The owners blamed ‘considerable’ economic challenges, ‘including supply chain disruptions and escalating costs’
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Cambridge-based Harvard Book Store will not be opening a second store in the Prudential Center, after its owners announced Friday that the project faced “considerable” economic challenges, including “ongoing supply chain disruptions and escalating costs” from the fallout of the pandemic.
It’s sour news for the Boston literary scene, which once cheered the opportunity to see the beloved bookstore expand inside one of the city’s busiest shopping centers. Now it is unclear what will fill the nearly 30,000-square-foot empty storefront inside the Pru, previously occupied by Barnes & Noble. (Prudential Center landlord Boston Properties did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
Co-owner Jeff Mayersohn said the announcement, while frustrating, offers a chance for the bookstore to refocus on upgrading the original Harvard Square outpost.
“While [the Pru] project has now been canceled, we are investing in improvements at our flagship Cambridge location, which has always been the heart of Harvard Book Store,” a statement from the bookstore team read. “The cancellation of the Pru project is humbling and disappointing.”
Harvard Book Store has only recently recovered from a pandemic-era dip in revenue, thanks to a surge in customers and hundreds of events and author readings last year, Mayersohn said.
“I’m pleased to say we are finally back to where we were prior to the pandemic,” he added. “That does not mean that we don’t understand how disheartening the news about the Prudential location is for the Back Bay neighborhood, and really, all of Boston.”
Mayersohn and his co-owners — wife Linda Seamonson, and John Henry, who also owns Boston Globe Media — once imagined the Pru location as a community hub, home to an expansive book inventory, children’s section, and event space.
The project marked the first major off-site expansion of the Harvard Book Store since the Harvard Book Store Cafe on Newbury Street closed in 1994,and a significant move under the leadership of the Henrys, who bought into the business as part-owner in December 2021.
In an emailed statement, Linda Henrysaid that the couple “are continuing to invest in Harvard Book Store to ensure that it remains a thriving, sustainable hub for readers, writers, and community voices.”
“Like the Globe, Harvard Book Store serves an important civic role,” said Linda Henry, who is also CEO of the Globe. “Just as local, independent journalism is vital to our region and our democracy, local independent bookstores are important cultural pillars in our community.
When the Pru location was first announced in July 2022, Harvard Book Store staff said the second storefront was the culmination of Mayersohn’s long-held vision to expand the business. And its growth was in keeping with the success independent booksellers across Greater Boston have found these past four years.
After long struggling amid the rise of Amazon, big-box stores, and e-readers, small bookshops benefited from a reading revival during the first waves of COVID-19. At least a dozen bookshops have opened or expanded in the Boston area since 2020.
Sadly, the second location for Harvard Book Store won’t be following the same trend.
“At the end of the day,” Mayersohn said of cancelling the Prudential project, “it was the right thing to do.”
Correction: A prior version of this story incorrectly stated that Harvard Book Store had not expanded into another location before.