North Face closed its downtown Seattle location in May 2024. Barnes & Noble has leased the space at Sixth and Pike. (Kevin Clark / The Seattle Times)
North Face closed its downtown Seattle location in May 2024. Barnes & Noble has leased the space at Sixth and Pike. (Kevin Clark / The Seattle Times)
The North Face’s flagship store, which occupied the property at 520 Pike Street since 2019, shuttered last year. It counted as one of several closures, including Macy’s landmark store in 2019 and Nike in 2023, to rock downtown, shaking the faith of Seattleites about the area’s future.
The new Barnes & Noble store signals renewed potential.
“When a national retailer returns to downtown it’s an indicator of confidence in our center city and the strength of our retail trade area,” said Jon Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association. “There is momentum in downtown with a record residential population, visitor numbers that are the strongest we’ve seen in six years and more public space amenities coming online that increase our vibrancy.”
Several of the existing bookstores downtown — Left Bank Books Collective, Pine Books and BLMF Literary Saloon among them — are concentrated in Pike Place Market.
Nearby, Open Books: A Poem Emporium sits on the edge of the Central Business District and Pioneer Square, though the latter neighborhood hosts literary institutions like Long Brothers Fine and Rare Books and Arundel Books.