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Strand to take over former Book Culture location on UWS

Book Culture was shut down in January amid allegations of fraud

The Strand at 828 Broadway and Book Culture at 450 Columbus Avenue (Credit: Wikipedia, Google Maps)
The Strand at 828 Broadway and Book Culture at 450 Columbus Avenue (Credit: Wikimedia, Google Maps)

Book lovers who were disappointed by the dramatic shuttering of Book Culture’s Upper West Side location in January will now have something to celebrate.

Strand Book Store has announced it will take over the site with a new store set to open this March.

“We are so excited to expand The Strand and engage the community of the Upper West Side.” owner Nancy Bass said in a statement. “We aim to continue the legacy of my father, and his father before him, by bringing the joy of books to everyone.”

The new location at 450 Columbus Avenue, by West 81st Street, will sell new, used and rare books, the company said in a statement. It will officially be known as “The Strand at Columbus Avenue.”

The news was first reported by Gothamist.

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The previous tenant at the site, Book Culture, opened in 2014 to much fanfare, but struggled with financial problems and was shut down in January, owing more than $100,000 in rent.

In a lawsuit, minority owner John MacArthur accused principal owner Chris Doeblin of operating a fraudulent “community lender program,” and of taking money from the Columbus Avenue store and sending it to three other Book Culture stores that were losing money.

Doeblin told the New York Daily News that the Upper West Side location in fact owed money to the company behind the other stores.

The allegations, he claimed, were a “complete and utter misunderstanding of what is going on.”

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RetailUpper West Side