Owner of popular R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison looks for buyer

Roxanne Coady, owner of R.J. Julia Booksellers, the downtown Madison bookstore with a national reputation and a loyal following along Connecticut's shoreline, revealed Monday that she's seeking a buyer for the business.

"Rest assured: This is not an end for R.J. Julia, but simply a new beginning," Coady said in a message posted on the store's website and emailed to customers.

"The store will not close," she said. "We are determined to see R.J. Julia survive and thrive into the future."

Coady, in a phone interview, said the store - and independent booksellers in general - has enjoyed a surge in business in recent months, and that she was looking forward to pursuing another venture, one she described as "a center for writers and readers and a place of learning … 'a cultural department store.'

"I'm going to be 63, and if I'm going to have a third career, I better get cooking," she said. "If it (the store) was falling apart, I would feel stuck, like I had to stay here and make it work. ... But it's not, and I'm not in any rush (to sell)."

Coady said she would only turn the store over to another independent owner, not a chain.

A Branford resident, Coady founded R.J. Julia in 1990 after a decade at BDO Seidman, one of the 10 largest U.S. accounting firms. In 1998, she founded Read To Grow, an organization that promotes development of early literacy and language skills.

Coady's announcement regarding R.J. Julia's availability had generated inquiries by Monday afternoon, according to Mark Kaufman, chief operating officer of Paz & Associates, a Florida-based consultant advising Coady on the sale.

"Our role is to qualify prospective buyers," said Kaufman, whose wife Donna is the firm's chief executive officer. "We're working with (Coady) to finalize documents, prepare an executive summary of the business and a questionnaire we'd like prospects to fill out."

Coady said she has had the R.J. Julia business appraised but declined to disclose the results.

She said R.J. Julia customers would notice no changes in the operation of the store, which is known for the hundreds of prominent authors it hosts yearly and the "shelf-talker" tags that bear the hand-written recommendations of the store's staff.

The list of authors the store has brought to Madison includes the celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis, Anna Quindlen, Madeleine Albright, Jimmy Carter and Barbara Walters.

The store provides a total of 40 full- and part-time jobs, according to Coady.

Eileen Banisch, executive director of the Madison Chamber of Commerce, credited R.J. Julia and Coady with helping raise Madison's profile among tourists and visitors.

"It's helped draw people to the town - and some of them have moved here," Banisch said.

Arnold Gorlick, who owns the Madison Art Cinemas across Boston Post Road from R.J. Julia, said he took inspiration from Coady's success with the bookstore when he decided to open his theater in the late 1990s.

"She's an important part of Madison's identity," he said of Coady. "I'm sure she'll complete this transaction in the best way possible."

b.hallenbeck@theday.com