Business Ins & Outs: Amazon Book Stores, L’Enfant Gallery
By • March 7, 2022 0 1928
Out: Amazon to Drop Book Stores
Amazon will be closing all 68 of its physical bookstores, along with its pop-ups. The closure includes Amazon Books at 3040 M St. NW. Ironically, the Georgetown book store opened in part of the former Barnes & Noble space in 2018. The company remains committed to its physical grocery stores. The Glover Park Whole Foods reopened last month with high-tech transaction devices.
“We’ve decided to … focus more on our Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Go and Amazon Styles stores and our Just Walk Out technology,” Amazon said in a statement. “We remain committed to building great, long-term physical retail experiences and technologies, and we’re working closely with our affected employees to help them find new roles within Amazon.”
At the corner building, Nike shares the same address with the book store — 3040 M St. NW — and has been asked if it plans to move.
“Nike missed a deadline earlier this year to exercise a renewal option for its roughly 33,600-square-foot space at 3040 M St. NW, according to a source familiar with the situation,” according to the Washington Business Journal. “It’s unclear whether it was an oversight or whether the retailer intentionally missed the deadline with the intention of giving back its space or renegotiating for a smaller footprint in the 44,000-square-foot building, according to the source, who was not authorized to speak on the record about the situation … Its current lease is slated to expire in the first quarter of 2023.”
According to the business report, “Lincoln Property Co. is seeking replacement tenants for Nike Inc.’s Georgetown retail store, more than a decade after the athletic apparel giant inked a deal to fill the gap created by Barnes & Noble.” Nike inked its lease in 2012.
Moving: L’Enfant Gallery; Building for Sale
L’Enfant Gallery has been at corner of Wisconsin Avenue and P Street NW for more than 20 years — and is hard to miss with its windows full of items and artwork to see as well as other antiques and unique collectibles outside on the sidewalk during business hours.
But now the the three-story building which houses the cornucopia of owner Peter Colasante is on the market for $7,250,000 through the Diaz-Asper Group of TTR Sotheby’s.
“I wanted to be in Georgetown because it has heart and history … There is a real community here, my shop provides as much a place for social contact as it does a platform for art … this is something I really missed in the last couple of years and look forward to taking up again,” Colasante told Georgetown Main Street. With the downsizing, he added, “This is the best time to try for a discount here, since we are seriously cleaning out everything!”
Colasante was the subject of a Georgetowner profile six years ago.
