ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 19, 1996 TAG: 9603190062
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
Books Strings & Things Inc., a popular book and music store, has closed its 31-year-old Blacksburg location. The move was part of the company's effort to reorganize after declaring bankruptcy.
The 10-year-old Roanoke City Market store will remain open.
Tom Dickenson, a lawyer representing BS&T owner Richard Walters, said the store's creditors and stockholders would be better served by closing the Blacksburg store. The company has been operating since December 1994 under a Chapter 11 financial reorganization plan, which requires Walters to pay his creditors over a seven-year period.
Under the plan, Walters has been allowed to keep the Blacksburg and Roanoke stores open while he pays off a $1 million debt. Dickenson said one store had to be closed to keep the business going and rein in costs. The Roanoke location is more profitable, he said.
One full-time and three part-time employees were working at the Blacksburg store before it closed Thursday. None will be transferred to Roanoke.
"We've had a long struggle, but at this point we think we're emerging leaner and more financially sound than when we went in," Dickenson said.
BS&T was renting its downtown Blacksburg property on Draper Street from HCMF Corp., but the store's largest secured creditor, Charlotte, N.C.-based NationsBank Corp., had a lien on the store's contents, Dickenson said.
The bank is working out details on a sale of the assets with a Blacksburg resident who wants to open another bookstore in the 2,800-square-foot location. Dickenson would not reveal the buyer's name because the deal has not been completed.
Walters opened BS&T in January 1965 as a coffee shop and book and music store. It quickly became a popular spot for students and Blacksburg residents and featured frequent performances by poets and musicians.
Eventually, the coffee shop was nixed but the store remained a local hangout. Several Blacksburg merchants called BS&T a "downtown anchor."
Walters opened the Roanoke store in 1986, and it also became a downtown hangout for bookworms and music connoisseurs. But in 1993, Walters said in a Roanoke Times story that his two stores were "right on the line" financially, hampered by $500,000 of debt for renovations and inventory for the Roanoke location.
In April 1994, he filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors.
"Things change, and you have to realize that," Walters said Monday from his store in Roanoke. "No matter how good or important the Blacksburg store was in its heyday, you knew that was going to change."
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB