2nd & Charles bookstore chain destined for Santa Fe Place mall
Oct. 25—The 2nd & Charles national bookstore chain will fill the last big vacancy at Santa Fe Place.
At 2nd & Charles, shoppers can buy or sell books, visual media, games and other media with cash or store credit.
An opening date has not been announced for the Birmingham, Ala.-based chain, which started tenant improvement in mid-October in a portion of the former Mervyn's anchor space, next to Conn's HomePlus, which opened in June in 39,850 square feet of Mervin's space.
2nd & Charles will occupy 19,200 square feet, space that has not seen a retail business since Mervyn's closed in 2008, other than The Food Depot using it during the height of the pandemic to store and distribute food, mall marketing manager Antonio Guerrero said.
Santa Fe Place is now fully occupied except for three small vacancies next to Boot Barn, Forever 21 and The Pretzel Zone. Capish! Pizza is under construction at the mall end of the food court by the same proprietors behind Hawt Pizza at Hotel Chimayó in downtown Santa Fe and The Sawmill Market in Albuquerque, mall general manager Jim Schertzing said.
Schertzing added the long-awaited Las Cruces-based Rad Retrocade, a combined arcade games, restaurant and bar venue opposite Regal Santa Fe Place, is now expecting an early 2023 opening.
Bookstores used to be a staple at malls during the 20th century in the days of Waldenbooks, B. Dalton, Crown Books and Borders, but the number of bookstores dropped from 12,151 in 1998 to 6,045 in 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and many malls have no bookstores these days.
"It's definitely rare to have a bookstore in today's marketplace," Guerrero said. "We have quite a few bookstores downtown but none in this part of town."
2nd & Charles sells new and used books, even rare signed editions. Beyond books, 2nd & Charles buys, sells and trades CDs and vinyl records, DVDs and Blu-Ray movies (but not VHS tapes), game systems and accessories, games and toys, collectibles and action figures, and musical instruments, as well as comics and graphic novels.
Customers can bring in three tote bags' worth of used merchandise at a time to sell for cash or up to 150 percent the cash offer in store credit.
2nd & Charles has 45 stores in 18 states, the nearest to Santa Fe in Lubbock, Texas, and four in Colorado in Aurora, Broomfield, Fort Collins and Littleton. Santa Fe would be the westernmost store, to go along with the southernmost Sierra discount outdoor gear store, which recently opened at DeVargas Center.
The states with 2nd & Charles stores include Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, Colorado, Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Kentucky, Delaware, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Illinois.
Syracuse, N.Y.-based Spinoso Real Estate Group, which owns Santa Fe Place, was in discussions with 2nd & Charles about locating bookstores in other Spinosa locations in the East.
"They brought up this property," Schertzing said. "They said, 'We believe your concept would work well here.' "
Spinoso owner Carmen Spinoso has said Santa Fe Place is his favorite property.
The 2nd & Charles stores are primarily in suburbs and secondary cities, with only four stores in the 100 largest cities: Jacksonville, Fla.; Charlotte, N.C.; Aurora, Colo.; and Richmond, Va. Otherwise, the stores are in places like Bossier City, La.; Chantilly, Va.; Conroe, Texas; and Dayton, Ohio.
2nd & Charles was established in 2010 by the Birmingham, Ala.-based bookstore giant Books-A-Million, also known as BAM!, which has 260 stores in 32 states. The nearest Books-A-Million to Santa Fe is in Abilene, Texas, with the other locations in Wichita Falls, Texas; Salina, Kan.; and Tulsa, Okla.
2nd & Charles and Books-A-Million did not respond to numerous phone calls and emails from The New Mexican.
