Over 100 Years and Growing

University Book Store, founded in 1900, opened its 10th location in Washington state on December 3. CEO Bryan Pearce told BTW that the store's management had been looking for a location in South Snohomish County for nearly a decade. They found the ideal site in Mill Creek Town Center, a carefully planned lifestyle center, flanked by two major thoroughfares, in a neighborhood that demographic studies showed was hungry for an independent bookstore.

The new University Book Store at Mill Creek Town Center.

Pearce explained that, with years of combined experience establishing and running bookstores, management knew exactly what it was looking for, both in infrastructure and population, for a prospective location. A survey of the Mill Creek area found that many residents had ties to the university, were highly literate, belonged to many book clubs, and said they would prefer to shop at an independent bookstore rather than a chain. The center itself has lots of green space and is pedestrian and public transportation friendly, while also near two state roads. "It's the best of all worlds," said Pearce.

The information desk (above) and staff favorites area (below) at the Mill Creek store.

University Book Store anchors the Mill Creek Town Center along with the new Central Market, another independent business, which opened in September. "There's a lot of local business flavor," said Pearce. "That was very attractive to us."

At 16,300 square feet, with a 500-square-foot cafe and open floor plan, the Mill Creek store is the third largest University Book Store, after the U-District and Bellevue stores. The general bookstore has strong sections in fiction, nonfiction, children's, reference, staff recommendations, and hard-to-find titles. In addition, the store carries University of Washington apparel and souvenirs.

To help focus energies on the holiday rush, the store had a soft opening, but plans to celebrate its grand opening in January with a "number of festivities and a healthy number of author appearances," said Pearce.

In November, University Book Store also completed an extensive renovation of its 90,000-square-foot flagship University District store. "We're extremely excited," said Pearce. "We have a brand new 1,200-square-foot cafe with fireplace and an expanded events area. We've completely remodeled."

The renovated cafe area in the U-District store.

University Book Store is organized as an independent corporate trust, and its beneficiaries are the individual students, faculty, and staff of the University of Washington. The store's operations are governed by a nine-member board of trustees comprised of UW students, faculty, and staff. --Karen Schechner