

St. Mark's Bookshop is presently immersed in this change. We seek to relocate to a new space and while we're at it, reinvigorate the shop's identity. Our vision includes the kind of curated, progressive selection of titles in literature, poetry, politics, critical theory, small press publications and hard-to-find journals and magazines our customers have come to expect to find on our shelves.

We also envision a hybrid organization that would present nonprofit arts programming, including a comprehensive roster of author events, lectures and literary gatherings housed by a community-supported bookstore, a physical brick-and-mortar space where people meet, discuss ideas, browse, discover and enjoy non-electronic books and publications and listen to great writers present their work.

We're passionate about this future and hope you will help us get there. Here's how you can get involved in launching the new St. Mark's Bookshop.

VOLUNTEER:

We need individuals

• people with expertise in marketing and in the following sub-specialties: social media, public relations and communication campaign strategy. Two to eight hours per month, September-December.

• educators/academics, readers and writers to be our advocates. Get on our growing mailing list, follow us on Twitter and Facebook and share news about St. Mark's Bookshop with your personal and professional networks. Help to get out the word about upcoming events and key dates announced in our newsletter, September 2013 forward.

• community networkers — who do you know? Help St. Mark's Bookshop connect with advocates throughout the city, the rest of the country and across the globe. September 2013 on.

Look for updates in mid September and throughout the rest of 2013. We will announce our new location soon!

And please drop by the bookshop. We remain committed to the East Village community and local writers.

Find more details about all this, including contact info, right here.

Happy No. 35

St. Mark's Bookshop is 35 years old today! Long live books & book lovers!

— St. Mark's Bookshop (@stmarksbookshop) November 13, 2012

St. Mark's Bookshop hits crowdfunding goal with several days to spare

Following up on our earlier post today ... from the EV Grieve inbox...

ST. MARK’S BOOKSHOP RAISES $23,000 (AND COUNTING) ON LUCKY ANT

Two weeks ago Lucky Ant set out to help embattled St. Mark’s Bookshop finally make a real push towards financial sustainability. The goal was to raise at least $23,000 to help toward the cost of moving to a smaller store and develop the online presence needed to compete.

What happened?
With a few days to spare, St. Mark’s Bookshop surpassed their fundraising goal. They currently stand at $24,560 from 405 customers. The most popular pledge was the $100 and most of the support came locally (76% from New York). We did see support from all over the world including pledges from Japan, Australia, France and 7 other countries.

What’s next?
The bookshop raised the minimum they need to get the ball rolling on their transformation. The full cost of the move could cost up to $100,000 and we are keeping the pledging open until the deadline this Friday night at 11:59. We hope to continue to see pledges coming in and to raise the maximum we can.

What this means:
The rewards were structured so that pledgers were not only pledging their financial support today, but will receive discounts for the year to come and we hope that this will encourage a surge in sales for the bookshop.

In the grander scheme of things this is the first time the community has put their money where their mouths are. After pledging to support the bookshop, through Lucky Ant, the community has proven that it will not stand idly and watch neighborhood institutions fail. This is a victory for bookshops, but also for small business everywhere.

10 reasons to help St Mark's Bookshop survive

Writer-small press blogger Karen Lillis (featured here on EVG in 2009) offers 10 reasons why people should consider supporting the St Mark's Bookshop fundraiser ... as the store asks for help moving to a less-expensive space in the neighborhood.

The store's fundraising campaign at Lucky Ant wraps up this week ... and they are roughly $2,500 short of their $23,000 goal as of this morning.

A brief excerpt...

2. St. Mark's Bookshop is not just a place that sells (and curates) culture and history. St. Mark's Bookshop IS living history.

As a bookstore, St. Mark's holds an institutional memory of major moments in alternative publishing history. The owners (and some longtime employees) both worked at 8th Street Books, which was the New York bookstore the Beats frequented and the New York bookstore that embraced the "paperback revolution." Both owners worked also at East Side Books, an East Village bookstore which was known as a place to find underground comics, mimeographed novels, and local political pamphlets — at a time when these were a major currency of the cultural revolutions and the avant garde. St. Mark's opened in the late '70s, making a place for artistic expressions to live and breathe alongside new areas of inquiry we take for granted today, such as sections with labels like "Vietnam Studies" or "Lesbian and Gay Studies."

You can find the post by Lillis, a former St Mark's Bookshop employee,  here.

Report: St. Mark's Bookshop crowdsourcing funds to relocate

Per Crain's, we learn that there's a Lucky Ant campaign under way to raise $23,000 to help the St. Mark's Bookshop move to a new, smaller location... Per the campaign:

In order to survive these difficult times, St. Marks is repositioning itself in the marketplace and implementing a new strategy for the future. These changes, such as moving to a more affordable location and developing a more sophisticated online presence, are a direct response to the changing business environment and will help the bookstore to once again become financially viable. Major changes are not cheap however, and St. Marks needs capital to finance these improvements. Through community investments, St. Marks hopes to raise the capital needed to once again make itself a viable business.

Learn more on this here. This comes on the heels of the successful Cash Mob that Jeremiah Moss organized last Saturday.

Cash Mob for the Move tomorrow at St. Mark's Bookshop

[Via Facebook]

In case you didn't see this on Monday at Jeremiah's Vanishing New York... there's another Cash Mob at St. Mark's Bookshop... tomorrow at 3 ... the owners are in the preliminary stages of moving to a smaller space... plus, sales are slow now in the summer doldrums...

The Details:
Date: Saturday, July 21
Time: 3 p.m.
Place: St. Mark's Bookshop, 31 3rd Avenue between 8th and 9th
Goal: Spend money on books! Tell them "Jeremiah sent me" and if you're one of the first 20 people to spend $10, you get a $5 gift certificate for your next visit.
After the Mob: Head over to Bar 82 at 136 2nd Ave., between 8th and 9th, to drink and celebrate with your fellow cash-mobbers.

Meanwhile, in an article in this week's of The Villager, the paper reports that co-owners Terry McCoy and Bob Contant are looking to move to a place 2,000 square feet or less, with a proportionally lower rent to match. (The current space is roughly 2,700 square feet.)

And to move somewhere else in the neighborhood.

Said McCoy: "This store’s whole identity is linked to the East Village. We can't go anywhere else. It's our reason for being."

Report: St. Mark's Bookshop looking for a new, smaller home

In an article Crain's posted this afternoon about Hue-Man Bookstore & Café closing its doors in Harlem, reporter Matthew Flamm also notes:

St. Mark's Bookshop, a literary fixture in the East Village for 35 years, is hoping to move out of its current home when its rent goes up toward the end of this year.

According to the article, the $250,000 small business grant that St. Mark's (and many others) applied for from Chase Bank would go to finance a move to a smaller location.

Said Bookshop co-owner Bob Contant: "We'd like to stay in the East Village. We understand the print book business has declined, but we're still doing enough business to keep going, if we had a smaller space with less rent."

No word on plans if they don't get the grant...

In a much-publicized story last fall, landlord Cooper Union agreed to reduce the store's rent to about $17,500 a month from $20,000 for one year, and to forgive $7,000 in debt. But that one year is quickly coming to an end...