St. Mark's Bookshop to stay open after all

The Manhattan borough president brokered a deal between St. Mark's Bookshop and its landlord, Cooper Union college, that will keep the East Village reading staple from closing.

The independent bookstore, facing record low book sales, was granted a rent reduction of $2,500 from its $20,000-a-month rent for one year. The college also forgave a $7,500 loan it had made to the bookstore.

"This is good news," store owner Bob Contant said Thursday. "A week ago we had nothing."

Contant said he was hopeful an uptick in holiday sales will help keep the bookstore, founded in 1977, going.

He credited Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer with brokering the deal.

"He didn't want to see us close," Contant said.

At a news conference Thursday at the store, Stringer said he was "pleased that I helped engineer an agreement between Cooper Union and the St. Mark's Bookshop that will allow this treasured community resource to remain open."

Neighborhood residents and more than 43,000 people from across the nation signed an online petition urging the college to lower the bookstore's rent.

Cooper Union president Jamshed Bharucha said, "those who signed the petition should buy more of its books" to ensure the store's future success.

Bharucha said the college itself is facing its own economic struggles, and is considering charging tuition.

Currently, the engineering, architecture and art college does not charge tuition to its 900 undergraduates -- a tradition it has held since it opened in the late 1800s.

In a message on the college website, Bharucha said the college is running a 28 percent deficit, or a $16.5 million shortfall of its $59.7 million expenditures.

Claire McCarthy, college spokeswoman, said a decision to charge tuition has not been made, and that undergraduate students currently enrolled would not be affected.