Book Revue Plans to Stay Put

For booklovers worried that the Book Revue would depart its New York Avenue home, there's good news.

Robert Klein, who owns the independent store with his brother, Richard, said Wednesday that they are staying put even though a lease dispute with a new owner earlier this year led them to consider leaving.

The dispute revolved around a new owner and longstanding lease practices. “We, like 90 percent of the businesses downtown, were not paying the full rent” listed under the original lease, Klein said.

When new owner Emerson J. Dobbs took over the lease, he insisted on the full price for the 27-year lease, Klein said, which led the brothers to consider pulling up stakes after 34 years in the same spot.  And that had many Huntington residents who consider the store an icon, worried that it might be lost.

But Klein said that business has picked up, saying that the store was showing October sales had picked up over last October’s numbers, possibly because of the closing of Borders book chain and because of community backing.

Bookstores around the country have been hard hit in recent years by online. "It's harder to make a living now, but right now it's okay," he said.

The store participates in Long Island Literacy Volunteers, the Books for Soldiers project and other charitable activities around Huntington.

“People have been responding in a very supportive way,” he said. “We’re heartened by their responses.” Despite the economic downturn, “hopefully business will get a little better, and it looks like it will.”

And Emerson J. Dobbs III of the Dobbs company said, “We hope they stay;  we think they’re an asset to the town.”