Landlord, Minority Owner Dispute Book Culture Owner's Accounts

Chris Doeblin rallied neighbors outside Book Culture on Columbus last week.

Following the sudden closure of  Book Culture on Columbus last week, after the property was seized by city marshals over unpaid rent, the bookstore's landlord and minority co-owner have disputed much of what Chris Doeblin, the majority co-owner, has said about the situation, Gothamist reported.

While Doeblin has called the seizure "indicative of the main problem we have in America right now," and an instance of wealthy elites and corporations conspiring against a small business, Tom Quinlan, Doeblin's landlord, and Peter Porcino, attorney for Book Culture co-owner John MacArthur, have denied those claims.

Quinlan told Gothamist that his intention is to make sure a bookstore remains in the Columbus Ave. storefront, but without "Chris at the helm." He said Doeblin has had issues paying rent since 2016 and that his company has tried to work with Doeblin on payment plans, but he "never really met those obligations."

Doeblin and MacArthur, who is also the publisher of Harper's, have meanwhile been in litigation over Doeblin's efforts to raise funds for the store, including a community-lending program that has raised more than $570,000 since last summer. MacArthur has alleged that Doeblin is misleading Upper West Side residents about where the money is going, essentially using the Columbus Ave. location to raise funds for the three other Book Culture locations around New York City, of which Doeblin is sole owner.

Porcino added that MacArthur has been offering to buy out Doeblin, saying: "To the extent he's trying to raise money for this store that he has no other source of funds is false. We are offering to lend him money, so he shouldn't be saying to the public, 'I have no other way to finance my store.' "

Doeblin has denied the charges in legal filings and said MacArthur "is coercing me to leave for nothing, and that's again part of the problem here, part of the essential problem we face in America is exactly that. Why should my family walk away from something we built?"