Ten Years After: Barnes & Noble Reopens in Cincy

Barnes & Noble (New York) has opened a new bookstore in Cincinnati’s Kenwood neighborhood, 10 years after closing its store in the same shopping district. The new B&N is in The Kenwood Collection, which sits just north of the Kenwood Towne Centre mall; the store that closed in November 2013 was in a shopping center just to the east of the mall.

“There is no better example of our momentous change of fortune than to be opening this beautiful new bookstore exactly 10 years after the closure of the old Kenwood shop,” said CEO James Daunt. “Now we open new bookstores across the country, entering new communities and returning to our old stomping grounds. To open this new Kenwood Barnes & Noble at the height of holiday shopping is a cause for celebration.”

The Kenwood Collection bookstore is one of three new Barnes & Noble bookstores to open in recent days, alongside ones in Richardson, Texas, and Bridgehampton, N.Y., for a total of 10 new bookstores debuting in the past 30 days.

B&N attributes much of its rebirth to handing control of each bookstore to its manager. The bookseller has opened over 30 new bookstores in 2023 and plans to open more than 50 in 2024.

“The original Kenwood Barnes & Noble that the community remembers and loved so dearly closed its doors in November 2013. The fact that we are opening on the 10-year anniversary of that date is an exciting and a symbolic occasion,” said Store Manager Maria Frick McCartney, a B&N bookseller for 24 years.