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After 30 Years, Books & Books To Close Lincoln Road Location

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - On the typically bustling, popular Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, one staple store is joining the list of now-empty storefronts. Books & Books will close its Lincoln Road location after three decades.

Store owner Mitchell Kaplan said the decision to close one of his multiple bookstore locations was financial. The cost of rent, pushing out stores like his.

"Lincoln Road is not hospitable anymore for small, independent stores. It just isn't," Kaplan said.

Books & Books location on Lincoln Road, which Kaplan dubbed as once interesting and quirky, opened in the 1980s. The bookstore owner wouldn't go into detail about how much his team spent each month but said, "I can tell you that the rent has gone up thousands of percent from the time we started in 1982."

The appeal and pride of an address on Lincoln Road, Kaplan said, kept him and his team sticking it out through the financial challenges. That is, until coronavirus shut downs.

"With this pandemic, it became very clear that Lincoln Road was going to be suffering for a while, and we just couldn't afford to keep it going," Kaplan said. "So it was really a financial decision more than anything else."

Business Insider named Lincoln Road the fifth most expensive shopping street in America in 2017, with rent going for about $300 a square foot. (https://www.businessinsider.com/most-expensive-shopping-streets-america-2017-11#5-lincoln-road-miami-5)

The price of a Lincoln Road address has exchanged stores like Kaplan's for big name retailers.

"What was once a very quirky, interesting street has now become no different than any other regional mall, really," said Kaplan. "And I've seen that now over the last several years. Fewer locals have come."

Most of the senior staff at the Lincoln Road Books & Books location will move to the bookstore's Bal Harbour spot. And Kaplan stressed all six of his store's other locations will remain open.

But the decision to leave "quirky" Lincoln Road, is bittersweet for Kaplan and his family. Jonah, Kaplan's 27-year-old son, grew up going to the Lincoln Road store every weekend and now works at his dad's flagship bookstore in Coral Gables.

"Seeing what it was when I was younger and seeing what it's become now is sad to me," Jonah Kaplan said. "And I think sad to the community. And it should be sad to the community. I think that a huge takeaway for me is, like my dad stressed, what does a community want? And what sort of stores do we need? And do we need a huge brand moving in or do we need these local, independent stores that bring value to the community?"

Mitchell Kaplan and his team now plan to look for another location in Miami Beach.

"It's extremely bittersweet to be leaving, but hopeful in the sense that I want to make sure that we can find a space where the next generation of folks will be able to benefit from Books & Books," said Kaplan.

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