ABA Announces Completion of Sale of Tarrytown Property

ABA President Mitchell Kaplan

A letter from newly elected ABA President Mitchell Kaplan to bookstore members announces the completion of the sale of the association's headquarters property in Tarrytown, New York, to Diamond Properties of Valhalla, New York, on Wednesday, June 30.

Dear Fellow Bookseller:

Greetings, I want to say how much I am looking forward to serving as your president this year and doing whatever I can to ensure not just the survival -- but the success -- of independent bookselling. It was great to meet so many of you at this year's BookExpo America, and thanks for your support and good wishes.

As you know, this past April ABA announced that we had reached an agreement to sell our headquarters property in Tarrytown, New York. I can now report that as of yesterday, June 30, the transaction is complete and ownership of the property has been transferred to Diamond Properties of Valhalla, New York. Included in our agreement to sell the property is a lease-back arrangement, whereby ABA will remain in our current space for at least two years -- with the option to remain after that -- if we choose to do so.

As noted in April, the ABA Board deliberated for a long time before making this decision and, ultimately, concluded that to sell the property was the right thing to do at this time. I want to re-emphasize that we've made this decision because ABA is a fundamentally different organization today than we were back when the property was purchased in 1991. Our current finances are as solid as they've been in a decade; our Book Sense program is a major success; our advocacy, education, and information efforts continue to serve the needs of our members; and, despite the decline in our membership, the percentage of books sold in independent stores has shown modest gains in recent years. In other words, ABA is in very good shape, and we firmly believe that this decision will enhance our ability to continue to serve our members in the very best way we can.

Back in 1991 when we purchased the property, ABA had almost 5,000 members, we owned and operated the book industry's national trade show, published a monthly magazine, ran a full program of prospective bookseller schools, and, maintained a full-time staff of almost 55 people. When we first moved to Tarrytown -- and for some years thereafter -- the headquarters facility met our needs extremely well. However, because of the evolving changes in our operations, as years passed we found ourselves with far more space than we needed. And while we were successful in leasing the unused space to multiple tenants, we never believed that it was in the best interests of ABA or the membership to be in the real estate business for the long term.

As part of the Board's responsibility is to protect and manage the association's assets, it became clear that we needed to explore alternative ways of handling our real estate requirements without necessarily continuing to own this particular property. We looked at many, many options and carefully considered a range of possibilities. We also compared both our occupancy costs and the percentage of our fixed assets (as compared to our total assets) to other similarly sized associations, using guidelines set forth by the American Society of Association Executives, the trade association for trade associations. In the end, we discovered that, because we were using so much less space, our per-square-foot costs were slightly higher than the norm and that we had a higher percentage of fixed assets than other similar associations.

Multiple appraisals of the property were conducted by different professionals, and discussions were held with a wide range of possible purchasers. The appraisals ranged from a low of $3.5 million to a high of $6.7 million. The appraisals also underscored that, due to massive overbuilding and high vacancy rates, commercial property in Westchester County was not appreciating very much, which provided additional impetus to sell at this time. After lengthy Board deliberations, we entered into a contract to sell the property for $5.75 million. Importantly, because the purchaser is a real estate company that will not actually occupy the space, this arrangement provides us with the proceeds from the sale without having to relocate -- while freeing our staff from the many responsibilities associated with managing the property and allowing them to concentrate their attention on programs to benefit the membership. This arrangement also provides us with ample time to analyze ABA's real estate needs moving forward. As some of you may remember, we purchased the property in 1991 for $2.8 million, and, while we invested a considerable amount over the years in renovation and maintenance, because our occupancy costs for the almost 13 years we owned the property were so modest, overall, our ownership of the property was a good financial deal for ABA.

As we said back in April, we can assure you that we did not come to this decision lightly. Many of us have grown to appreciate the literary and historical characteristics of the property -- not to mention the beautiful buildings and grounds. Based on other properties owned by Diamond Properties, we are confident that the new owners share those values. We also want to reiterate that all of us on the Board firmly believe that the decision to purchase the property in the early 1990s was the right thing to do at that time, and that this decision to sell in 2004 is the best thing to do now.

As always, if there is anything regarding the above (or any other ABA-related matter) you'd like to discuss with me -- or any of my colleagues on the Board -- please, do not hesitate to contact us. Our phone numbers and e-mails are noted below.

Again, I look forward to serving as your president. I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend, and if you're ever in the Miami area, you will come by and say hello.

Warm regards,

Mitchell Kaplan
President, American Booksellers Association
Books & Books, Coral Gables and Miami, Florida

Mitchell Kaplan, ABA President, Books & Books, Coral Gables, FL (305-442-4408; e-mail: [email protected])

Suzanne Staubach, ABA Vice President/Secretary, UConn Co-op, Storrs, CT (860-486-5027; e-mail: [email protected])

Neal Coonerty, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA (831-460-3224; e-mail: [email protected])

Carla Jimenez, Inkwood Books, Tampa, FL (813-253-2638; e-mail: [email protected])

Cathy Langer, Tattered Cover Book Store, Denver, CO (303-322-1965; e-mail: [email protected]

Russ Lawrence, Chapter One Book Store, Hamilton, MT (406-363-5220; e-mail: [email protected])

Karl Pohrt, Shaman Drum Bookshop, Ann Arbor, MI (734-662-7407; e-mail: [email protected])

Linda Ramsdell, The Galaxy Bookshop, Hardwick, VT (802-472-5533; e-mail: [email protected])

Gayle Shanks, Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, AZ (480-730-1142; e-mail: [email protected])