A Bloomfield bookstore is upset about its treatment after losing out on a deal to locate in the Strip District’s rehabbed produce terminal.
In a series of tweets, White Whale bookstore on Liberty Avenue said it had a letter of intent with Chicago-based McCaffery Interests to locate in the Strip landmark — only to lose out to New York-based Posman Books.
In what it described as a “cautionary tale,” the independent family-owned bookstore with five employees said it “got taken advantage of” and was used “merely as a bargaining tool” in the episode.
“They courted a small mom-and-pop shop, asked us to scramble during a pandemic year in which we’d already pivoted over and over, and instead put a national indie chain just down the hill from us. This is Big Business doing what it always does: trying to crush the little guy,” one post read.
But Dan McCaffery, CEO of McCaffery Interests, the terminal developer, insisted Monday, “We don’t scheme to do deals.”
The firm, he said, reached out to White Whale when it seemed as if there would be no deal with Posman, which he said was the developer’s first choice. When Posman re-entered the picture, McCaffery decided to go with it, he explained.
“We had been talking with him a long time — long before White Whale,” Mr. McCaffery said.
In its post, the bookstore said it was first approached by McCaffery last summer about moving into the terminal. At the time, “we laughed — it was a pandemic and we were just trying to keep our business afloat!” it wrote.
McCaffery reached out again in October, said Jill Yeomans, who owns White Whale with her husband, Adlai, and talked the couple into seeing the space.
At the time, an agent told them Mr. McCaffery wanted a bookstore in the space and “if it wasn’t us, it would be someone else,” Ms. Yeomans said.
While the agent mentioned McCaffery had been in talks with a national chain, the couple was told there was no agreement in place and “they were moving forward with us.”
The conversation “lit a fire under us” and prompted the couple to work quickly during the busy Christmas holiday season to secure a spot.
At the time, Ms. Yeomans said, the couple specifically asked if McCaffery was negotiating with anyone else and was told no.
In mid-December, White Whale signed a letter of intent to open a terminal store.
But then the bookstore and its owners heard nothing for months — “radio silence,” as one tweet put it.
Finally, at the end of March, it got the news: McCaffery would not move forward with White Whale but another bookstore.
“Obviously, we were disappointed and felt incredibly misled,” Ms. Yeomans said. “But at the same time, the purpose of our post was not to drag this out or get anything from it. We just wanted other small businesses in Pittsburgh to know.
“We feel used as a small business in service of big business, and that’s really why we wanted to make it public.”
Mr. McCaffery said there was never any intent to hurt or mislead White Whale, adding he has a lot of respect for the bookstore.
His firm, he said, had been negotiating with Posman for over a year and liked the concept, which combines books, toys and ice cream.
It was only after it looked like Posman had decided against locating at the terminal that McCaffery turned to White Whale, he said.
When Posman re-emerged in the midst of that and stated it had received the financing for its store, McCaffery decided to go in that direction, Mr. McCaffery said.
Posman, he added, has a larger operation and had pre-negotiated a lease. While Posman has shops in New York, Atlanta and Boston, “he’s a small family business, too. He’s not a big shot,” Mr. McCaffery said.
“We thought he runs a very imaginative little store,” he added. “That’s who we sought out to get the first time.”
Before Posman was announced, McCaffery had signed local vendors like City Grows, OnPar Now and Envy Nail Spa for the terminal, along with a Fine Wine & Good Spirits Premium Collection store and a Walk Run Lift studio.
As part of the $62.6 million terminal rehab, McCaffery has committed to using “commercially reasonable efforts” to fill at least 40,000 square feet of the terminal with local businesses.
Although White Whale won’t be one of them, “we will make that easily,” Mr. McCaffery said.
While the experience has left White Whale owners feeling misled, it hasn’t deadened their spirit.
“White Whale is not done, not by a long shot. We have kids to support, an actual community to uplift, and we have Plans. So keep fighting, keep reading, and please keep Shopping Small,” the bookstore tweeted.
Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First Published: May 4, 2021, 9:17 a.m.
Updated: May 4, 2021, 9:24 a.m.
