BJ’s Used Book Exchange, a mom-and-pop shop that has operated for more than 40 years from a small strip shopping center at 4903 Murchison Road in Fayetteville, shut down Saturday evening as the city intends to demolish the building in early 2025.
The Edwards family that operated BJ’s hopes to reopen their business in Eutaw Village Shopping Center on Bragg Boulevard, they told CityView on Friday.
“My guess is it probably won’t be faster than three months. It might take longer than that,” Rudy Edwards told CityView on Friday.
The Fayetteville City Council more than a year ago ordered the demolition of the shopping center after the city staff reported that the property owner and landlord, Alber Treadwell, had not maintained it as required by Fayetteville’s health and public safety codes. There were 27 complaints of violations from 2015 to 2023, the city said.
The city cited issues such as rotten boards, and porch railings, columns and ceilings, walls, roofing material, trim and fascia in poor condition.
“I have done repairs to the building,” Treadwell told CityView on Friday, estimating that he has spent $5,000. He has photos to prove it, he said.
The city refused to accept his repairs, Treadwell said, because he had not obtained a building permit. He said he had previously been told he would not need a permit for work that costs less than $45,000.
Demolition coming soon
The city this month began soliciting bids for the demolition. Contractors have until 2 p.m. Jan. 7 to submit their offers.
In the meantime, Rudy Edwards and his sister, Nancy Edwards, operate the store that their parents Wyman and Jutta Edwards opened in the early 1980s. Jutta died last year.
Together with some friends and customers, the Edwards family is packing up untold thousands of novels, children’s books, how-to guides, history books, comic books, Bibles, encyclopedia volumes, DVDs, compact discs, board games and other inventory, plus bookcases and other fixtures. They are loading them into trucks and a trailer and hauling them to a 20,000-square-foot space on the back side of Eutaw Village.
The new space used to be the basement of a Roses store, Nancy Edwards said.
The Eutaw new location is about four times larger than the old Murchison Road store, which Nancy Edwards said had about 5,000 square feet. Rudy Edwards sees opportunity in that, he said, to better present the inventory. For example, BJ’s large collection of manga comics and graphic novels was squeezed in among other book genres. He also is considering expanding into new ventures, such expanding the offerings of tabletop games.
“It is not a particularly good looking space, but we don’t need a good looking space,” Rudy Edwards said. “We need a comfortable space. We need something that the community can be a part of, you know what I mean?
“… We’re not going to be a Barnes & Noble. That’s never going to happen. But what we can be is a cool place for people who like the kinds of things we mess with — manga and books and role playing games, and even movies and stuff. We can be kind of a ‘third space’ in the community or people who are a part of that.”
The term “third space” refers to public places where people gather to socialize. A “first space” is one’s home, and a “second space” is a person’s workplace.
Landlord also losing
“The bookstore’s not the only one suffering a loss,” said Treadwell, the Murchson Road shopping center landlord. The city’s plan to demolish his shopping center will hurt the small church where he serves as pastor, Treadwell Evangelistic Empowerment Ministries, he said.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the church was in the shopping center, Treadwell said, as well as a childcare center. Church attendance dropped with the pandemic, and his ministry is home-based now. The church still has property stored in the shopping center, he said.
“We’re still a ministry,” he said. “It’s not the four walls that makes us a ministry. It’s the work that we do,” he said.
Treadwell hates that his problems with the city have affected the Edwards family, he said.
“I am very saddened, I’m very grieved that it happened to them, because like I said, they are some good people. And you don’t always find good people like the Edwards.”
What is next?
After the demolition bid period closes on Jan 7, Fayetteville Public Information Specialist David Scott said, the city staff will review the bids and select a contractor.
“After the contract is executed, the City issues a Notice to Proceed to the contractor,” Scott wrote in an email. “The demolition process typically takes around 60 days, depending on the project’s scope.”
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at 910-261-4710 and pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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