Borders closing Harford Mall Waldenbooks; more to come

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Feb 16, 2007 by Louis Llovio

The Waldenbooks in Bel Air's Harford Mall will close Wednesday, making it the third Borders-owned store to shut its doors in Maryland in the past 30 days, with more closings looming.

"It was no longer economically feasible for us to keep the location open," said Holley Stein, a spokeswoman for Borders Group Inc.

Borders owns its stand-alone stores as well as Waldenbooks and Borders Express.

Stein said higher rent was the catalyst for the store's closing.

The Harford Mall store, which opened October 1972, had come to the end of its lease and the company could not reach a new agreement with landlord CBL & Associates Properties Inc., she said.

"It's basic economics," she said. "It just became too expensive for us to do business."

Mall manager Laurie Altman said tenant information was confidential and she could not discuss the lease or negotiations.

Higher rents also forced Borders to close its stores in the Glen Burnie Mall and Francis Scott Key Mall in Frederick last month, Stein said.

All three stores had been in their locations for more than 25 years.

And Borders isn't done. With several leases due to run out, Stein said Maryland would see more closings in the next year. She would not disclose which stores were slated to shut down.

At the Harford Mall store, the staff is preparing for the eventual closing next week.

Sales clerk Deanna Harris said that to liquidate the merchandise, the store had reduced prices by 40 percent. Whatever isn't sold, she said, would be returned to the distributor.

The store has 17 employees, and Stein said Borders will try to find spots for them in other stores.

The three Waldenbooks aren't the only bookstores seeing business troubles.

In Cockeysville, Georgette Fraser, owner of The Book Nook, has said that her store would not survive through the end of the year. Her difficulties come in the form of a Wal-Mart Supercenter set to open a mile from her Padonia Road store.

While she has faced hardship before with a Greetings and Readings opening to the north and a Borders to the south, the new discount retailer will be the final straw, she said.

And, in Owings Mills, Newtown Books closed in December after three years in business. Owner Joel Taffet had complained that a Barnes and Noble that opened in the area two years ago made it too difficult for him to compete.

After the Bel Air closing, Borders will have seven Waldenbooks in Maryland. It has 12 Borders and eight Borders Expresses.