Recovering from Arcata Fire: Northtown Books, Dandar’s Reopening in Former Hatchet House Building

The Northtown Books crew, coming back soon. [Photo via Northtown Books]

Northtown Books and Dandar’s Boardgames and Books are reopening in the building formerly occupied by Hatchet House, 737 G St., just south of Café Brio on the Plaza. The 6,000-square-foot building will be divided between the two businesses, with Dandar’s on the north side and Northtown on the south side, just as they were situated at the H Street location that was destroyed in the Jan. 2 downtown Arcata fire.

“This is kind of the perfect location for us,” said Dante DiGenova, Northtown Books owner who signed a lease this morning. “Close to but not on the Plaza.”

He said he’ll have access to the building May 1 and is shooting for an August reopening, though “July would be ideal.”

Between now and then, a lot has to happen. The building will be internally subdivided down the (almost) middle, while a new glass vestibule/small lobby will be created on the G Street side. That space will have two doors, one for Dandar’s and one to the left as you enter – a north-facing door for Northtown Books.

A small kitchen space in back will continue to be used by The Couxp food truck, and that won’t be part of either of the newly arriving businesses.

Digenova said he is having new shelves made locally, and will have to obtain new computers and credit card readers. One daunting task is reordering the store’s inventory of books.

While thankfully, the store’s financial records were preserved in the cloud, and he had a flash drive with a complete inventory as of Dec. 31, all publisher contact information and records went up in smoke Jan. 2.

His insurer wants records of book order invoices going back six months, so he’s been on the phone with publishers for two days trying to obtain the needed records and reconstruct his sales from last July through December.

“It’s kind of a struggle right now,” DiGenova said.

Dandar’s has been standing up an interim location in Jacoby’s Storehouse, but Northtown Books has continued to search for an adequate spot.

DiGenova said both businesses were interested in the now-vacant Allen Building near the Arcata Theatre on H Street, but internal reconstruction costs looked prohibitive.

Once the arduous reopening process is complete, book buyers will be greeted by the same Northtown Books crew, and pet the same dog, Dante’s poodle, Tovi. Fortunately, insurance covered the crew’s lost income during the post-fire down time. “Everyone’s been getting paid,” DiGenova said.

A 3D rendering of the new building layout has been created, but isn’t yet shareable. The bifurcation won’t create two same-sized spaces due to constraints of the HVAC system. Northtown’s space will include an extra 200 square feet, and he said Dandar’s was “totally cool with it.” Dandar’s owners Dan Gilkey and Doranna Benker-Gilkey weren’t immediately available for comment.

DiGenova said he hadn’t heard anything about the possible building occupancy for a while, but arrived home last night to an email that said, “Here’s the lease.”

As for the eager, book-buying public, DiGenova asked that they hang on until August, unless he can open earlier.

“Please be patient,” he said. “We’re super excited about this.”