Fate of local Joseph-Beth store to be decided Wednesday

The fate of the 26,000-square-foot Joseph-Beth Booksellers store at the Village at Towne Centre will likely be decided Wednesday morning in Cincinnati. A bankruptcy auction is scheduled for the bookseller starting at 10 a.m. that day, according to an excellent article that ran this weekend in the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader (Joseph-Beth’s flagship store is in Lexington). Bidders will be vying for Joseph-Beth’s stores and assets in Lexington, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Memphis and Spotsylvania. An attorney handling the case said there could be one single buyer or multiple buyers who would each take different parts of the company. A bankruptcy court judge would have to approve the sale or sales. Bidders are expected to include liquidators, Joseph-Beth co-founder Neil Van Uum, and Barnes & Noble, according to the Herald-Leader article.

Several years ago when the Village complex outside the Spotsylvania Towne Centre was just getting started, Barnes & Noble was among the names mentioned as interested tenants. Joseph-Beth, which opened the Spotsylvania store last May, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November. Leasing agents for mall owner the Cafaro Cos. have been talking to other prospects about the space in case Joseph-Beth were to close there.

Permalink: http://news.fredericksburg.com/businessbrowser/2011/04/18/fate-of-local-joseph-beth-store-could-be-decided-wednesday/