Tom Nissley, owner of Phinney Books, Seattle, Wash., is planning to open Madison Books in the city's Madison Park neighborhood by November, the Madison Park Times reported, adding that the store will be "filling a void felt in the neighborhood for more than a decade."
"We just get that there's this hunger for having this store right in the middle of everything," said Nissley, who has owned Phinney Books in Phinney Ridge since 2014.
Madison Books wasn't his idea, "but that of longtime resident Susan Moseley, who spent some time reaching out to potential partners before tapping Nissley," the Park Times noted.
"I think she's been trying to get a store in the neighborhood ever since Madison Park Books closed in 2005," he said. "I had not been looking to expand. Susan got in touch with us, and just the more that we talked about it, the more appealing it sounded."
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James Crossley of Island Books on Mercer Island will manage the bookstore starting in October. "That's also part of what made it seem possible in my head," Nissley added.
Madison Books is the first new tenant for Constance Court, which the Losh family has been restoring and renovating for more than a year at 4114-4116 E. Madison St. "It's a really small space, that's going to be one of the challenges, so try to pack in as much as we can," Nissley said. "What we do down here (at Phinney Books) is keep it as general as we can."
A November opening is the goal because of the holiday season, though he observed: "I can even imagine doing some kind of popup if things weren't quite completed in the store."
Describing the decision as "an exciting development," the Seattle Review of Books wrote that "it's a testament to how much the neighborhood wants a bookshop. The venture is supported by lifetime resident Susan Moseley, who's been trying to bring a bookstore back for more than a decade. With James Crossley of Island Books stepping up to run the store, there's some exceptional talent in play--people who know who to do general interest curation, and know how to make a small space sing."