New Austin Landing bookstore to employ up to 16

A new bookstore is close to opening at Austin Landing and will employ up to 16 people.

The Booksellers, which will be a book store taking up 12,000 square feet of space in the five-story office building under construction at Austin Landing, is looking to open the week after Labor Day, pending a few final permitting details. The independent book store will be owned by Neil Van Uum of Cincinnati.

"It's tighter, but it's still a bookstore," he said. "We put more thought when building this, with a keener eye on creating a community of book lovers. We attract book lovers and we want to give it that book lover feel."

The spot will be a different kind of tenant for Austin Landing. Van Uum said his staff, which has veterans of the book business, will make the spot a place where people want to spend time and read.

Van Uum has been in the book business for 32 years, he says, and while the book business is a challenging models with the advent of e-commerce. But independent book stores are doing well when they have an atmosphere people like.

The e-commerce world lets the bookstore remove the "long tail" of inventory bookstores have traditionally had and focus on better-selling books. It will also have a strong emphasis on parents and kids. The shop will have a cafe and coffee house with a wine bar and light menu to "create a place where someone can get away."

"There's a real desire to create a place where people can feel comfortable," Van Uum said. "We pay more attention to detail."

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/news/2015/08/27/new-austin-landing-bookstore-to-employ-up-to-16.html