ABA Announces Possible Sale of Tarrytown Property

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

In the following letter, addressed to ABA members, the association's Board of Directors is announcing that, after lengthy deliberations, it has decided to sell the ABA headquarters property in Tarrytown, New York, to a prominent Westchester-based real estate company.

To: ABA Membership
From: ABA Board of Directors

We are writing to share some important news with the membership concerning possible changes in the ownership of the ABA headquarters property in Tarrytown, New York.

As some may recall, we purchased the property back in 1991, when ABA was a very different organization. At the time, there were almost 5,000 ABA 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 about 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 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.

After lengthy deliberations at Board meetings, going back over the past several years, we have decided to sell the property in Tarrytown to a prominent Westchester-based real estate company, with ABA leasing back all the space that we currently occupy for two years, with the option to remain after that. By making the change in this way, we obtain the proceeds from the sale and free our staff from the many responsibilities associated with managing the property, 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. It is our intention to appoint a task force of Board members, booksellers, and staff to begin this process in the coming months.

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 they own, we are confident that the prospective new owners share those values. The transaction to sell is in its final stages, and, while we do not anticipate any roadblocks or problems in finalizing our agreement, as everyone who has bought or sold property knows, no deal is final until an actual closing takes place. However, we thought it very important to share this news with the membership now. Details about the terms of the transaction will be available to the membership at our upcoming annual meeting.

As your current Board of Directors, we want to re-emphasize that we've made this decision because ABA is such a dramatically different organization today than it was in 1991. It is this evolution of the association that has brought about the changes in our real estate needs. We 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.

Changes of this sort offer an opportunity to look at the big picture, and we think it important for the membership to be reminded that our finances are very solid; our advocacy efforts have brought about fundamental change to the way our industry operates; our Book Sense program is a major success; and we're sharing more information with the membership more efficiently than ever before. In other words, ABA is in 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.

As always, if there is anything regarding the above (or any other ABA-related matter) you'd like to discuss with any one of us, please, do not hesitate to contact us. Our phone numbers and e-mails are noted below. And, we hope to see many of you at BEA in early June.

Ann Christophersen, ABA President, Women & Children First, Chicago, IL (773-769-9299; e-mail: [email protected])

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

John Bennett, Bennett Books, Wyckoff, NJ; (201-891-8444; 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])

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])

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

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