World’s Biggest Bookstore to close
Posted June 21, 2012 8:10 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Toronto’s World’s Biggest Bookstore is set to close in 2013 and it could reportedly be replaced by a big-box store.
The downtown landmark has been in the same Edward Street location, just blocks from Yonge and Dundaas streets, since 1980.
“It’s the rarity of an envelope of this size in an area this far downtown that makes it so unusual,” Stuart Smith, a vice-president at CBRE Commercial Real Estate Services, told Yonge Street Media
Smith, who is handling the account, said the owners would like to rent the 64,000-square-foot building to a single tenant.
The current lease on the building, held by Indigo Books and Music, runs out at the end of 2013 and is not being renewed. The lease costs about $1.5 million a year, Smith told The National Post.
While the lease is held by Indigo, the building is owned by the family of Jack Cole. Cole and his brother founded Coles Books, which was later sold to Indigo.
While the bookstore is no longer the “biggest” in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records – that honour belongs to a New York City Barnes and Noble – a space that size is nearly unheard of in downtown Toronto.
Major retailers are interested, Smith said.
Traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores are seeing drastic drops in sales thanks to online retailers and the growing popularity of e-readers.
With files from Bert Archer, Yonge Street Media
