Borders Bookstore in Hollywood to Close

Borders bookstore in Hollywood at 1501 Vine Street will close by the end of May.

Parent company Borders Group announced Thursday that the Hollywood store would be among more than two dozen locations that it will shutter as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization process.

The Hollywood shutdown is part of a second wave of closings as the company reorganizes.

The 40 employees at Borders in Hollywood have been told of their options, said Rosalind Thompson, a spokeswoman for Borders.

"If other stores have openings they are welcome to apply and we are giving them information about other opportunities at other retailers that may open," she said.

A liquidation sale at the store may start as soon as the middle of next week, she said. There are no plans to relocate the store nearby.

The decision to close certain stores was "all about the economics of the store and trying to work with landlords and get some rent concessions and where we're not able to do that, then we had to close the store," she said.

Initially, the announcement included 28 stores that were set to close. Within the last couple of hours that figure has been reduced to 25, Thompson said.

"Maybe some landlords didn't think we would close," Thompson said. "But negotiations have continued. Three have been taken off the list in the last hour: one in Pennsylvania, one in Rhode Island and one in Kentucky."

"We didn't expect it to be a fluid situation," she said. "We really scrubbed the list. What's happened with the landlords is highly unusual."