Books-A-Million Looks to Move Into Former Beverly Hills Borders

Even though the Birmingham Borders has been closed now for more than a year, the Birmingham area may be on its way to getting a new bookstore.

Books-A-Million, the Alabama-based bookstore chain, has plans to move into the former Beverly Hills Borders location at the corner of 13 Mile and Southfield Road, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Alongside its sister store in Birmingham, the Beverly Hills Borders shut its doors in mid-2011 after the Ann Arbor-based bookstore chain announced it would be closing the company's 399 stores nationwide after going bankrupt in mid-February.

Since then, Birmingham book buyers have had to travel to Royal Oak, Troy and West Bloomfield to shop at Barnes & Noble locations, with no other mass market bookstores located within city limits.

Meanwhile, the Birmingham Borders — located on Woodward Avenue — is on its way to being transformed into a new Walgreens store, with the drugstore's regional headquarters located on the second floor.

The Birmingham, AL-based Books-A-Million, the nation's second-largest bookstore chain, acquired the leases to 14 Borders stores across the country in 2011 soon after the company went bankrupt, including the lease for the Traverse City store.

The company currently operates more than 250 stores in 31 states. On top of the store in Traverse City, the company also has bookstores in Monroe and Roseville.

According to the report from the Free Press, other former Borders stores are still awaiting full-time tenants, including stores in Auburn Hills, Dearborn, Grosse Pointe, Novi, Rochester Hills and Utica.