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New owners to build on love for bookstore
No dramatic changes planned for Elliott Bay
Saturday, February 20, 1999
By JOHN MARSHALL and CONSTANCE SOMMER
The Elliott Bay Book Co. -- the Seattle institution that's attracted America's literary luminaries to a scruffy corner of Pioneer Square for the past 26 years -- is not about to radically change course, the store's future owner assured customers and devotees yesterday.
"Elliott Bay is a wonderful institution," Bellevue developer Ron Sher said by telephone while vacationing in Utah. "We think we can bring some vibrancy there -- but we just want to add to it. I think it's a great bookstore, and we're excited about preserving it."
Third Place Books Inc. is scheduled to take over Elliott Bay when final papers are signed, sometime around March 1. Terms of the sale were not announced by either party, although other sources said Elliott Bay had been offered for sale in the neighborhood of $500,000. The sale includes Elliott Bay's inventory and name, but not the building, which is owned by others.
Sher and his lieutenants said their only planned changes for Elliott Bay are those that have worked at Third Place Books, the store he owns in the Lake Forest Park Towne Centre: Adding used books to Elliott Bay's offerings, which could almost double the store's inventory to 300,000 volumes in a couple of years; providing more comfortable places to sit and linger; turning over the downstairs cafe to the popular Honey Bear Bakery, a draw at Third Place that is also owned by Sher.
Elliott Bay's cafe will continue to sell wine and beer and some of its more popular menu items, they said, and books for sale may be added in the cafe.
But the new owners stressed that they plan no changes (other than improved acoustics) to the other downstairs room, the huge space lined with old books used for Elliott Bay's popular series of readings by authors.
"That is a sacred space," emphasized Peter Aaron, an executive vice president of Third Place. "That is the inner sanctum of Elliott Bay."
The bookstore's reading series, considered to be a national model, will continue to be run by Rick Simonson under the new ownership, much to the relief of Elliott Bay's many fans.
Third Place representatives also said they are working on ways to alleviate what is widely considered the greatest obstacle to Elliott Bay's success -- the shortage of reasonably priced parking in the Pioneer Square neighborhood.
"I would love to find a way to relieve the parking, where we could validate or somehow make it easier to get to the store than it has been," said Julian Riepe, an executive vice president at Third Place Co. "It's certainly high on our list."
Third Place's deep pockets and respect for Elliott Bay prompted owner Walter Carr, who will leave the store, to say yesterday that the new ownership represents "a great marriage."
"The future of Elliott Bay is great now," said Carr, 55. "When there's change, there is fear of the unknown and how things will work out. But to anybody with doubts, I say give the new owners time to demonstrate how they will be able to continue all that Elliott Bay has done before."
Sher has used bookstores to help resuscitate two moribund shopping centers in the Seattle area -- Crossroads Shopping Center in Bellevue, and the Lake Forest Park Towne Centre, where Third Place opened in November.
Among those most relieved by the sale were residents and business owners in Pioneer Square, where the bookstore is considered an anchor for the entire neighborhood. The possible closure of Elliott Bay, which a weary Carr had discussed recently, loomed like a funnel cloud.
"If Elliott Bay had closed, it could have been a devastating blow to Pioneer Square," said Rebecca Roush, director of the Pioneer Square Parking and Business Improvement Area.
But no group may have been more relieved by the sale of Elliott Bay to another independent bookseller than authors who have read at Elliott Bay and have also watched fellow authors there.
Among the writing luminaries who yesterday offered strong praise for the bookstore and what it represents were Ivan Doig, author of "Dancing at the Rascal Fair"; Tom Robbins, "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues"; Linda Bierds, "The Profile Makers: Poems"; Charles Johnson, "Africans in America: America's Journey Through Slavery"; David Guterson, "Snow Falling on Cedars"; and Jonathan Raban, "Bad Land: An American Romance."
Doig likened Elliott Bay's impact on the national literary arts to "the impact of Birdland and the Village Vanguard club on jazz; it was one of the great old places where melodies rolled every night."
Guterson said he has often "heard countless writers say that Elliott Bay is their favorite place to read in the entire country."
Robbins stressed: "The great thing about bookshops like Elliott Bay, and there are very few of them left, is that there are no stuffed animals, no T-shirts with cute slogans to sully an atmosphere of provocative ideas and satisfying words. You walk into Elliott Bay and you know it's about books. And as a writer, it is reassuring for your books not to be held in some corporate compound or next to a shelf of Beanie Babies."
Raban added: "The character of a reading audience at Elliott Bay is just different from audiences you encounter anywhere else. It's youngish, it's hip-ish, it's got a downtown urban flavor. Being in that great room with its walls of books makes you feel you're in a room instead of a bookstore. It's easy to ask questions and have conversations there that you cannot have in other venues."
P-I reporter John Marshall can
be reached at 206-448-8170.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS
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