McNally Jackson Staying In SoHo And Adding Two Locations: Report

SOHO, NY — Just four months after Sarah McNally said high rents were forcing her off Prince St., the bookstore owner announced McNally Jackson will stay in SoHo as well as add two more locations, Vulture reported.

McNally Jackson was nearly ousted from its flagship location at 52 Prince St. when the landlord raised the rent from $350,000 to $850,000 annually, McNally told Vulture, which first reported the news. But she negotiated with her landlord for a middle-ground rent of $650,000-a-year with gradual increases for five years.

Now, McNally plans to expand to Downtown Brooklyn in City Point, the building that houses the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, and the South Street Seaport at Pier 17. McNally opened a Williamsburg location a year ago and also has an outpost at LaGuardia Airport.

"If you told me when I opened my first store, when I was 29, that I would eventually open four, I would have said no way," McNally told Vulture.

Rising rents are an ongoing issue in Downtown Manhattan, where myriad businesses have announced closures in recent months.

In Chelsea, the gastro-pub founded by photojournalists, Half King, shuttered after 18 years last month. St. Mark's Comics is closing after 36 years on St. Mark's Place. The Upright Citizens Brigade cited financial pressures for the closure of its East Village location, which will be replaced with a weekend set-up at NoHo venue SubCulture.

One piece of legislation, which McNally has supported, that is aimed to help small businesses avoid drastic rent hikes has long-languished in the City Council. The council held a hearing about the bill last October. The controversial bill, known as the The Small Business Jobs Survival Act, would establish new rules for commercial lease renewal negotiations, including a right to 10-year lease renewals and a process for negotiating renewals that could include arbitration.

"We are being replaced by chains," McNally said at a rally in support of the bill.

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