A bankruptcy court judge gave the go-ahead Tuesday to the sale of the Tattered Cover bookstore, a longtime staple of the country’s independent bookstore scene, to Barnes & Noble.
The order by Judge Michael E. Romero approving the $1.83 million sale of the store’s four locations brings to a close a quest by Bended Page, Tattered Cover’s owner, to keep the storied business alive. The approval opens a new chapter for the store that started as a small shop in Denver’s Cherry Creek North neighborhood about 50 years and grew to a nationally known bookseller and champion of First Amendment rights.
Barnes & Noble, the country’s largest book retailer, offered one of three bids to buy Tattered Cover out of bankruptcy. Bended Page said it was the only offer that contemplated keeping all the store’s locations running.
James Daunt, Barnes & Noble CEO, said by phone Tuesday that he was happy that Tattered Cover will stay in business and that jobs will be preserved.
“The alternative was not great,” Daunt said.
The agreement agreed to by Bended Page and Barnes & Noble included covering the $1.6 million in secured claims that Tattered Cover owes. Barnes & Noble will pay $50,000 for back rent and plans to extend the leases on the store’s sites.
The sale needed the approval from the bankruptcy court.
The lease on Tattered Cover’s main location at East Colfax Avenue in Denver will be extended through 2038. Barnes & Noble has said that Tattered Cover will keep its name and that “substantially all” of the store’s roughly 70 employees will be offered jobs.
Daunt, who started as an independent bookseller in his native England, visited Denver in late June and met with several Tattered Cover employees.
“I know there’s a sort of skepticism about it, but really in truth this is something that Tattered Cover will sort out. We at Barnes & Noble are not going to be running these stores. Tattered Cover is going to be running these stores,” Daunt said.
“They have very good store managers. I think we now have to put them back on their feet and get them all ordering books and assorting their stores properly,” he added.
Daunt was managing director, or CEO, of Waterstones, Britain’s largest bookstore chain, before taking the top job at Barnes & Noble. He still works at Waterstones and still owns independent bookstores.
Joyce Meskis bought Tattered Cover in 1974 when it was a small shop. The business became a gathering place and a center of community events while fighting censorship and for the rights of readers and writers. Celebrities, high-profile politicians and former presidents participated in events at the store.
In 2017, book-industry veterans Len Vlahos and his wife Kristen Gilligan acquired controlling interest in the Tattered Cover. Bended Page, co-founded by Denver natives Kwame Spearman and David Back, bought the struggling company in 2020.
Tattered Cover filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy less than a year after the death of Meskis in December 2022. The parent company put the bookstore up for sale in March.
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