The Islander Bookshop is one of a handful of local businesses that announced it’s moving into the mall. It’s relocating from a small storefront about a mile north of downtown.
“It just blows my mind that in 2023, an indie bookstore, not in the lower 48 but on this island, pretty far out there, can expand – triple our size,” said Melissa Haffeman, the book store’s founder and co-owner.
This weekend the bookshop is reopening in its new spot on Nov. 3 as part of a soft opening of the Kodiak Marketplace. Only a handful of residents have gotten a preview of what’s inside but soon, the public will get to explore downtown’s newest addition before the grand opening in May of next year.
Haffeman said being downtown also means the Islander Bookshop can reach entirely new customers.
“Part of the calculation to see if we can make it a go in a larger space is that we would hopefully be able to have the folks visit the bookstore that maybe don’t have vehicles or maybe they’re fishing for a season,” she said.
The new location is also much closer to hotels and where cruise ships dock. Haffeman said getting new tourist traffic will be huge for the store.
They started moving stock less than a week before the reopening. She said the move has been near seamless so far.
Longtime locals knew the spot as the AC or Kraft building as it served as a sort of department store, then a grocer, but those businesses closed down. The Kodiak Area Native Association bought the old building in 2014, and it served as a gym and storage space until it was torn down in 2021.
The blue behemoth that replaced it now boasts two floors that span a total of around 63,000 square feet. The Native association even moved some of their own offices to the upper floor.
KANA has mostly been known in town for healthcare, but this was a huge investment in commercial real-estate. The Native association’s chief executive officer, Mike Pfeffer, said they wanted to invest in the community.
“It’s about the social determinants of health,” he said. “It’s not just about going to the doctor because you’ve got a runny nose, right? It’s about improving the community. The social determinants of health are more important, or at least more comprehensive than just going to the doctor.”
Kodiak doesn’t have any community lounges for places to just meet and talk. Pfeffer said he hopes the new building can fill that niche.
“It’s something that has not been in place for as long as I’ve been in Kodiak and the opportunity for an investment in our people in our programs and in our community, from KANA’s perspective, was a great thing to do,” he said.
So far a toy store has already opened in the marketplace, and the bookstore will open in the coming weeks alongside a local indigenous artist who will be selling crystals, jewelry, and other art pieces.
The new marketplace will also feature a bakery, a post office, a restaurant, a gift shop for the Alutiiq Museum, and a small grocery store in the next year. The association is still looking to fill two more long term leases.
There’s even bigger event rooms to host conferences or large gatherings upstairs. Galley Tables, a popular event that features local storytellers, will be hosted there as part of the mall’s soft opening this weekend.
Ellen Simeonoff grew up in Kodiak and is the executive director for the Chamber of Commerce. She said it’s a great focal point for downtown.
“It centralizes downtown a little bit more so that you have more retail businesses next to restaurants and your coffee shops near the hotels,” she said. “It’s a beautiful new building – I think it’s exciting growth for our community in our economy.”
She said Kodiak’s downtown area didn’t feel safe and was kind of run down for about the last 15 years until recently.
Simeonoff said that’s changing. She’s noticed a major difference in the energy of the area in the last few years, especially as several new shops and restaurants have popped up.
“Quality of life is everything because you can have industry, but if you don’t have quality of life to go with the industries that you’ll have, people don’t want to stay or come back,” she said.
Haffeman, the co-owner of the Islander Bookshop, moved to Kodiak as a teenager and shared a similar sentiment. She said she’s honored to bring some of the magic back to the area.
“To be able to be a part of bringing back downtown and to play our role in that – it’s the chance of a lifetime, it’s so exciting,” she said.
She said her favorite part of the new location is a lounge where patrons can read and preview books before buying them.
