“Dayton has a great history of supporting independent bookstores,” Van Uum said in a phone interview Thursday. “We were wanting to open a few more stores, so I started looking around in Dayton and northern Kentucky. I love what they’re doing at Austin Landing.”
The 12,000-square-foot store is projected to open in September 2015, according to RG Properties officials. It will feature a wide selection of books, stationery and gifts, with an emphasis on books for children and families, and will also include a café.
Van Uum said the past decade has been challenging for bricks-and-mortar bookstores, with the onset of electronic books and competition from book-selling sites such as Amazon. But the e-book craze appears to be leveling off, and readers are hungry for an alternative store with a more intimate atmosphere than the mega-bookstores of the past, he said.
Joseph-Beth Booksellers filed for bankruptcy in 2010, and now operates four bookstores, including one in Rookwood Pavilion in Cincinnati, under new ownership. Van Uum’s 6,500-square-foot downtown Cincinnati bookstore opened in July 2013. It includes a café with a creperie and coffee bar.
“There’s a different model coming, and there’s an opportunity in some markets to do a second-generation bookstore,’ Van Uum said.
The 142-acre Austin Landing development along Ohio 741 and Austin Boulevard blends retail, restaurants, offices and residential development.
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