Barnes & Noble will be returning this spring to downtown Naperville, a little more than a year after the closed its longtime downtown location.
Janine Flanigan, the company’s vice president of store planning and design, confirmed that the country’s largest book retailer plans to open a new Naperville store in the former Pottery Barn space just up the street from its old location.
The 9 W. Jackson Ave. store will be on two levels, offering about 12,000 square feet for books, toys, games and other items that customers expect, Flanigan said in an email. The Naperville location will feature the bookstore’s new design, including a different layout, bookcases, furniture, fixtures and paint colors, she said.
“We closed our doors at the old location when our lease expired and have been in search for a new location,” Flanigan said. “This location allows us to come back to the Naperville community and we could not be more excited.”
Flanigan said the retailer began looking for other opportunities in the area when the closing was announced.
“Naperville was a community we wanted to come back to after we had to close,” she said.
Barnes & Noble is targeting an April opening, Flanigan said.
The anticipated opening comes just over a year after the business closed its doors at 47 E. Chicago Ave., where it had been located since 1998. The landlord chose not to renew the lease, Flanigan told the Sun last year.
At the time, the bookstore announced it would open a new store by redeveloping a DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse in the Prairie Market Shopping Center in Oswego.
The company has about 600 stores in all 50 states.
City officials are currently reviewing Barnes & Noble’s permit application, ity spokeswoman Linda LaCloche said.
The Downtown Naperville Alliance recently announced the new Barnes & Noble as well as several other new businesses.
Clothing store Abercrombie & Fitch, 103 S. Washington St., is planning a January opening, the Downtown Naperville Alliance said. Le macaron, a French pastry shop at 23 W. Jefferson Ave., and Rowan, an ear piercing boutique at 50 S. Main St, are planning spring openings.
Other businesses coming to the downtown area include ALO Yoga, an activewear brand at 21 W. Jefferson Ave., as well as Avocado Theory, 22 E. Chicago Ave., and Sushi Club, 175 W. Jackson Ave., said Katie Wood, executive director of the Downtown Naperville Alliance.
In the last three months, five businesses have opened, she said. These include: Ichiddo Ramen, Lotus Banh Mi, TemptInn, Kendra Scott and The Gallery 630.
“We’re excited to welcome so many new businesses to Downtown Naperville,” Wood said in an email. “Together with over 300 existing retail, restaurant and service establishments in the downtown Central Business District, these new additions will continue to drive the success and vitality of our downtown.”
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
