Greenlight Bookstore Will Open a Second Location in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens
It’s been a week of real book love here, as we’ve been celebrating some especially good ones about the city in which we live. So it is all the more serendipitous to hear that one of our favorite independent bookstores, Greenlight, will open a second location next year.
The Fort Greene independent bookshop, which debuted on Fulton Street and South Portland Avenue in 2009, will open a 2,100-square-foot location at 626 Flatbush Avenue in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens next year, according to DNAinfo and a press release from Greenlight co-owners Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and Rebecca Fitting.
Not only is Fitting a Prospect-Lefferts Gardens resident, but the business had already tested the waters in the neighborhood at pop-up events; clearly, they were pleased with the results. Fitting and Stockton Bagnulo say that since the store opened in 2009, it has seen “double digit” growth each year. The Prospect-Lefferts Gardens location will be part of a larger 4,000-square-foot retail development by Hudson Companies.
Greenlight’s expansion falls in line with a national trend: Since 2009, the American Booksellers Association reports that the number of independent bookstores have increased by 27 percent. And, closer to home, not only Greenlight but WORD, Book Culture, and McNally Jackson are feeling the love from New Yorkers who want to buy their books, DNAinfo says.
With chains like Borders and Barnes & Noble closing across the city, it is pretty awesome to know that our independent book vendors are doing better than ever—especially because, as mentioned, our reading list just got nice and long.