Lizzy Alfs

lalfs@tennessean.com

Quirky independent bookstore BookManBookWoman plans to close after 20 years in Hillsboro Village.

Faced with a potential rental rate increase, owners Larry Woods and his wife Saralee Terry Woods have decided to close their shop at 1713 21st Ave. at the end of the holiday season. After Dec. 31, Saralee Woods plans to operate an e-commerce business at BookManBookWoman.com.

“Our customers have been great the entire 20 years,” Larry Woods said. “I’m hoping every customer will come in and find a treasured book to buy at this point because the prices are awfully good.”

Used books are marked 50 percent off and new books are 20 percent off the cover price. Current gift certificates will be honored until the store closes but the store will no longer issue new gift certificates or accept used books for trade in.

Larry Woods, a civil rights attorney and avid book collector, said he plans to empty out a warehouse packed with books in South Nashville to sell at the store before it closes.

BookManBookWoman is a centerpiece of the shopping scene in the neighborhood just southwest of downtown Nashville, which has changed rapidly in the last three years. A flurry of real estate activity on the commercial corridor along 21st Avenue has shifted the retail makeup of the neighborhood and ongoing development juxtaposes the old with the new.

Longtime businesses including Boscos Restaurant & Brewing Co., Sam's Sports Grill and Sunset Grill have closed in recent years. Meanwhile, new development has brought mixed-use buildings to the neighborhood while new stores and restaurants have opened at a fast rate. Still coming to the neighborhood are Austin-based Hopdoddy Burger Bar and local favorites Grilled Cheeserie and Biscuit Love.

BookManBookWoman opened as just BookMan in 1995 in the original Pancake Pantry building in the neighborhood. The store moved to a larger space across the street and became BookManBookWoman, carrying more than 10,000 new and used titles.

The Woods own the BookWoman building at 1711 21st Ave., next to Provence Breads & Cafe. Larry Woods said they plan to either lease or sell the building but would prefer to lease it to a new tenant.

They lease the neighboring BookMan building at 1713 21st Ave. from a Ted W. Davis Jr. family trust, according to the Davidson County Assessor. Davis died in 2015 and his family owns the adjacent Davis Cookware and Cutlery Shoppe and the building at 1717 21st Ave. That store opened in 1969 and moved to its current location in 1976.

Larry Woods said their rent was set to increase 300 to 400 percent in the BookMan building, spurring their decision to close the bookstore.

“Bookstores don’t make much profit, so no question at that point we were out of business at that location, and we were hoping we could condense half and move the bookstore into the half we owned, but the numbers on that just didn’t work,” Larry Woods said.

In response, Scott Davis of the Davis family said the bookstore was given the option to stay in the building at the same rental rate but refused.

Davis issued the following statement:

“In 1998, the Davis family provided and helped secured affordable locations for BookMan. Since 1998, the Davis family has heavily invested in BookManBookWoman and its future. We have not raised the rent since their first and only three-year lease in 1998. We have a month-to-month unsigned extension since 2001. We have been in negotiations since August 2016 and have come to no conclusions regarding a rental agreement. I just found out yesterday on the news that BookManBookWoman is closing at the end of the year. It is upsetting to me and my family to learn that they are closing their business. We do not understand their statement about rent increase when there has been no contracts written or presented.”

Davis said the family plans to expand their cookware and cutlery store into the BookMan building once it closes.

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Larry Woods said he’s hopeful Hillsboro Village can retain its local flair despite ongoing development and recent retail changes. He said a majority of the stores remain locally owned.

“I would hate to see it change substantially and I don’t think it’s going to,” he said.

The closure of BookManBookWoman marks a blow to Nashville’s independent book scene, a challenging industry in the age of the Internet. Other local bookstores include Parnassus Books, Her Bookshop, McKay’s, Rhino Booksellers and East Side Story.

Larry Woods said the store was able to survive 20 years thanks in large part to its proximity to Vanderbilt and Belmont universities.

“(Universities) create a different atmosphere, different culture, different kind of community,” he said.

Saralee Woods said closing the store will give her more free time. On Sunday, the day the Woods announced the closure, she was able to go to her Bible class, watch the Tennessee Titans defeat the Green Bay Packers and catch up on one of her favorite television shows.

“Those are things I wouldn’t have gotten to do in the past on a Sunday with all the gearing up for the next week, plus we are very, very busy on Sundays. It was just time (for us to close) and why not go out when things are terrific?” Saralee Woods said.

One of her favorite memories of owning the bookstore is from the early days, when she sold a few of her husband’s books without asking him, and then had to track down the customers who purchased them and buy them back to give them to Larry for Christmas. She also loved having the free rack of children’s books out front.

“I think it’s the joy of putting books in people’s hands that has been just great,” Saralee Woods said.

Both Larry and Saralee Woods thanked their customers for many years of support and encouraged people to continue to support local bookstores.

“Go to brick-and-mortar bookstores. That’s what I would tell people. Do that and support them,” Saralee Woods said.

Reach Lizzy Alfs at 615-726-5948 and on Twitter @lizzyalfs.