Barnes & Noble celebrated the opening of its newest retail location at the South Hill Mall in Puyallup Wednesday among throngs of bibliophiles and with the help of best-selling author J.A. Jance to cut the ribbon.

Located inside the mall and occupying the former Super Jump Party Zone site near JCPenney, the 19,000-square-foot bookstore is the first retail experience of its kind in the vicinity in many years, according to a press release from Barnes & Noble.

“It has been over a decade since the Borders Bookstore closed just across the road from where we are to open this beautiful new Barnes & Noble,” James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble, said in a statement. “Our booksellers are delighted to bring back a bookstore of such scale to Puyallup.”

This new location comes on the heels of the bookseller’s recent boon, adding more bookstores in a single year (2024) than it had in the entire decade from 2009-19. This uptick in store openings is owed to the chain’s strategy to hand control of each store over to local booksellers, according to the release.

The new location includes a café, as well as the usual books, games, toys, and gifts one would expect to find at a Barnes & Noble.

“We have an enthusiastic team of book lovers who are so excited to bring the joy of reading to this community,” Store Manager and Barnes & Noble veteran Lisa Collinsworth said in the release. “Readers who visit our new bookstore are sure to find hidden treasures on the way to that long-anticipated new release — come see for yourself.”

The opening of the bookstore marks the fourth in a series of five major projects South Hill Mall’s Ohio-based parent company Cafaro Co. was scheduled to bring online in late 2025 and early 2026. Already opened amenities include an Xfinity by Comcast store, a Discount Collection store, and the five-story Homewood Suites by Hilton.

Still yet to be unveiled in summer 2026, South Hill Mall will debut its new 31,000-square-foot international grocery store, Hong Kong Market, located inside the detached former Toys “R” Us building adjacent to Red Robin on 94th Avenue East. In addition to a selection of fresh produce, meat, fish, and poultry, the market will also contain a food hall.