[ALERT] Barnes & Noble Will Next Year Start a New "Chapter" at Familiar Intown Center

Barnes & Noble, which closed their store at the Edgewood Retail District in April 2022 after seventeen years in business, will next year return to the center with a new store! 

Facebook and Instagram pages for the Edgewood store that had last posted in April 2022 at the time of the closure, posted for the first time since then earlier this month to announce the reopening.

Further, the retailer lists a new store "coming soon" to the intown project (1205 Caroline Street) and indicates it will open April 2026. 

The new store is also listed on the siteplan for the center by landlord North American Development Group which indicates that the new Barnes & Noble will open in the former Office Depot which closed this past June after two decades in business. 

At the time of the closure, there was already indication that the book, toy and media retailer hoped to return to the area.  

"It is a heavy heart that we announce we are closing this location on April 3, 2022. Unfortunately, the landlord has made the decision not to renew our lease. We have truly enjoyed being part of this community, and we are actively looking for other spaces in the area.  If you have any ideas where we could open a new store close by, please email MyBarnesandNoble@bn.com with Edgewood Retail District in the subject line."

Barnes & Noble's original store was 24,500 square feet and opened in 2005, while the new store will be smaller, reportedly 15,000 to 20,000 square feet, according to industry estimates.  

The former Barnes & Noble space was backfilled by a new Marshalls while an adjacent former Bed Bath & Beyond was later replaced by a new Burlington.  

Barnes & Noble currently operates more than a dozen Atlanta area stores including those in Buckhead, Alpharetta, Dunwoody and Buford, among others.  The company also operates university stores at Georgia Tech and Emory.  The retailer in 2012 closed its store on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth and in 2013 closed its store at Camp Creek Marketplace in East Point where today Beauty Master operates.  

The company in November 2023 opened a new small format store at The Avenue East Cobb in place of most of a former Bed Bath & Beyond.  We visited the store shortly after opening and were impressed with the retailer's "more with less" effort as they made incredibly good use of a smaller footprint, but still managing to make it feel larger than it is but cozy at the same time.  

The company closed its longstanding Southlake store (Mount Zion Road) in Morrow last May after 27 years in business.  A Barnes & Noble store on Cobb Parkway near Cumberland Mall is reportedly still slated to close in the coming months to make way for a giant new flagship RaceTrac location.  

Are you excited to see Barnes & Noble reopen at Edgewood Retail District?  What other shops or restaurants would you like to see open in the center?  What is your favorite brick & mortar bookstore?   

Please share your thoughts below.