Manhattan’s Coliseum Books To Close

by Kevin Howell, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 10/2/2006

The 32-year-old Coliseum Books in New York City has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and plans are in place to close the store.

“I don’t see us surviving Chapter 11,” said general manager Richard Urciuoli, who has worked at the store for 25 years. “This location never paid off with the amount of space we have and the book sales we needed to generate.”

Between 1974 and 2002, the store was located slightly north of busy Times Square on Broadway and 57th Street. When a jump in rent forced them to close, the store relocated to a 10,000 sq.-ft. space on 42nd Street, near the New York Public Library.

“We had one year where we came close to breaking even, but last year was a big slump and this summer we were way behind last year and we couldn’t absorb the loss,” said Urciuoli. “It may have been the Barnes & Noble that opened near by or the fact that there were fewer tourists in the city this summer. I think the decision to open a bookstore this size in this economic market and with the current commercial rent in this city was a bad idea. I feel very pessimistic about any independent bookstore opening in the midtown area with a space our size.”

The store’s new location contained a café that Urciuoli said was “bringing in cash and was paying for itself, but I think it just didn’t happen as quickly as it needed to.”

The store plans to start selling off its inventory to pay off creditors. “We’re already marking down certain items,” said Urciuoli, who predicted that the liquidation of the store’s inventory would take three to four weeks.