A bankruptcy court judge gave the go-ahead Tuesday to the sale of the Tattered Cover bookstore, a longtime staple of the country’s independent bookstore scene, to Barnes & Noble.

The order by Judge Michael E. Romero approving the $1.83 million sale of the store’s four locations brings to a close a quest by Bended Page, Tattered Cover’s owner, to keep the storied business alive. The approval opens a new chapter for the store that started as a small shop in Denver’s Cherry Creek North neighborhood about 50 years and grew to a nationally known bookseller and champion of First Amendment rights.

Barnes & Noble, the country’s largest book retailer, offered one of three bids to buy Tattered Cover out of bankruptcy. Bended Page said it was the only offer that contemplated keeping all the store’s locations running.

James Daunt, Barnes & Noble CEO, said by phone Tuesday that he was happy that Tattered Cover will stay in business and that jobs will be preserved.

“The alternative was not great,” Daunt said.

The agreement agreed to by Bended Page and Barnes & Noble included covering the $1.6 million in secured claims that Tattered Cover owes. Barnes & Noble will pay $50,000 for back rent and plans to extend the leases on the store’s sites.

The sale needed the approval from the bankruptcy court. The judge’s order clears the way for the two parties to close the deal.

The lease on Tattered Cover’s main location at East Colfax Avenue in Denver will be extended through 2038. Barnes & Noble has said that Tattered Cover will keep its name and that “substantially all” of the store’s roughly 70 employees will be offered jobs.

Daunt, who started as an independent bookseller in his native England, visited Denver in late June and met with several Tattered Cover employees.

“I know there’s a sort of skepticism about it, but really in truth this is something that Tattered Cover will sort out. We at Barnes & Noble are not going to be running these stores. Tattered Cover is going to be running these stores,” Daunt said.

“They have very good store managers. I think we now have to put them back on their feet and get them all ordering books and assorting their stores properly,” he added.

In a statement, Daunt credited Tattered Cover CEO Brad Dempsey with “expertly” guiding the company through the court process and the employees for “their steadfast application to running the stores through this period of uncertainty.”

Dempsey said he is pleased that Tattered Cover will emerge from bankruptcy “fully supported and recapitalized” while preserving its identity and able to rebuild. He said he is grateful for the employees’ support and customers’ loyalty.

Daunt was managing director, or CEO, of Waterstones, Britain’s largest bookstore chain, before taking the top job at Barnes & Noble in 2019. Elliott Investment Management, a New York hedge fund, acquired Waterstones and then Barnes & Noble.

Daunt is still managing director of Waterstones and still has his own bookstores. Since joining Barnes & Noble, Daunt said he has stressed that the individual stores should chart their own courses.

“I am a complete and firm believer that book sellers have to run their book stores and if you give them the autonomy, support and equipment to do it, they will run much better book stores,” Daunt said.

During his recent visit to Denver, Daunt pointed to some of the empty shelves in Tattered Cover’s main store. The stores now will have the resources to fill those shelves, he said.

“I would expect them to have an extremely strong holiday period,” Daunt said. “They will spend August and September building themselves up with the aim to be really good stores in time for the November-December holiday period.”

Joyce Meskis bought Tattered Cover in 1974. The business became a gathering place and a center of community events while fighting censorship and for the rights of readers and writers. Celebrities, high-profile politicians and former presidents participated in events at the store.

In 2017, book-industry veterans Len Vlahos and his wife Kristen Gilligan acquired controlling interest in the Tattered Cover. Bended Page, co-founded by Denver natives Kwame Spearman and David Back, bought the struggling company in 2020.

Tattered Cover filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcyless than a year after the death of Meskis in December 2022. The parent company put the bookstore up for sale in March.

Besides the main store on East Colfax Avenue, Tattered Cover has a second store in Denver at Union Station in Lower Downtown; one in the Aspen Grove shopping center in Littleton; and a children’s bookstore in Stanley Marketplace in Aurora.

Daunt said Tattered Cover’s three licensed stores will remain open on each concourse of Denver International Airport. Employees, supported by Barnes & Noble, are working this week to transition to a new computer system that could briefly affect store hours and service and cause interruptions online.

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Originally Published: July 30, 2024 at 6:38 p.m.