B. Dalton Bookseller will close May 17, leaving Westfield Gateway after 36 years and leaving the mall without a bookstore.
MATT OLBERDING / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Monday, April 21, 2008 7:00 pm
B. Dalton Bookseller will close May 17, leaving Westfield Gateway after 36 years and leaving the mall without a bookstore.
Sherri Skok, a spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble, which owns B. Dalton, said the store’s lease at Gateway is ending.
When B. Dalton leases run out, Barnes & Noble is not renewing them, she said.
Barnes & Noble has been closing B. Dalton stores for years, concentrating instead on its namesake superstores.
Ten years ago, there were more than 500 B. Dalton stores nationwide, according to Journal Star archives. As of Feb. 2, that number had shrunk to 85, according Barnes & Noble’s 2007 annual report on its Web site.
Skok said the company would not consider putting a Barnes & Noble at Gateway because it has one at 52nd and O streets, about a half mile away. Barnes & Noble also has a store at SouthPointe Pavilions in south Lincoln.
B. Dalton opened at Gateway in spring 1972, the first of the chain’s stores in Nebraska. The company also operated a store downtown from 1976 to 1986. The Gateway store was the last remaining B. Dalton in Nebraska.
The closing follows the closings earlier this year of KB Toys, which left the mall without a toy store, and Glowgolf, the glow-in-the-dark miniature golf course.
Ryan Bouc, Gateway’s marketing director, said there are “several things in the works right now” in terms of possible new tenants at the mall.
Bouc said he didn’t know if any of the potential new tenants are looking at the B. Dalton space.
Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.