It’s official: One of the country’s most prominent indie booksellers, Seattle’s Elliott Bay Book Co., is leaving its home of 36 years to try and survive its troubles (as per this previous MobyLives report) in a new location.

A Seattle Times report by Melissa Allison says the company has secured some financing and plans to move in March to a new neighborhood further away from the sports stadiums that were making the area a place with no parking but plenty of rowdy revelers. Allison says “owner Peter Aaron said he expects sales to improve immediately and in a big way.”

Meanwhile, while the new location will be smaller than the current space — known for its meandering aisles and creaking floorboards — but work is under way to make it similar: it will have high ceilings, a mezzanine, and creaking fir-wood floors.

Despite everyone’s resultant optimism, owner Aaron did strike one ominous note, reminding everyone it wasn’t the previous space’s rent that got the store into trouble. “[R]ent was not really the factor,” Aaron tells the Times. “It’s about sales.”