Yesterday, a Redditor by the user name of FatuousJeffrey posted that the Half Price Books in the University District on Roosevelt Way was scheduled to close in April of this year. FatuousJeffrey attributed this news to “a clerk I talked to last night.” That Half Price Books has been operating for at least a quarter-century, and it was a rare familiar presence through all the development the Roosevelt neighborhood has seen in recent years.

I reached out to Half Price Books for comment and got an email back from Emily Bruce, the Public Relations Manager at HPB, this morning. She confirms, “Yes, Half Price Books will close its University District location on Sunday, April 9.” Bruce continues:

Our development team has been actively searching for a new location in the area, but has been unable to find one that fits our new store criteria, so we decided to close the store in conjunction with the end of our lease. We are always looking for new locations and we hope to find one in the University District or the surrounding area in the near future.

Bruce’s comment about a potential new location mirrors a statement issued by HPB regional manager Anne Von Feldt back in February of 2013 when she confirmed that the Capitol Hill HPB was closing: “ We are also looking at possible new Half Price Books sites in the Puget Sound area and hope to announce a new store in the coming months,” Von Feldt told me. No Seattle HPB stores have opened in the time since.

According to Bruce, none of the chain’s other locations in the region (Bellevue, Everett, Lynnwood, Redmond, Tacoma, and Tukwila, along with the outlet store in Olympia) are scheduled to close.