Longtime Plaza Midwood bookstore to leave original location — but new site plans underway
The latest casualty of redevelopment in Plaza Midwood is longtime used bookstore Book Buyers. But don’t worry, the store owners said they plan to reopen in a new location about 2 miles away.
Book Buyers, a family-owned used book store, received a letter a couple of days ago from the new landlord of Midwood Corners shopping center that the store would need to move out of its 4,000-square-foot space at 1306 The Plaza by Jan. 31, co-owner Lee Rathers said Thursday afternoon.
Rathers said the store will stay open through Christmas, which is Book Buyers’ busiest time of year. Rathers’ father Richard opened the store 22 years ago.
The shopping center was sold in March 2020 for $8.5 million to EFC Midwood Corners LLC, Mecklenburg County property records show. Other retailers at the site include Akahana Asian Bistro, Dunkin’, Hong Kong Chinese and Dynasty Nails.
Site plans listed online by Thrift Commercial Real Estate show leasing available in a redeveloped site in the first quarter next year with tenants listed as Akahana, Dunkin’ and Plaza Midwood Dentistry.
Rathers said that last year the new owners told her that they would be making upgrades to reconfigure the space and rent would go up. She said rent would nearly double and they wouldn’t be able to afford it. Then the letter arrived this week.
““It was sort of out of the blue. We saw it coming in a way but we were hopeful,” Rathers said. “But it didn’t work out.
“I can only assume it was because they found someone who wanted to pay.”
At least one other business received the same letter. Annie Vereen, owner of AFV Exotic Arts dance studio, said she also was told to vacate by Jan. 31. “Not much of warning and they did not offer for me to negotiate a new rate or anything, they just told me to leave,” she said.
Josh Page, executive vice president and chief operating officer of property owner Eastern Federal Corp., did not say why the two businesses were being forced out. “We have some exciting plans to refresh the shopping center and think that the neighborhood will enjoy the new design and new tenant mix,” Page said in a statement Friday.
What comes next for the bookstore
Book Buyers is looking at new space about 2 miles away at Eastway Crossing shopping center at the corner of Central Avenue and Eastway Drive, Rathers said.
Book Buyers hopes to reopen by Feb. 1, or sooner, in the new space that’s also about 4,000 square feet, she said.
This story was originally published December 3, 2021 at 8:43 AM.