Cody's Goes Big

A new, 22,000-square-foot Cody's Books is officially set to open on Thursday, September 29. A few days before the event, owner Andy Ross reported feeling "tired and tired," but eager to open the Union Square, San Francisco, bookstore on what he called "the best corner of the best shopping district west of the Mississippi." Opening day celebrations include a "ribbon cutting with ribbon, scissors, Important Personages, the Jessica Mitford Memorial Kazoo Band, and Bay Area Writers," according to Cody's website, www.codysbooks.com.

The new bookstore, across the bay from the store's other locations on Telegraph Avenue and Fourth Street in Berkeley, will continue in the Cody's tradition and will be a literary bookstore with an "intellectual focus," Ross said. "We'll do what we've always done, focus on great literature and academic selections." Cody's also plans to augment its author series.

Much of the retail space is below street level and is accessed via escalator from a small ground-level entranceway. The look, said Ross, is "appropriate for Union Square. It has a beautiful design and rich colors. The architect exceeded himself." The bookshelves, which will hold about 150,000 titles, are a mixture of wood and steel, and the lighting is bright enough to counter the effects of being underground.

Ross decided to open a third store after trying several strategies to boost the company's bottom line, but without success. When Ross was offered the Union Square location, he opted to expand. "I wanted to try something different and grow into profitability," he said. "It's bigger than any of our other locations, and all the other stores in that area are doing very well." Ross noted that the largest grossing Apple Store in the nation was a neighbor.

All that nearby success didn't quite allay Ross's anxiety. "We spent a lot of money," he said. "We had to hock the family jewels, we re-mortgaged the house, and our savings went into this because we believed in it so much." The redesign of the basement took a large chunk of that investment, but the payoff is that "everything looks great," said Ross. "It looks elegant and refined. It looks like it was easy. But easy it was not." --Karen Schechner