Back Pages Books, a local bookstore on Moody Street owned and operated by a Brandeis alumnus, will move to the old Jordan's Furniture building, also located on Moody Street. The bookstore opened 2.5 years ago and has been located across from Lizzy's ice cream shop. Owner Alex Green '04 said the store will be on the ground floor of its new location at 289 Moody and will serve as the public face of the building. He added that the building will also house the Center for Digital Imaging Arts at Boston University, six live/work studios and six daytime studios for artists.

"[The new space] is just a better space that allows us to be the community institution we always wanted to be," Green said. "The building is a symbol of old Waltham, which was a thriving destination."

Green explained that Waltham has been an arts community, and the new building will reaffirm its status. Back Pages Books will also co-curate an art gallery next door to the building. Green added that he plans to reopen his store in the new location Oct. 1.

Brothers Barry and Eliot Tatelman, the owners of Jordan's Furniture, put the building on the market a few of years ago and sold it to John Thompson, a local artist who is part of the Waltham Mills Artists' Association, a nonprofit organization. Back Pages Books is leasing the ground floor from Thompson.

"[The Tatelmans] wanted to make sure [the building] would go to a use to enhance Waltham's Moody Street," Waltham Mayor Jeannette McCarthy said.

McCarthy explained that the new building will enhance the arts scene in the Waltham community because the unique combination of a bookstore, café and art studios will be accommodated within the same space. She added that Brandeis students will now be able to find more activities to do around Moody Street.

"We're trying to advertise all the museums [including the Rose Art Museum] in the historical district together," she said of revitalizing the Waltham area.

Thompson, who joined with other local artists to buy the building from the Tatelmans, said that "Waltham is poised to become a new arts center," citing the presence of a movie theater, bookstores, the Center for Digital Imaging Arts and Brandeis' various art programs, including the Rose Art Museum and the Edmund J. Safra Fine Arts building, whose construction will soon be underway on campus.

Moody Street has a very active evening life, Thompson explained, but has less going on in the daytime. Federico Muchnik, an artist and the program director for the CDIA, said that the center is expanding its facilities to include more classrooms and studio space for students specializing in film, photography, graphic design and three-dimensional animation.

"The new center will just add on to an already vibrant situation," Muchnik said of the city. He added that the Jordan's building "creates a block in the center of things [in Waltham business district] and is an interdisciplinary learning institute.