This is one chapter in the book of bankrupt retail agencies that will remain open—and it deals with the Chapter 11 filing by Borders Group Inc. and a local Borders branch.

As of March 17, the Borders store in Montgomeryville was on a new list of stores to be closed in the wake of the corporation’s bankruptcy filing.

One day later, through negotiations with the landlord, Gatway DC Properties, Inc., of California, the store will stay open for business.

“The store, just about a half hour ago, got taken off the closing list,” said Borders Group Inc. spokeswoman Rosalind Thompson, at 12:45 p.m. Friday. “It’s a permanent opening. The landlord came back and gave us some concessions, and we sent a note to the store saying, ‘You are staying open.’”

Thompson said all the corporation has been doing is negotiating leases.

“In bankruptcy, you have the ability to reject leases,” she said. “We were working on negotiating leases, and maybe the landlord didn’t believe we would close it. But they came back and said, ‘Let’s work it out.’”

She said the company filed for bankruptcy to get protection from its creditors.

"In a retail organization, one of our very largest creditors is landlords,” Thompson said. “We have the ability to reject leases and negotiate better lease terms where we can. What we’ve been doing is getting lease costs down so the store can be profitable.”

Consumers in our area should be happy to know one retail establishment will remain open in the wake of a recovering economy.

“It makes us very happy,” Thompson said.

Gateway DC Properties Inc. has owned the entire Airport Square Shopping Center since March 1995.

Its leasing agent is Metro Commercial, of Mount Laurel, NJ.

Calls made to Gateway DC Properties Inc. and its attorneys were not returned by 1 p.m.