Bookstore will keep operating, scale down size: owner

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This article was published 14/09/2011 (5482 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FOR possibly the first time in retail history, an entrepreneur will try to prove that the customer is wrong.

Kelly Hughes, the owner of Aqua Books and Eat! bistro, was deluged with feedback after he announced last month that the Garry Street mainstay would close this fall. The overwhelming message was simple, he said — “Don’t close, you idiot.”

So, in an effort to show he’s made of smarter stuff, he has decided to downsize the bookstore and convert it and its theatre and events room into a not-for-profit operation.

The new organization will be formally known as Winnipeg’s Cultural City Hall Inc., an informal moniker Hughes has been using for years to describe the screenings of short films by local filmmakers, poetry readings, puppet plays for adults and music that he presents on a daily basis.

“We do 400 events a year. We’re the second-busiest arts and culture venue in Canada. We’ve been trying to make Winnipeg a better place as it gets taken over by the Dollaramas and Moxie’s of the world,” he said.

The restaurant will still shut down sometime at the end of next month but he said he’s hopeful another restaurateur will move in.

But to ensure the long-time viability of the venture, Hughes needs to sell the 8,400-square-foot building. He’s loath to unload it to some faceless corporation so he’s hoping his customers will step up and buy shares in a co-op.

If they don’t, he’ll simply move to a smaller, less costly space.

He didn’t want to discuss details of what the building could be worth but he’s confident it could fetch twice what he paid for it.

“Because of the Jets coming back and the work we’ve put into it, we’ve proven it’s a location that people will come to. (The area) is not a dead zone,” he said.

Hughes said the bookstore will be scaled back from its current size of about 45,000 to about 15,000. “Books are a tough sell in this day and age,” he said.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca