A new retail storyline is close to beginning in downtown Seattle with the opening this month of a Barnes & Noble bookstore — six years after the chain closed its longtime downtown location.
The new store at 520 Pike St. is about four blocks from Pike Place Market and another four from Amazon’s headquarters, in a 29-story Tishman Speyer office building. A grand opening event is planned for April 29 at 9 a.m., with a ribbon cutting and a book signing with bestselling author Robin Hobb (“Blood of Dragons”).
Downtown Seattle Association President and CEO Jon Scholes signaled his excitement Monday for the return of a major national retailer to an area hit hard by retail exits and depleted foot traffic during and after the pandemic.
“A strong signal to others who may have left the market over the last 6 years and to those that have yet to plant a flag here,” Scholes wrote on LinkedIn alongside a picture of the outside of the store. “With a record residential population, visitor numbers that are beating 2019 level and an increasing return of locals – there are many great reasons to be downtown.”
The store will be a short walk from the HQ towers and Spheres that make up Amazon’s Denny Triangle home. The tech giant got its start as an online bookseller, and on its way to disrupting multiple retail verticals, the company’s e-commerce dominance took a toll on physical bookstores, including Barnes & Noble. Amazon even opened physical Amazon Books locations, a concept that lasted about seven years before they were shut down in 2022.
In an especially ironic twist, Barnes & Noble moved into two vacant Amazon Books locations in the Boston area in 2022.
Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt said in a television interview last year that he believes the experience in a physical store wins out when compared to shopping online with Amazon or elsewhere. Customers engage with other books and other customers about books.
“You will have an experience, and when you walk out of the store with [a book] in your bag it will lift you,” Daunt said. “It’s the same book, but I promise you it’s a better book, and the reading of it will be more pleasurable because you bought it in a bookstore.”
Barnes & Noble left its Pacific Place location at 600 Pine St. in Seattle in January 2020, after 22 years. Shoppers told GeekWire at the time that they were saddened by the loss of downtown’s only bookstore.
The chain still operates locations in the Northgate and University District areas of Seattle and has several locations in Western Washington. The opening of a new location at Bellevue Square attracted a steady stream of book lovers in January 2025.
The company, which peaked at 726 locations nationwide in 2008, has undergone a revival since the pandemic, opening nearly 60 stores in 2024 and dozens more in 2025. It has plans to open 60 more this year and is already back over 700 stores.
FOX 13 reported in December that the new downtown Barnes & Noble space will be 17,538 square feet and offer an array of books, toys, games, magazines, gift items and more. The company signed a 10-year lease — the largest retail lease in downtown Seattle since 2020.
