(Image: Haunted Burrow Books)

(Image: Haunted Burrow Books)

The shapeshifting mix of short-term pop-ups, flea markets, and retail experiments that are keeping the old QFC block of 15th Ave E active in anticipation of coming mixed-use redevelopment will include a spooky temporary guest.

Haunted Burrow Books and its offerings of “horror, dark fantasy, sci-fi, and other moody genres” is getting ready to haunt the street for an ephemeral stay in the mix.

Owner and editor Roxanne Guiney has announced a June 20th grand opening for the temporary Capitol Hill horror and dark fantasy book shop:

On June 20, join the party as we open a temporary brick-and-mortar store in Capitol Hill (Seattle)! At 7pm, find us at 430 15th Ave E., on the same block as the CHASM swap meet. Then find me there for your horror, fantasy, and sci-fi fix every Tuesday through Sunday until the end of the year.

The new shop will be the latest visitor to the block now centered around the Punk Rock Flea Market’s ongoing Quality Flea Center. CHS reported here on the plans for another year of the new version of the old QFC as neighborhood developer Hunters Capital works through the maze of aligning the city’s public development process with economic conditions and financing and construction windows. Last month, the city’s  Department of Construction & Inspections finally issued a key decision approving the plans for a six-story development to rise on the block.

As the old QFC grocery has made a home for the temporary flea market venue, the neighboring shops on the block also destined for eventual demolition have also become spaces for a rotation of short-term retail experiments. After the neighborhood’s Rudy’s Barbershop moved up the street to a new permanent home in Hunters Capital’s other big 15th Ave E project, kids retailer Thistle & Poppy moved into the old salon with its mix of clothing, books, and toys.

Haunted Burrow’s transition to the corporeal realm will be a test of any brick and mortar aspirations for a business that has grown at area flea markets like the every third Thursday Capitol Hill Swap Meet that has made a home in the block’s converted grocery. It is taking over a space that has already hosted a short-term run for a local concern as “styling agency” Cuniform made a run in the space.

Now Guiney and Haunted Burrow are making the leap into real-world retailing with a relatively low-risk opportunity. 15th Ave E has also been a healthy environment for book retail growth. Across the street, Ada’s Technical Books has grown into a core of the neighborhood in its more than 12 years on 15th Ave E. There are a few ghosts, however. The neighborhood recently lost a book shop as bibliotherapeutic retailer Nook & Cranny lost its lease and moved to University Heights.

Meanwhile, the eclectic and busy mix of ventures on the QFC block is helping to make up for holes in the 15th Ave commercial fabric including the gaps from Kaiser Permanente’s issues with leasing its street level commercial spaces. More new experiments are coming. There is brown paper up in the windows of one of the new neighbors for the coming Haunted Burrows shop where something else new is about to rise from the dead in the former home of the dearly departed ShopRite.

Haunted Burrow Books will open soon at 430 15th Ave E. Learn more at hauntedburrowbooks.com.

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