{"id":99942,"date":"2018-05-03T18:46:27","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T00:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/marias-bookshop-mainstay-on-durangos-main-avenue-is-for-sale\/"},"modified":"2018-05-03T18:46:27","modified_gmt":"2018-05-04T00:46:27","slug":"marias-bookshop-mainstay-on-durangos-main-avenue-is-for-sale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/marias-bookshop-mainstay-on-durangos-main-avenue-is-for-sale\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria\u2019s Bookshop, mainstay on Durango\u2019s Main Avenue, is for sale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Maria\u2019s
Maria\u2019s Bookshop owners Peter Schertz and Andrea Avantaggio announced their intent to sell the store after owning it for 20 years. They said the bookshop will continue under new ownership.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Maria\u2019s Bookshop in Durango is for sale.<\/p>\n

However, Peter Schertz, the shop\u2019s co-owner, said Thursday that book lovers shouldn\u2019t be concerned: Maria\u2019s isn\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will still be a Maria\u2019s Bookshop,\u201d Schertz said. \u201cWe have that commitment to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maria\u2019s Bookshop<\/a> was founded in 1972, although then it was known simply as \u201cThe Bookshop.\u201d It\u2019s located in an 1,800-square-foot building on the 900 block of Main Avenue in downtown Durango, able to hold about 40,000 books.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Maria\u2019s has remained one of the American Southwest\u2019s most prominent independent bookstores, also known as a favorite place to stop on book tours for famed author Edward Abbey.<\/p>\n

About 20 years ago, Schertz and his wife, Andrea Avantaggio, who worked at the store for five years or so, were given the opportunity to buy the bookshop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just jumped into it,\u201d Schertz said. \u201cWe were really fortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Schertz said the time has come for the couple to sell the store and move on to the next adventure. He said Maria\u2019s, like most independent bookstores across the county, has been doing well in sales. This decision is merely a personal one, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe timing just felt right for us,\u201d Schertz said. \u201cWe\u2019re just ready to do new things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avantaggio reiterated a similar sentiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bittersweet thing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been such a wonderful place, to be in Durango and a part of the community. It\u2019s a hard thing to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schertz said there\u2019s no hard deadline for selling the store. Instead, they will look around for the right owner, and they hope it will be a longer transition so as not to affect the business. The couple will sell the bookstore by owner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to do it the old mom-and-pop slow way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Avantaggio said she\u2019s excited to see where the potential next owner takes the bookstore as it nears its 50th year in operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have always been about change in the way we run that shop, and I feel like there\u2019s a whole other level of things that can happen there for someone with the energy and creative mind to do it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Peter is from Texas, and Andrea is originally from Maine; the couple moved here about 30 years ago. They said they have no intention of leaving Durango.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a mix of emotion I\u2019m realizing already, and we\u2019re just embarking on it,\u201d Schertz said. \u201cThere\u2019s some sadness, but there\u2019s a bright future for Maria\u2019s Bookshop in Durango.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Longtime owners say the store will continue under new ownership<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[639,431,314],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-99942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-book","tag-business-general","tag-downtown-durango"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99942"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=99942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}