PW Daily reports that Borders is opening a new superstore near Ground Zero:

Borders Books and Music has signed a lease to open a new store in the American Surety Building at 100 Broadway in lower Manhattan, replacing the flagship store that was destroyed last year in the collapse of the World Trade Center.

The plans call for a 33,000-sq.-ft. store spread over three floors, scheduled to open sometime in the spring of 2003, according to the New York Times. The previous store was 37,700 square feet and stocked more than 200,000 items.

The return to downtown should prove popular among customers. With the loss of the Borders store, bookstore shoppers in the Wall Street area were limited to shopping primarily in used stores, including an annex of the Strand Bookstore and at the remainder books outlet of J&R. Shakespeare & Co. is a short walk uptown.

The Times quoted Madelyn G. Wils, chairwoman of Community Board 1, who said, "It wasn't just a bookstore. We don't have a community center down here, so people hung out there. There were a lot more emotional connections than just a place to shop."

Tamara L. Heim, president of Borders stores said, "It feels like a homecoming. We've been looking ever since 9/11. We've been kind of overwhelmed by the response of our customers."