The signs are now up outside Barnes and Noble’s highly-anticipated new Upper East Side bookstore set to open at the corner of East 87th Street and Third Avenue, however, Upper East Site has confirmed the bookseller will miss the spring opening it had previously planned for the store as construction continues.
The opening of the new UES bookstore, which is moving vacant retail space on the ground floor of the Agora Building, located at 1550 Third Avenue, across from Whole Foods Market, has been pushed back several months to this summer — with July now being eyed as the right time for the new store’s opening, the bookseller confirms to Upper East Site.
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Barnes & Noble announced it would be returning to the Upper East Side in a big way last November, with plans for a smaller, but still pretty large footprint bookstore inside the space that was formerly a Duane Reade pharmacy spanning 8,000 square feet that closed back in 2020 — well short of the 55,000 thousand square feet of space previously occupied by Barnes & Noble on 86th Street.
While B&N tells Upper East Site the new UES location is still in the planning and design stages, one thing we know for sure is that there will not be a Starbucks location inside the bookstore. Which is probably a good idea, considering the mega chain has one of their coffee shops directly across East 87th Street.
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The windows are still covered with graphics announcing a spring 2023 opening, however Upper East Site was able to sneak a peek inside the new bookstore on Thursday. The buildout of the space was clearly still in the early stages of construction, with materials piled up inside the vacant space as contractors busily completed their tasks.
Thankfully, we’ve also obtained some photos of Barnes & Noble’s recently opened bookstore on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Upper East Site has learned the new UES store will have the same open, uncrowded and minimalistic design that makes the books for sale the primary focus.
What a concept.
