Barnes & Noble returns to Reston with big store

The recently-relocated store at Congressional Plaza in Rockville. (Courtesy Barnes & Noble)

A decade after closing its anchor store at Reston Town Center, Barnes & Noble returns with a new store there.

The 28,000-square-foot store replaces a former Office Depot in The Spectrum at Reston Town Center, next to Harris Teeter.

It opens June 14, with author Tania James cutting the ribbon and signing copies of her new book, Loot.

The new Reston store includes a B&N Cafe and stocks toys, games and gifts along with books.

“We are delighted to open in Reston such a beautiful and impressive new bookstore,” said CEO James Daunt. “Nowhere is the success of brick-and-mortar bookstores better demonstrated than the opening of this very large new Barnes & Noble in Reston.”

After years of bookstore closings, both national chains and Mom and Pop stores, Barnes & Noble has been making an aggressive comeback.

In 2022, the company opened more new bookstores in a single year than it had in the whole decade from 2009 to 2019. Barnes & Noble is on track to open 30 new bookstores in 2023.

The Reston location is the first to open in Fairfax County since 2019. The company has 20 stores currently in the D.C. region.

London-based Elliott Investment Management, which owns UK bookstore chain Waterstones Booksellers, acquired Barnes & Noble in 2019.

Jeff Clabaugh

Jeff Clabaugh has spent 20 years covering the Washington region's economy and financial markets for WTOP as part of a partnership with the Washington Business Journal, and officially joined the WTOP newsroom staff in January 2016.

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