Barbara Bailey hasn’t seen the advertising posters that are suddenly gracing the windows of the old Bailey Coy storefront but she doesn’t want there to be a fuss.

“There are much more important things to talk about,” Bailey reminded CHS. “Like world hunger.”

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Good point. But we received a few notes and saw enough Twitter chatter about the big, bold ads for an Axe body spray promotion to arouse our interest. This isn’t the first time that Axe — the Old Spice of the new millennium — has caused arousal, we’re sure.

Bailey said the good news is that new owners should be taking over the building from her soon. She said it’s been a hard, long, drawn out closing process that has dragged on since November but that the transaction is finally near closing. No word on the buyer or what comes next but Bailey promised he’d do a good job recruiting quality tenants for the space.

Bailey tells CHS she agreed to the promotion because it was for a good cause and, frankly, she didn’t want the space to be just another empty storefront on Broadway.

“If you look at empty spaces around town, it’s pretty hard to keep looking at empty windows,” Bailey said. “I also thought this was better than brown paper. Retail is particularly hard right now.”

The good cause (hey, we researched this stuff so it would be a shame not to share) is the Axe Undie Run Challenge, a promotion described thusly:

Sign CHS up.

As for Bailey, she says she won’t miss owning the building where she founded the iconic Broadway bookstore and it lived for years under the watch of most-recent owner Michael Wells.

“I’m ready to move on,” Bailey said. “It was the bookstore I loved.”

“I’m done with retail at any level,” Bailey said.

We’ll keep tabs on the fate of 414 Broadway E and keep you posted on the new owner when the building finally changes hands.