Barnes & Noble will close its Jefferson City bookstore by the end of this year, company officials confirmed Tuesday.
"The lease at our Jefferson City location will expire at the end of 2016, and the store will be closing then," David Deason, Barnes & Noble vice president of development, said in a statement emailed to the News Tribune. "We had discussions with the property owner in hopes of agreeing to an extension of the lease, but unfortunately we were unable to come to an agreement."
The national chain's local presence opened in the Wildwood Crossings shopping center at 3535 Missouri Blvd. in 2003, the year after the development was built.
A representative of Rubenstein Real Estate, the Overland Park, Kansas, company that manages Wildwood Crossings, said she could not confirm the new tenant that will lease the 23,207 square feet of retail space, although the spot to be vacated by Barnes & Noble is not currently listed as available on the company's website.
Barnes & Noble had expected to close eight stores by the end of fiscal year 2016, according to a March article in The Wall Street Journal. The company posted a 6.1 percent decline in retail sales in the first quarter of fiscal year 2017, as compared to the previous year, with a retail operating loss of $7.4 million during the quarter.
Deason did not specify whether the company would seek a place to relocate within the Jefferson City market.
"It has been our pleasure to have served this community, and we hope to continue to serve our valued customers at the Columbia Mall store and online at BN.com," he said.
Wildwood Crossings is set to lose another national retailer anytime, as MC Sports announced in July it would close its Jefferson City store this fall. Another previous national tenant, Petco, moved out of Wildwood Crossings and Jefferson City in 2014 when it was unable to renegotiate its lease.
The shopping center is still anchored by national retailers including Old Navy, Pier 1 Imports and T.J. Maxx.