Overview
- Barnes & Noble opened a more than 20,000-square-foot store at 150 N. State St. in the Loop with books, toys, games and community programming.
- Demolition is under way at the former Barnes & Noble site at 1130 N. State St. in the Gold Coast, clearing the parcel for a reported 28-story, 304-unit residential project.
- The Gold Coast parcels changed hands after 2019 and were sold again in 2025, a sequence of transactions that followed earlier scaled-back tower proposals and City Council approvals.
- Company CEO James Daunt framed the Loop reopening as part of a wider Chicago comeback that included new stores in Oak Park, Hyde Park and Skokie and a focus on author events and local programming.
- The shift highlights a broader urban trend in which longtime retail footprints are returning in some central locations even as other former bookstore properties are redeveloped into large residential buildings, a change that will affect neighborhood retail mix and housing supply.