Sequoia Mall likely location
-November 28,2022-
A spokesperson for the NY-based bookseller Barnes and Noble says they are “close to securing a site” in Visalia for a new bookstore. “It could happen very soon” says Janine Flanigan, Director of Store Planning and Design for the company.
”We are opening many new stores across the nation” adds Flanigan, a dramatic turnaround for an industry that appeared to be on its deathbed just a few years ago, closing stores- not opening them.
Sources say the likely location will be a 16,000sf store being constructed at the Sequoia Mall next to the new Nordstrom Rack and Sprouts grocery store – just announced a few days ago.
Developer Dave Paynter could not confirm the bookstore deal, likely because the lease has not been finalized. Paynter did file a plan for the new store with the city recently.
If bookstores are coming back from the dead – so is the Sequoia Mall that now appears to be just about full of tenants in the old vacant Sears building, all of who are expected to open by next fall, says Paynter. It is likely the bookstore would be on the same timeline.
Flanigan says the new store will follow a prototype design that the company has used on its past 16 new stores. The site plan at the Sequoia Mall filed with the city shows tables in a plaza in front of the store.
Flanigan says if the new Visalia store has the space they will include a coffee bar as seen in other B&N bookstores.
Flanigan notes the book chain was sold in 2019 and since then there has been a turnaround. She credits management who allows local booksellers to decide what locals like to read as one reason for success. The pandemic also helped rekindle interest in reading and books she says.
Like the announcement of an organic grocer and new discount department store, this new bookstore will be good news for Visalia in that the city does not have a national bookstore since Borders closed at the Sequoia Mall over a decade ago. Downtown is getting a new bookstore run by Family Healthcare Network in the former Picnic building.
The Sequoia Mall news would give Visalia three new anchors in retail categories we don’t have today. It would also offer consumers choice and add to Visalia’s sales tax base.
A few years ago it was tough going for national book stores and it seemed like this venerable business was just fading away- killed as they say- by the internet. But during the Covid years people started reading again brightening prospects for the Barnes & Noble chain -the only player left in this business.
The private retailer stands alone after a series of mergers and bankruptcies in the American bookstore industry since the 1990s. It is the largest national bookstore chain.The company is also one of the nation’s largest manager of college textbook stores including the COS bookstore although management is completely separate. Most stores sell books, magazines, newspapers, DVDs, graphic novels, gifts, games, toys, music, and Nook e-readers and tablets. The company offers publishing and self publishing services.
With 3 new national retailers the old mall appears to be coming back to life after years of just hanging on. A Times Delta writer a few years ago offered this not very complimentary description.
The Sequoia Mall in Visalia has long been perceived as a stagnate shopping center of shuttered shop doors and shiny floors, which pristine appearance only serves as further evidence that the floors have remained free from any footsteps.
The only cloud hanging over the development of this well located retail property is the uncertain future of the movie theater. Regal Cinema, who runs the two movie houses in Visalia, has declared bankruptcy.