Bidding Adieu to South Congress Books

As they were pulling together the store environment for their first location of South Congress Books, on South Congress Avenue in Austin, owners Sheri Tornatore and Allison Faust recall hearing passersby remark that its future success was dubious.

After all, the year was 2011, which saw the bankruptcy filings of Borders Books and Waldenbooks, followed by that of B. Dalton in 2013. With the rise of the Internet, books, magazines and newspapers were struggling to remain relevant vehicles for sharing the written word. Yet the owners of South Congress Books, which started as an online business through serious bookseller sites like ABE Books and Alibris, had a vision for a physical location, waited for the right site and felt confident they could bring it to life successfully.

The exterior of the retailer’s original location on South Congress Avenue. Photography: Courtesy of Kathleen Jordan

And bring it to life, they did. It wasn’t the run-of-the-mill bookstore: it focused on first editions, arts-related/inspired titles, as well as offered vintage prints and art by local artists. They created an inventory that created a lifestyle. Being well-connected in the Austin arts community, they leveraged relationships to host events such as readings, live music, and book signings.

One of the most notable events they hosted was in partnership with Sotheby’s in 2012 to coincide with the upcoming auction they were holding for the John Lennon collection of drawings. Through Sheri’s longtime connections in the Austin book scene, she had a relationship with the “book guy” at Sotheby’s. Through that connection, Sotheby’s approached Sheri with a proposal for a promotional event held during the 2012 SXSW for a public preview of the drawings. The event was a massive success for both sides.

They were “in the black” less than two years after opening and saw the store flourish financially for the next 12 years. Meanwhile, Austin, and South Congress in particular, was transforming from a city whose motto was “Keep Austin Weird” to a city that had become so overrun with tourists that it became too crowded for celebrities. The owners describe their run on South Congress Avenue as having had two phases: “Up and Coming” (the first 5-7 years) and “Crazy Popular.” The first phase enjoyed the celebrity visits, but the latter phase scared them away.

During those “up and coming” years, they enjoyed many a celebrity sighting in their store: actors Robin Wright, Christoph Waltz, Johnny Depp, Natalie Portman, Ryan Gosling, as well as musicians Thom Yorke, Flea and Patti Smith. (If you weren’t around for the ’80s and ’90s music scene, you may need to Google them.) However, foot traffic was sporadic – it ebbed and flowed with the daily Austin tourist volume. Covid proved a business boon for them and for Austin in general, but they had begun to notice Austin moving into a financial lull right around the time they reopened in the new location in early 2023.

Not surprisingly, when the owners started this venture in 2011, the landlord was a friend of a friend, and the lease was slightly more than a handshake deal. During the next 12 years, they saw the vacant lot across the street grow into a new boutique hotel. Then, the vacant lot next door became a mixed-use complex, and luxury brands like Hermes opened boutiques on South Congress. It wasn’t too much of a surprise when their building owner sold it to a developer of the adjacent empty lot.

The developer/new owner was required to honor the existing South Congress Books lease through its expiration as part of the sale conditions, but Sheri and Allison were put on notice that their new lease included a quadrupled base monthly rent plus a triple net percentage of sales. With the new rent being untenable, they began to look for a new location.

Meanwhile, an old South Congress institution, Uncommon Objects (a very cool antique mall-type establishment), had relocated off the avenue in late 2017 after 26 years due to raising rent pressure. Other longtime retailers like Lucy in Disguise and Tesoros followed suit. The owners of South Congress Books now realized it was their turn. Rents had become out of control then, but spaces sat empty – landlords were slow to respond.

All of this was reminiscent of something we have seen many times before. Case in point, readers may recall the confluence of events that led to the downfall of New York’s Bleecker Street in the wake of the “Sex and The City” bus tours boon of the early 2000s: Small, long-opened local businesses (44 of them in less than a decade) were forced out of their spaces by rent hikes, with luxury brands like Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren moving in. Then when the hype died away and the bus tours stopped, the luxe retailers moved out leaving the street with vacant storefronts where there once had been a vibrant and eclectic neighborhood. (This could become a cautionary tale for all cities, big and small.)

The interior of the retailer’s second location. Photography: Courtesy of Kathleen Jordan

After realizing something similar was happening to South Congress, Sheri and Allison hired a realtor and started the search for a new location in 2022. They considered moving into a space next to where Uncommon Objects had relocated but ultimately decided against it, given its isolated location. However, they opened a booth up within Uncommon Objects in September 2022 as a way to diversify and experiment with the location. The realtor showed them locations in The Domain, an upscale mall in Austin, but they did not feel the setting resonated with their brand.

Once again, serendipity played its part, and a yoga studio Allison had frequented was moving out of its location. It was an adorable little cottage on a small street called Kerbey Lane. The cottage needed work, but Sheri and Allison could see themselves in this spot. They signed a two-year (reasonable) lease. They left their original location in January 2023 and spent the next couple of months (and a considerable amount of capital) preparing the new location to perform as their new store. The new location opened its doors as “South Congress Books on Kerbey Lane” in early 2023.

The following two years proved a drain on their financial resources as sales progressively dwindled. Longtime customers followed them to their new location, including actor Luke Wilson, but they no longer had access to the impulse customer traffic of tourists on South Congress Avenue. They hosted a variety of events, usually over weekends on their shop’s front lawn, and collaborated with complimentary businesses to increase the audience. As 2024 concluded, they decided not to renew their lease. They had given it their all and a significant portion of their savings, but the forces that drove their business success in the first location simply didn’t exist in their second location. They decided it was time to stop the bleeding.

The interior of Uncommon Objects. Photography: Courtesy of Kathleen Jordan

I do believe this story does have a happy ending, though. The owners are now doing what they call “collaging their business together.” It has an artful ring to it that aligns with these two dynamic and creative women. It takes form in a two-pronged approach, utilizing both online and physical retail opportunities. They have been selling books online since 2005, but while they had their physical retail locations, these sales were pretty much “on autopilot,” as they describe it. Now, they are refocusing their efforts to online sales at the same sites they’ve always relied on and have added eBay to their cadre of online locations.

The physical retail aspect, still important in their minds, involves a pivot as they are now a seller within a larger retail establishment. But they are enjoying this new angle. It seems to allow them the freedom to experiment with the variety of their inventory and visual merchandising. Being dedicated to working within Uncommon Objects since the beginning of that partnership in 2022, they recently doubled the space they occupy in that location, too. They added a second antique reseller to their repertoire in August 2024 at Antiques on Oakmont, around the time they decided not to renew their Kerbey Lane lease. They recently expanded the space in that establishment as well as participate in the store’s parking lot sales regularly.

Despite the trials they’ve experienced post-Covid, Sheri and Allison still believe in physical retail. They have observed that the younger generations are tired of the transactional nature of online and crave “real” retail experiences. While the younger generations tend to view these interactions with small businesses as nostalgic, the older generations (elder millennials and Gen X specifically) view a visit to a small boutique as a more authentic experience.

They’ve also discovered that the knowledge they’ve accumulated over close to two decades in the rare book business allows for a third prong: consultation. They have started to help manage estate sales, approached by clients needing their knowledge of the estate items and their worth. They have also begun working with clients who desire to build their private library collection, and these clients lean on them for their guidance on the titles to buy and the proper level of investment.

All in all, it felt to me as I wrapped up the conversation with Sheri and Allison that the pivoting and collaging were reinvigorating their passion for what got them into the business in the first place: Discovering great finds and giving them a second (or third) home with the world at large.

Photography: Courtesy of Kathleen Jordan