His first day in business, all Ron Chamblin wanted to do was make enough money to pay the $150 rent on a small bookstore on Herschel Street in Riverside and have enough left over each month for living expenses.
Now, 40 years later, he has 24 employees, plus two stores comprising 54,000 square feet and a warehouse that represent a $3.5 million portfolio of commercial real estate holdings.
Chamblin’s career as Jacksonville’s most well-known used book dealer will be celebrated Saturday from 7-10 p.m. at Chamblin’s Uptown, the bookstore and café he opened Downtown in 2008.
“At first, I just wanted to make a living with me alone and I did make a living with me alone,” he said.
After 11 years drawing the store’s only full-time paycheck and watching the business steadily grow, Chamblin needed to expand. So he leased his second store, also in Riverside and now the Museum of Southern History.
By 1991, the business had again outgrown its home, so Chamblin purchased a building along Roosevelt Boulevard near San Juan Avenue.
Chamblin’s Bookmine continued to gain popularity with local bibliophiles, so after a few years, he purchased the building next door and connected the two structures.
By 2005, expansion was again needed and Chamblin decided to look Downtown for his next opportunity.
Two factors led to the choice.
“I wanted to be in the urban environment and there was nothing else to buy around the Roosevelt store,” said Chamblin.
He found a two-story structure on Laura Street near Hemming Park that had been abandoned for years. He bought it in 2006, even though a large section of the second floor had collapsed and there was only dirt on the first floor.
Two years later, Chamblin’s Uptown opened for business and has since become one of Downtown’s busiest retail destinations.
“I just had a gut feeling,” he said. “And it turned out right.”
When the recession began in 2007, Chamblin was reminded about the accuracy of his gut. He weathered the lean years and even bought the inventory from several small bookstores that couldn’t make it through the downturn.
“I was able to survive because I own the buildings. My overhead was a lot lower compared to renting. That meant better cash flow and I could buy more inventory,” he said.
“If I’d been renting, I’d be gone, too,” Chamblin added.
As he looks back, it’s clear the path of the business was based more on what it was doing than on what Chamblin thought he had mapped out the first day he opened the door on Herschel Street.
“At first, you’re in control. Then, at some point, the business takes on its own momentum and you just ride along,” he said. “I expanded reluctantly, bought buildings reluctantly and hired reluctantly, but you have to grow by natural pressures.”
Chamblin’s plan for the first phase of his next 40 years in the book business is yet another expansion at the Roosevelt Boulevard location.
He’s commissioned an architect to design a two-story structure on the site that will allow an expansion of the bookstore and the addition of a coffee shop for the Avondale and Ortega markets.
For Chamblin, who turned 74 this year, it’s déjà vu all over again.
“We are totally out of room. We need more books and we need more parking. The business is forcing the expansion,” he said.
What’s not part of the plan for the next 40 years is stopping or even slowing down.
“I’m having as much fun now as I had 40 years ago,” Chamblin said. “But I have a lot more sense now.”
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