The downtown Webster’s Bookstore Cafe is expected to close by July 31, having fallen some months behind on its rent during the economic downturn, co-owner Elaine Meder-Wilgus said Tuesday.
Meder-Wilgus said she has been working to consolidate and refinance the State College business’ debt — a move that would enable it to pay the back rent. She said she thought the local Kresge family, which holds and controls the property at 128 S. Allen St., was aware of her refinancing efforts.
Scott Kresge, reached via e-mail, indicated that it would be inappropriate for him to comment on a private matter. Meder-Wilgus said the business has been making some limited rent payments all along.
‘I get the sense that there’s no negotiating about this,’ Meder-Wilgus said during an interview. She said she bears no ill will toward the Kresges and that ‘I don’t want them to be vilified.’
Meder-Wilgus called them hard-working, kind people.
She said she learned late Thursday night that her Allen Street lease would be terminated at the end of July. In short order, with backing of supporters, the business offered to pay off all the back rent immediately, Meder-Wilgus said.
But the landlord told her that ‘I should give up a hopeless book business,’ she said.
‘I think it’d be hard for people who come in here not to see the community’ that has emerged in the book store and cafe, Meder-Wilgus said. She started to tell customers on Monday about the likely closing.
Webster’s opened in June 1999 as a community-centric, activism-friendly enterprise, serving fair-trade coffees from its first day. It offers a variety of local foods, relaxed indoor and outdoor seating, used records and more than 80,000 books for sale, among other features.
The business also includes a catering arm, a downtown book warehouse that supports online literature sales and a secondary cafe at 434 W. Aaron Drive in Patton Township. That more suburban location opened for business in 2008, three months before the recession hit, Meder-Wilgus said.
‘I’m not driving a Mercedes or anything, but it was working’ financially, at least before the recession emerged, she said.
Looking back, she said it probably wasn’t a good move to open a second cafe location just before the economy faltered.
Meder-Wilgus is now trying to determine her next move, she said. She said the Webster’s Allen Street location generates much of the cash flow for the overall business, and she’s figuring out how she might need to restructure her organization.
As many as 12 of her 30 employees will probably be out of work if Webster’s on Allen closes, Meder-Wilgus said. She said she’s still hoping for a miracle.
Meanwhile, she said, Webster’s supporters can buy ‘lots of books’ if they want to help. All of Webster’s books are on sale for half price.
In addition, some supporters are planning to meet at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday at the Allen Street location to discuss how they might help the enterprise.
Art Goldschmidt, a borough resident, has already offered to petition the Kresge family to help keep Webster’s open. The venue is seeing an outpouring of community support, visible Tuesday morning as regulars approached Meder-Wilgus with words of encouragement.
Goldschmidt said a Webster’s closing would mean ‘a lot of people who shop in downtown won’t shop in downtown. It’s as simple as that.’
He serves as a board member for Voices of Central Pennsylvania, an alternative newspaper that distributes copies through Webster’s and rents space in the business’ downtown warehouse. The warehouse, near the 100 block of East Beaver Avenue, is separate of the book store on Allen Street.
StateCollege.com will post more details in this developing story as they become available.
