After five decades at the helm of one of Jacksonville’s best-known independent bookstores, Ron Chamblin is preparing for a change in ownership at Chamblin Bookmine.
The 84-year-old founder is working on a plan to eventually transfer the bookstore business to approximately 30 employees, giving the people who have helped run it a role in its future as he begins stepping back.
The Jacksonville Business Journal and First Coast News recently reported on Chamblin’s plans. Rather than selling the company to an outside buyer, Chamblin is looking to structure the transition around his employees and two trusts that would help support the business and its properties.
Chamblin Bookmine began in 1976 after Chamblin purchased the Bookmine name and an initial collection of books. What started with a small inventory has grown into a sprawling Jacksonville bookstore operation with two retail locations and a warehouse.
The company’s Roosevelt Boulevard location at 4551 Roosevelt Blvd. is the flagship, while Chamblin’s Uptown operates at 215 N. Laura Street downtown. The business estimates that its collection includes several million books, along with DVDs, CDs, vinyl records and other media.
The stores have also remained closely tied to Jacksonville’s local arts and literary communities. Chamblin’s Uptown hosts events including author appearances, poetry readings and art-related programming, while the Bookmine has become known for its maze-like aisles and enormous collection of new, used, collectible and out-of-print titles.
Chamblin’s website describes the business as an independent bookstore built around allowing customers to discover books naturally rather than relying on the curated selections found at large chains or online marketplaces. Its book-trading program also allows customers to exchange books and other media for store credit.
The planned ownership transition is intended to preserve that independent character.
According to the Jacksonville Business Journal, Chamblin has received offers to sell the business and its commercial properties over the years, but has not found a buyer he felt would maintain the bookstores as community spaces. His current succession plan would instead keep the business connected to the employees who already know its operations.
Chamblin also owns the commercial properties associated with the business, and the proposed structure includes a separate trust for those properties and another for the bookstore operation. Income from the trusts would help support the business after the transition.
For now, Chamblin has not completely stepped away. He continues to spend much of his time at the Roosevelt store, where the business has continued to grow despite the rise of digital reading, changing retail habits and the challenges of the pandemic.
The transition also comes as Chamblin looks toward the future of the Roosevelt property. The company has plans for a new coffee shop addition, with architectural drawings in development, according to the publication.
Chamblin Bookmine is still operating at its two Jacksonville locations, and the ownership transition is being planned rather than completed. For a bookstore that has spent 50 years growing under its founder, its next chapter could soon be shaped by the employees who have helped keep it going.
