Barnes & Noble Inks 11K-SF Retail Lease for New East Village Store

Bookstore chain Barnes & Noble is opening a new chapter in Manhattan’s East Village. 

Barnes & Noble signed an 11,300-square-foot retail lease at 181 Avenue A, which is also known as the Steiner East Village, an 82-unit condominium building on the corner of Avenue A and East 11th Street.

The store is expected to open in November, according to Crain’s New York Business, and is just a 20-minute walk from the Barnes & Noble flagship store at 33 East 17th Street near Union Square. 

Ripco Real Estate’s Jason Pennington and Ben Weiner represent the retail segment of the condo building, which also uses the address 438 East 12th Street. It is unclear who represented the tenant in the lease.

The Ripco brokers declined to comment, while a spokesperson for Barnes & Noble did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The bookstore’s new space encompasses 9,200 square feet on the ground floor and 2,100 square feet on the lower level. The asking rent and the length of the lease were not disclosed, but the average asking rent for retail space in the nearby area of 14th to 23rd streets was $320 per square foot for the first quarter of 2026, according to CBRE data. 

News of Barnes & Noble’s new lease comes as the bookstore chain has made a surprising comeback in recent years. Despite the rise of e-commerce and competition from independent bookstores, Barnes & Noble has plans to open 60 new stores across the U.S. in 2026, adding to its current U.S. store footprint of approximately 745 locations.

Its new East Village store will be at the base of Steiner East Village, which was developed by Steiner NYC and designed by Paris Forino Interior Design. The building boasts that it was the “best-selling condo building” of 2018. Its amenities include a residents lounge, fitness center, swimming pool and landscaped rooftop terrace. 

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.