amused 
The former Borders store on McKinney Avenue is being replaced by a wine bar restaurant.
By STEVE BROWN
Real Estate Editor
stevebrown@dallasnews.com
Published: 23 February 2012 01:52 PM
An empty Uptown storefront is replacing books and magazines with fried chicken and champagne.
The vacant Borders Books store in Dallas’ West Village has been leased to a Houston restaurant chain.
Max’s Wine Dive has rented the 4,200 square feet in the building at McKinney and Lemmon avenues, and construction is already under way.
With locations in Houston, Austin and San Antonio, the Uptown lease is Max’s Wine Dive’s first foray into the North Texas market.
“We’re excited to finally have them in the neighborhood,” Aaron Stephenson, partner with Retail Street Advisors who brokered the deal, said Thursday.
The restaurant took the corner spot and about half of the old Borders’ ground-floor space.
“We still have the whole upstairs left” to lease, said Cityplace Co. president Neal Sleeper.
Max’s serves “gourmet comfort food” and wine, and is known for its weekend brunch specials and late-night hours.
The former Borders store is one of almost a dozen area locations that the bankrupt book retailer vacated last year.