This past Friday, Denver's Tattered Cover Bookstore filed a new bankruptcy reorganization plan and expects to sell the chain to a new owner by this summer. Which is great news for Denver, not to mention the employees working there. Ever since Joyce Meskis sold the chain back in 2015, it has struggled with several new owners who knew very little about running a bookstore, and without enough capital to bail them out of their mistakes. The current CEO, Brad Dempsey, who took over running the stores last July, is a lawyer specializing in bankruptcies and seems to understand what the chain needs to do. He states that he is reviewing offers from individuals and corporate entities that have the "wherewithal" to keep the Tattered Cover operating. Hopefully he chooses well.
The photograph on the right is of the Tattered Cover's bookstore in Denver's LoDo neighborhood, on the 16th Street Mall. I took it in January of 2021, two months before they closed that store and moved to a location in nearby McGregor Square, which was later closed down along with recently opened locations in Westminster and Colorado Springs, new stores that helped lead them into bankruptcy. The LoDo bookstore went from three stories to two to one before rent and maintenance became too much to continue operating in that location. And after three years, the space is still vacant. Perhaps the landlord might have been wiser to let the TC remain there at a rate they could afford until a new tenant could be found, as was done with the Highlands Ranch store. It would have been a win-win situation, but perhaps win-win is no longer in fashion these days. How sad.
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