There is a rumor buzzing around small business owners on Capitol Hill, and the rumors are remarkably similar: They say that literary institution Elliott Bay Book Company is going to close its Pioneer Square store and move to Capitol Hill, specifically to 10th Ave, between Pike and Pine, right next to Oddfellow’s Hall. Because we are all sick of crappy phone photos, here is the Google Street View of the building:
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I called Mike Oaksmith, Managing Partner of Hunters Capital LLC, the business that owns the property. Oaksmith only said “I cannot confirm nor deny” those rumors, and suggested that I talk to Peter Aaron, the owner of Elliott Bay Book Company. “He would have the best insight,” Oaksmith said. Aaron is currently traveling and is unavailable for comment. An e-mail sent to Elliott Bay manager Tracy Taylor yesterday has gone unanswered.
So let’s take a flight of fancy for a moment and pretend these rumors are true: This would be a great thing for Elliott Bay Book Company. Seattle traditionalists may grumble that Elliott Bay’s current location, with the creaky floors and Pioneer Square charm, makes the bookstore. But let’s be honest: It’s a chore to go to Pioneer Square nowadays, and the parking has always been a problem. Things are only going to get worse once the Viaduct comes down (or, God forbid, gets retrofitted). If Elliott Bay can become a neighborhood bookstore, part of a real neighborhood where people spend their days and their nights, there’s a very good chance that it will thrive and find a new life.
I’ll keep you posted as soon as I hear something new.
Oh and also great coffee shops like Trabant, All City, Zeitgeist and even the Hemp lattes at Elliott Bay Cafe!
@fnarf @45: by 2 months I was referring to the height of business at the store. As the weather becomes more clement, more fair-weather baseball fans make the move to a game: I’ve seen this in the baseball fan friends I have, their interest in going to a game usually heats up (no pun intended) around late June.
And yeah, the Soccer crowd is still a new quantity to factor in, so my judgment on that is out.
I know both sports have looong seasons, but attendance always fluctuates (we won’t know about the soccer until next year).
And my screed would’ve been more interesting perhaps if I’d, say, interpretive tap-danced it for you, Fnarf?
hmmm….so why not contact Michael of Bailey Coy and the other book shop owners and get their opinion on this “gossip” (which is what it is, at this point) and how it could affect them? Isn’t that what reporters do?
Yes, I think it’s POSSIBLE that Bailey Coy MIGHT survive but they would have to radically change the way they sell books. Going ‘gayer’ is certainly an idea especially since their has been a major hole in bookselling since Beyond the Closet closed. But would that be enough to compete against a store with 5 (?) times more stock and presumedly a cafe?
@53: First: “Presumably.”
If this happens, there are lots of different stories to tell, and they’ll be told. This is not that story yet.
And bookstores everywhere have had to radically change the way they sell books. That’s the way the industry has worked for the last few years. Almost every bookstore in town (except for maybe three I can think of off the top of my head) should radically change the way they work, or at least take a good look at themselves and think about what they do well and what they do poorly and what they should do to stay in business.
You know it is always possible Elliot Bay could be opening a second store. The capital cost is about the same and the only real risk is they would have a harder time covering their operating expenses with two stores.
“[Store manager Tracy] Taylor would not comment on a report in a blog operated by the tabloid The Stranger that said the bookstore would reopen in a building between Pine and Pike streets on Capitol Hill.” (From Mike Carter’s article in the Seattle Times)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/lo…
Amy Martinez gets the goods:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/lo…
The owner of Elliott Bay Book Co. said Sunday he’s considering moving the landmark Seattle business from its longtime home in Pioneer Square partly because of financial troubles.
Owner Peter Aaron said the store’s lease at the Globe Building expires in late January, when a maxed-out line of credit he had been using to run the business also comes due.
Parking? Parking? That’s why this would be a great thing for Elliott Bay? Perhaps it should move to a strip mall somewhere, or a big outlet store out in the exurbs. Then we could all drive our 2.5 cars off to buy beach books, assuming we could drag ourselves off the couch and the Amazon website to actually interact with humans at all. Better yet, we could all live happily ever after watching TV in the back seat of our SUVs.
I love Elliott Bay but I only go as a “reward” for the times I’m forced to go to Pioneer Square. It’s unpleasant down there guys. I’m sure you can acclimate to it, but the “tourist meccas” of most cities are much much nicer. I hope the change works out for them.
Move the damn Cowgirls to cap hill and be done with it…
Used bookstores are synergistic. New bookstores are not. Every used bookstore is different; every new bookstore is the same, pretty much (it’s the same publishing world). That’s why having Elliott Bay in Pioneer Square is GOOD for the other bookstores (used bookstores), they will not be good for Bailey/Coy, unless they can differentiate their stocks in some significant way.
What I’d like to see is a bookstore with a focus on international books, which is half of what I buy, but I’m a weirdo. I doubt you could make that work commercially.
Get used to it: in the future, after this “radical change” Paul talks about, there will be no more retail stores of any kind except Wal-Mart, selling the crap that’s too cheap to sell over the internet. Every retail strip in the country is going to be wall-to-wall Pilates studios and nail salons, with a few failing restaurants in between.
I used to live in Pioneer Square and was a champion for the neighborhood. But it’s gone downhill. I love Elliott Bay but rarely go. The last time I went to a reading at Elliott Bay, I had to run a gauntlet of homeless people to get to my car.
Moving Elliott Bay Books to that location would be great. It’s also close to the Richard Hugo House, so it would have a built-in audience of people who read. The Hugo House can accommodate fairly big readings in its theater, which would be good for authors/readers, too.
Here’s my two biases: 1) We need independent booksellers like Elliott Bay Book Co. to survive. 2) I love Pioneer Square more than Capitol Hill.
But, if owner Peter Aaron decides they must move in order to stay alive, then that’s what they have to do. Yes, they could do a lot to promote their business regardless of location, but as long as they’re dependent upon evening and weekend foot traffic, then yeah, they may have to move. That or the City needs to step up its PSq investments and/or we the people need to stop browsing and actually buy something when we’re at Elliott Bay, regardless of its location.