By Alexis Weisend – Seattle Times business reporter
After construction setbacks, a new Barnes & Noble will open May 6 in downtown Seattle.
The bookseller giant will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony and book signing event with fantasy author Robin Hobb at 9 a.m. on opening day in its new building at 520 Pike St.
The New York-based company originally planned to open the store in April but faced construction setbacks, according to its social media accounts.
Downtown Seattle has lacked a Barnes & Noble bookstore since January 2020, when a former location at Pacific Place shopping center shuttered. Another of its stores closed in West Seattle a year earlier.
The bookstore’s return to downtown hasn’t delighted only book lovers (at least, the ones willing to pay $30 for a hardcover). Some Seattleites hope the new store signals renewed potential for downtown after years of fleeing major retailers.
Barnes & Noble’s 10-year agreement represents the largest retail lease in downtown since 2020, according to the Downtown Seattle Association.
The store will fill a 17,500-square-foot space left by The North Face’s flagship store. The outdoor gear company left the site in 2024 after five years.
Barnes & Noble takes up two stories of the 29-story tower at the highly trafficked corner of Pike Street and Sixth Avenue.
The store joins two other Seattle stores — one at Northgate Station and another in the University District.
Barnes & Noble did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The opening comes at a time of hope for the book-selling industry’s survival.
Industry analysts predicted Seattle-based Amazon’s launch in the mid-1990s would crush booksellers — and it sort of did, for a while. The e-commerce giant quickly dominated the U.S. print book market, generally offering lower prices, a larger selection and home delivery. It opened its own brick-and-mortar bookstores, aptly named Amazon Books, in 2015.
Amazon’s launch contributed to an initial decline in independent bookstores and to the closure of the national bookstore chain Borders. In 2018, Barnes & Noble considered selling to stay afloat.
But in a Hallmark-like twist, booksellers have experienced a notable rebound in recent years, even while Amazon closed its physical bookstores in 2022.
Independent bookstore openings jumped by 31% in 2025, according to the American Booksellers Association. Barnes & Noble also plans to open 60 new locations across the country this year, following a period of strong sales, according to USA Today.
The new Pike location sits about a mile away from Amazon’s headquarters on Terry Avenue.