The Registry: Barnes & Noble bets on downtown Seattle’s revival with new Pike Street store

This story was originally published by The Registry on Nov. 7, 2025.

The bookseller’s planned return to Seattle’s core signals growing confidence in the city’s retail recovery

Barnes & Noble is bringing books back to downtown Seattle, filing permits to open a 14,000-square-foot store at 520 Pike Street—a move that marks the retailer’s return to the city center after a four-year absence and reflects broader optimism about urban retail’s rebound.

The New York-based chain plans to open the two-floor location in April 2026, according to construction permits filed with the city and information on the company’s website. The space was previously home to The North Face, which shuttered in May 2024, joining a string of high-profile departures that included Macy’s flagship in 2019 and Nike in 2023.

The announcement comes as Barnes & Noble continues an aggressive expansion strategy that has seen the nation’s largest bookstore chain reverse years of contraction. After flirting with irrelevance in the face of Amazon’s dominance and a failed attempt at e-commerce leadership, the company has opened or announced more than 60 new stores since 2020 under CEO James Daunt, who took the helm in 2019.

Downtown Seattle hasn’t had a Barnes & Noble since January 2020, when its Pacific Place location closed. Another store in West Seattle had shuttered a year earlier. The new Pike Street location will join two existing Seattle stores—one at Northgate Station and another at University Bookstore in the University District, where Barnes & Noble took over the trade books department in July 2024.

Jon Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association, framed the opening as a watershed moment for the city’s retail core. “Barnes & Noble’s return to downtown Seattle is enormous. 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. And that thought is bolstered by other recent openings or expansions of strong brands like SuitSupply, Portland Leather Goods, Arc’teryx, Uniqlo and the soon-to-be open Carmine’s, among others,” he said in a prepared statement. “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. It’s a great time to open shop in downtown Seattle.”

The expansion strategy is part of a broader resurgence for Barnes & Noble, which has defied retail gravity by opening stores while other chains retreat. The company opened 57 new locations in 2024—more than it had opened in the entire decade from 2009 to 2019—and plans to launch more than 60 additional stores in 2025. The retailer has set its sights on expanding its national footprint to over 1,000 locations in the coming years.

The turnaround represents a dramatic reversal of fortune for a chain that seemed destined for obsolescence. Barnes & Noble was acquired by British private equity firm Elliott Investment Management in 2019 in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $683 million. Elliott also owns Waterstones, the largest bookstore chain in the United Kingdom, and installed Daunt to lead both operations.

Daunt’s approach has been to decentralize decision-making, empowering local booksellers to curate inventory and create community-focused stores rather than adhering to corporate mandates. The strategy has shifted toward an indie bookstore atmosphere with curated layouts, themed tables, and a books-first merchandising approach. Store sizes range from 10,000 to 25,000 square feet, allowing the chain to adapt to various retail settings including malls, urban centers, and lifestyle shopping districts.

The shift has paid dividends in an era when many predicted brick-and-mortar bookstores would become extinct. The bookstore revival has been fueled by several factors, including digital fatigue, the rise of TikTok’s BookTok community, the loneliness epidemic, and growing demand for so-called third spaces where people can gather.

Barnes & Noble operates approximately 650 stores across the United States, making it the dominant physical bookseller in a market where rivals have largely disappeared. Borders liquidated in 2011, while regional chains including Tattered Cover and Books Inc. have faced bankruptcy in recent years. Barnes & Noble acquired Tattered Cover’s four Colorado locations in July 2024.

The Pike Street location will place Barnes & Noble at the heart of downtown Seattle’s retail corridor, joining recent openings and expansions by retailers including Arc’teryx, Uniqlo, and SuitSupply. While several independent bookstores operate in the Pike Place Market area—including Left Bank Books Collective and Pine Books—the new Barnes & Noble will offer the scale and selection that has been absent from downtown since 2020.

Western Washington currently hosts nine other Barnes & Noble locations beyond the two in Seattle, with stores in Silverdale, Lynnwood, Woodinville, Kirkland, Bellevue, Issaquah, and Tukwila, giving the chain a substantial presence in the region’s retail landscape.