Photo by Leica_Mark

Big-box bookstores will become an even rarer sight on December 31 when Barnes & Noble shutters its Union Station location, the company confirmed today. The store will be the retailer’s second D.C. location to close in recent memory, after its Georgetown location shut down last year. The building now houses a Nike store, which opened to the public last week.

The Washington Post reports that the space Barnes & Noble occupies on the western side of Union Station is slated for redevelopment next year, and the bookseller declined to move to a different location in the train station’s shopping mall:

But the space is being prepared for redevelopment, according to spokeswoman Mary Ellen Keating, and though the chain considered relocating to other space in the station, it opted to close instead.

“The current store location is being redeveloped and we were offered another location within Union Station,” she said in an e-mail. “However the alternate location did not make sense.”

Wedged between the exit to Columbus Circle and the waiting area for Amtrak and MARC trains, Barnes & Noble isn’t at a loss for pedestrian traffic, but the store’s imminent shuttering is just another reminder of the shrinking nature of the book trade.

Barnes & Noble’s former corporate competitor, Borders, went out of business last year, taking eight stores in the D.C. area with it. One store, at 14th and F streets NW, became The Hamilton, owned by the Clyde’s Restaurant Group. Another, at 18th and L streets NW, will eventually be home to a Norstrom Rack department store.

When the Union Station shop closes, Barnes & Noble’s store at 12th and E streets NW will be the company’s lone remaining D.C. location. In the mean time, for Union Station passengers who need a book, there’s always Hudson News and its selection of overpriced James Patterson novels.