BRAINTREE - The popular Barnes & Noble book store on Granite Street has reached a last-minute agreement with its landlord to avoid closing on Saturday.
The chain was able to renegotiate a lease with building landlord W.P. Carey, and will be open at least for another year, a store official said Friday night.
“We got word today and we couldn’t be more excited to be staying here in Braintree,” Sherman Hart, assistant store manager, said moments before the store closed at 10 p.m.
The store struggled to get a new lease because of a dispute with the landlord of the busy location, which has been operating for 26 years.
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A spokesperson for W.P. Carey could not be reached for comment late Friday night.
Mike Savage, 28, an employee, said customers streamed into the bookstore all day to purchase one last book before the store’s expected closing.
“It felt like we were going through the five stages of grief here,” he said. “We have an entire community here.”
Savage said he fielded dozens of those phone calls throughout Friday from customers anxious about the store’s future.
Hart told employees the good news around 6 p.m. and the workers spread it to customers when they asked, Savage said.
“Sherman kind of whispered it to me as I was working and it felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders,” he said.
As he went about his closing duties Friday night, Savage answered a phone call.
“We actually aren’t closing tomorrow,” he told the caller. “Yeah, we’re staying for another year!”