ALBANY — Eleven years ago, Hassan Elminyawi opened Urban Aftermath Books at 295 Hamilton St. in Albany. The bookshop’s roughly 1,000-square-foot space, packed tightly with used books and other treasures including vinyl records, vintage toys, mugs and T-shirts, is starting to look more bare as it reaches its final day of business on July 4.
“It’s bittersweet,” Elminyawi said. “I am sad for a lot of the people that came here and called this place their bookshop. We had a lot of good times in here. We have provided a space for people to be themselves. Everyone who came through here felt cared about.”
Elminyawi announced his storefront’s closing in a Facebook post on June 24. The building Urban Aftermath Books sits in is one of six row houses near the Empire State Plaza that could be restored and converted back to residential units under plans being pursued by a group of real estate investors, according to the Albany Business Review…