University Place’s new Barnes & Noble location held its ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, Sep. 23, and is now open to the public.
The new Chapel Hill bookstore, which was first announced by the mall in February, is open at 201 S Estes Dr. #200A. It occupies more than 19,000 square feet, located in the suite previously occupied by Planet Fitness, which moved from University Place after sustaining flood damage during Chantal. It is the 11th Barnes & Noble in North Carolina, and while Barnes & Noble operates UNC’s Student Stores building on campus, the University Place location marks its first traditional store within Chapel Hill town limits.
“We’re a great place for coffee, story times, events, author events,” said Store Manager Andrea Wilson. “We have two Lego events coming up. We’re just really super excited to be able to bring an experience to Chapel Hill and for everyone to be able to come in and have that third place to go to and enjoy themselves. It’s not always about buying the book, it’s building the community.”
For those unfamiliar, third spaces refer to public gathering places outside of one’s home or place of work. That can be a park, a cafe, or in this case, a book store. Wilson, who has worked for Barnes & Noble for 15 years, said she’s seen her older stores fulfill that role in other communities, and said she hopes the new store will do the same.
“We had knitting groups, and we had [Dungeons & Dragons] groups and we had a local musician come in and he played guitar one night,” she said. “So we’re hoping to build that sense of community here.”
The interior of Chapel Hill’s first Barnes & Noble (Image via Jon Gregory/Chapel Hill Media Group).
The store is just a 10-minute drive from Barnes & Noble’s New Hope Commons location and 20-minute drive away from Southpoint. Wilson said she believes the new store is different enough to draw in readers.
“Southpoint’s a great place, but it’s a mall, you know?” she said. “It’s set up a little bit differently. It’s two stories. This is a little bit more intimate and cozy when you’re walking in. Even the space feels different when you’re walking around.”
The ribbon-cutting itself was done by fantasy author Scott Reintgen. He is a New York Times best-selling author with 2023’s “A Door in the Dark,” which became the first book of his Waxways trilogy, and the first book of his new The Dragonship series, “The Last Dragon on Mars.” He’s also a UNC alumnus, having taken part in its creative writing program and graduated in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in English.
“I love when there’s just a new place for people to enjoy books,” he said of the new store. “And talk reading and talk writing. Having another new little hub for people to gather and do those things is a big deal. Especially for college students, it’s like some of them live near Franklin Street and can hit a cool place like Epilogue. Some of them are off in an apartment over here and get to walk across the road for it. And so I think as long as we have some cool places for people to meet and gather and talk about books, that’s always super exciting.”
His latest book, “The Void Dragons” releases on Oct. 6. It’s the third book in his popular “The Dragonships” series.
Barnes & Noble in Chapel Hill will be open daily from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. University Place is also set to add the home decor and furniture store HomeSense, which will take up 28,000 square feet on the north side of its main building as a neighbor to the bookstore. HomeSense is targeting a spring 2027 opening and its space is under construction. The mall also recently confirmed the restaurant and wine bar Postino’s plans to open this fall, as well as a Bliss Nail Spa in a neighboring space. You can read more on new businesses coming to University Place here.
Featured image via Jon Gregory/Chapel Hill Media Group.
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