The Tattered Cover bookstore on East Colfax Avenue in Denver on Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Tattered Cover’s half-century run as an independent bookseller came to a formal end Tuesday when a Denver bankruptcy judge signed off on its sale to Barnes & Noble.
The companies informed Judge Michael Romero late last week that they had cleared their last legal hurdle by settling a dispute with the store’s landlord in Littleton. Tattered Cover will pay Gerrity Group, a California firm, $40,500 for rent and fees at 7301 S. Santa Fe Drive.
“I have examined various alternatives to a sale,” Tattered Cover CEO Brad Dempsey, who is also a bankruptcy lawyer, told Romero in a court filing Friday night. “None of the alternatives provide as good an outcome for the Tattered Cover … as the proposed sale.”
Tattered Cover’s “current financial condition requires closing the sale as quickly as possible,” Dempsey went on to say, asking Romero to approve the deal by Tuesday.
As BusinessDen first reported in June, Barnes & Noble was the highest of three bidders for Tattered Cover, the others being Read Colorado LLC, which had loaned the company $1.3 million to keep it afloat, and a group led by former CEO Kwame Spearman.
Tattered Cover has 72 employees spread across four stores — along Colfax, in Union Station, at Stanley Marketplace in Aurora and in Littleton — following the closure of three stores and about 25 layoffs in October. Barnes & Noble, which has 600 stores, plans to keep the Tattered Cover name, keep all four locations open and continue hosting author events.
“We’re there to provide all that is necessary for the teams to run a good bookstore,” Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt told The Denver Post during a recent tour of the flagship Colfax store. “Tattered Cover is going to figure out how it becomes Tattered Cover again.”
“It’s the store team that runs a good bookstore, whether it’s the Barnes & Noble in Fort Collins or Tattered Cover here,” he said of his company’s philosophy. “Some of them will do it brilliantly, some of them will do it shockingly awfully, and some of them in between.”
As it prepares to turn over its keys, Tattered Cover is turning a profit. On Friday, the company reported taking in $12,000 more than it spent in June and said it had $220,000 in its bank accounts. That’s a significant turnaround from its six-figure losses early this year.
The Tattered Cover bookstore on East Colfax Avenue in Denver on Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Tattered Cover’s half-century run as an independent bookseller came to a formal end Tuesday when a Denver bankruptcy judge signed off on its sale to Barnes & Noble.
The companies informed Judge Michael Romero late last week that they had cleared their last legal hurdle by settling a dispute with the store’s landlord in Littleton. Tattered Cover will pay Gerrity Group, a California firm, $40,500 for rent and fees at 7301 S. Santa Fe Drive.
“I have examined various alternatives to a sale,” Tattered Cover CEO Brad Dempsey, who is also a bankruptcy lawyer, told Romero in a court filing Friday night. “None of the alternatives provide as good an outcome for the Tattered Cover … as the proposed sale.”
Tattered Cover’s “current financial condition requires closing the sale as quickly as possible,” Dempsey went on to say, asking Romero to approve the deal by Tuesday.
As BusinessDen first reported in June, Barnes & Noble was the highest of three bidders for Tattered Cover, the others being Read Colorado LLC, which had loaned the company $1.3 million to keep it afloat, and a group led by former CEO Kwame Spearman.
Tattered Cover has 72 employees spread across four stores — along Colfax, in Union Station, at Stanley Marketplace in Aurora and in Littleton — following the closure of three stores and about 25 layoffs in October. Barnes & Noble, which has 600 stores, plans to keep the Tattered Cover name, keep all four locations open and continue hosting author events.
“We’re there to provide all that is necessary for the teams to run a good bookstore,” Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt told The Denver Post during a recent tour of the flagship Colfax store. “Tattered Cover is going to figure out how it becomes Tattered Cover again.”
“It’s the store team that runs a good bookstore, whether it’s the Barnes & Noble in Fort Collins or Tattered Cover here,” he said of his company’s philosophy. “Some of them will do it brilliantly, some of them will do it shockingly awfully, and some of them in between.”
As it prepares to turn over its keys, Tattered Cover is turning a profit. On Friday, the company reported taking in $12,000 more than it spent in June and said it had $220,000 in its bank accounts. That’s a significant turnaround from its six-figure losses early this year.
