Vantage negotiating deal to keep Washington Heights bookstore in space

Shop operators and officials from the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance have been working with Vantage Properties to hammer out a deal to keep a multi-use bookstore at 4157 Broadway, DNAinfo reported.

Patrons of the Word Up store, which has been operating rent free at the Vantage building since June on a month-to-month contract, gathered in the space this past Saturday to celebrate the six-month milestone and to raise money for the store’s first month of rent, should the Vantage contract work out.

Word Up even allowed attendees to purchase a share in the business for $20; it’s hoping to run the store according to a “Community Supported Bookshop” program, where patrons receive special benefits for contributing monthly to the store.

“You can buy multiple CSBs, and you can buy CSBs in the name of other people as gifts. And you can know that the money you have committed to spending at Word Up will help keep us in the neighborhood, and will help keep us community-run,” read an announcement about the program.

The event raised enough money for the store’s hoped-for first month’s rent “and then some,” said Veronica Liu, one of Word Up’s founders.

Vantage did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Real Deal. [DNAinfo]