Arundel Books Finds Alexis Hotel a Perfect Fit

Arundel Books at Seattle's Alexis Hotel.

Arundel Books, which includes a store in Los Angeles and one in Seattle, just moved the Seattle location into the corner retail space of one of the city's premier hotels. Arundel's owner, Phillip Bevis, had waited years to lease space in the Alexis Hotel, which has a book-related retail theme, including a restaurant entitled the Library Bistro, a bar called the Bookstore Bar, and a well-known author's suite stocked with hundreds of signed editions. "It's the best location in the city," said Bevis.

Bevis said he waited five years to move into the Alexis location, which was previously occupied by a photographer. In addition to the Seattle and the L.A. bookstores, Arundel maintains two warehouses to serve its significant online business. The new location, in downtown Seattle, carries about 30,000 new and used titles in a 1,500-square-foot space in a late 1800s building. Bevis said though the Alexis location is small, the large warehouse enables Arundel to often provide consumers with most titles not already on the Seattle store's shelves within a day.

The hotel has been "wonderfully enthusiastic" about having Arundel as a tenant, said Bevis. "They see the potential for nationwide visibility now that they have a real bookstore. They'll be able to articulate to book lovers around the world that [the hotel] is a great place to stay." After the holidays, Arundel plans to offer some sort of book-related room service.

Katharine Dooley, general manager of the Alexis Hotel, told BTW that the bookstore and the hotel "absolutely couldn't be a better fit." Dooley said that the author's suite, which many authors use when on tour in Seattle, is stocked with books bought from nearby Elliott Bay Book Company. Now they'll have another independent bookstore even more conveniently located. "We're very excited to have Phillip here," said Dooley. "We know it will be a very successful venture." --Karen Schechner