Manhattan Rents Are Too High for Booksellers

Shelf Awareness

Rizzoli Bookstore is seeking new space in Manhattan.

As New York Times publishing correspondent Julie Bosman prepares to leave the city for the Midwest, she serves up some unsurprising news under the headline: "Literary City, Bookstore Desert: Surging Rents Force Booksellers From Manhattan." 

While building her case against Manhattan as a bookstore destination, Bosman noted Sarah McNally's longtime search for a potential second McNally Jackson location, on the Upper West Side, before opting for Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

Bosman devoted considerably less attention in the piece to the stores that remain in Manhattan and the recent indie bookselling renaissance in Queens and Brooklyn.