Discount clothing will be displacing books at Kahala Mall under a move to replace a Barnes & Noble store with a Ross Dress for Less.

The city recently approved a building permit for Ross to establish a 23,032-square-foot store in the Barnes & Noble space fronting a rooftop parking deck above an indoor wing anchored by theaters at the East Oahu regional shopping center.

The work is estimated to cost $2 million. A timetable for the change is unclear.

Ross officials did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Floyd Williamson, Kahala Mall general manager, deferred comments to Ross and Barnes & Noble.

Barnes & Noble could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The prospect of Barnes & Noble closing one of its two stores on Oahu (the other is at Ala Moana Center) has generated complaints from book lovers and lament over the loss of a place featuring a cafe that attracted customers to relax and read.

Honolulu author Ellie Crowe, who has written 17 books about Hawaii, said the store has been an important part of her life with book signings, children’s reading sessions and critique meetings.

"Barnes and Noble is an important part of Kahala and I and all my friends and acquaintances hate to think of losing it," she said in an email. "There are already so many Ross stores. It seems a horrible idea to replace such a great bookstore and community asset with yet another Ross."

Crowe said Kahala Mall indicated to her in a Facebook message that the book retailer decided not to renew its lease.

"We would have very much liked to have had Barnes and Noble remain as our tenant," the message relayed by Crowe said. "Unfortunately their business model is no longer able to sustain itself and they had to make the difficult decision to not renew their lease here at Kahala Mall."

Barnes & Noble is facing increasing competition from online booksellers and expects that to affect in-store book sales as the trend continues. However, the company has benefited from the shutdown of former rival Borders Books & Music two years ago, which left Barnes & Noble as the only nationwide bookstore chain.

Barnes & Noble has told stock analysts that it routinely closes unprofitable stores — 15 a year on average over the last decade — and intends to continue that practice. However, the company emphasized that 95 percent of its roughly 670 stores remain profitable and are not slated for closure.

Ross Stores Inc. operates close to 1,100 stores in 33 states, and entered the Hawaii market in 1993.

The company has been fairly aggressive in expanding locally, opening new stores in Ewa Beach, Moiliili and Waikiki in the last couple of years.

There are 15 Ross stores in Hawaii, including 12 on Oahu, two on Hawaii island and one on Maui, according to the company’s website.