After 20 years at 888 Valencia Street, Modern Times Bookstore is looking for a new place to call home. According to one of the store’s co-owners, they received notice from the landlord today that their 10-year lease would not be extended.
Their current lease ends in late April, and by May Modern Times will need to have a different space. “We are doing everything possible to remain in the Mission,” said co-owner Kate Maxwell.
Maxwell has scheduled several meetings today with landlords of potential new venues, and said she hopes to have a location as soon as possible. The owner of the store’s current space would not extend their lease because he wants to make repairs and modifications and increase the rent, Maxwell said, but she does not know if he has a new tenant lined up yet.
Modern Times has served the neighborhood for almost 40 years, and wants to continue to do so.
“We have no wish to go outside the Mission,” said Maxwell.
Abandoned Planet on Valencia Street closed its doors early last year, and this year Adobe Books on 16th Street has talked about the difficulty of making enough money to stay open.
let’s see here: retail businesses are dropping like flies, vacancies are piling up, and there is a number of medium and large footprint vacancies on Valencia (eg: x-21, z-barn, busy bee mkt…)
greed will bite this landlord in the rear.
Doesn’t this landlord have another giant retail space vacant next to Modern Times? I hope this doesn’t create another vacancy on Valencia.I am sorry to see it go.
24th Street would be a great choice if nothing affordable is available on Valencia.
Good riddance to their landlord. Remind me NOT to patronize the next business in that space.
I agree with Vytas – somewhere close to Philz would give them a great deal of constant foot traffic.
Move to 24th street please! It would be great to have the store in the neighborhood, and there are a number of available storefronts — probably for cheaper than on Valencia!
Good riddance. Any bookstore with a staff that refuses to help people and treats customers like criminals should not be in business.