Fort Greene's Greenlight Bookstore Opening in Prospect Lefferts Gardens Tower

Here’s one for the books. Fort Greene’s beloved Greenlight Bookstore is opening a second location, at the base of Prospect Lefferts Gardens’ tallest building.

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The new shop will open next year in a 2,100-square-foot retail space at the bottom of the 23-story tower Hudson Companies is constructing at 626 Flatbush Avenue.

Greenlight has roots in the neighborhood: Co-owner Rebecca Fitting is a resident, and Greenlight has been running a small pop-up shop there since the fall, out of Play Kids at 676 Flatbush Avenue.

Greenlight’s Fort Greene store. Photo by Google

“All over the country, we see independent bookstores thriving when they are located in active and engaged communities,” said Fitting in a prepared statement. “This neighborhood, which I call home, feels like the right fit.”

Longtime neighborhood preschool Maple Street School will also have space in the building. A lottery for affordable apartments in the building opened in March.

When it is complete in the spring of 2016, the building will have 254 rental residential units, 20 percent of which will be affordable. The building was designed by Marvel Architects.

The tower under construction in May. Photo by Cate Corcoran

Since its opening at 686 Fulton Street in Fort Greene in 2009, Greenlight Bookstore has seen annual double-digit growth, with even more percentage increases in its off-site sales at book fairs and conferences, according to a press release.

The announcement of the independent bookstore’s second location comes on the heels of news that fellow indie book seller powerHouse Books will be moving to a new home in Dumbo come February.

Independent bookstores have been thriving in Brooklyn. Over the past decade, a number of indie bookstores have popped up in the borough, including powerHouse and P.S. Bookshop in Dumbo, Molasses Books in Bushwick and Hullabaloo Books in Crown Heights.

[Rendering: Marvel Architects | Photo: Google]

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