Bob Koester, who closed his celebrated Jazz Record Mart in February after more than half a century in business, has opened a new shop.



Located in the front room of his Delmark Records studio, 4121 N. Rockwell St. in the Horner Park neighborhood, the store currently carries 9,000 titles, with more to come.



"I'm back in business," Koester said Friday.



Since selling the Jazz Record Mart to Wolfgang's Vault -- a Reno, Nev., operation that buys and sells music, film and other cultural items -- Koester has been busily acquiring record collections. That's precisely how he got into the business in Chicago in the late 1950s, establishing the Jazz Record Mart name in 1962.



Koester brought some of the fixtures from the old store, at 27 E. Illinois St., to the new location and has been setting up bins for the past several days.



"I'm stilling putting in divider cards, many of which I don't yet have product for -- but I will," Koester said. He closed the downtown store "because the rent is killing us," he told the Tribune in January.



For customers, the new shop will offer a different ambiance than Koester's previous locations, in that artists rehearsing and cutting records often will be milling about.



Why did Koester get back into retail, even as his Delmark Records remains a flourishing enterprise?



"I miss the income from the store, and I sort of miss meeting people," said Koester, 83.



The store will be open from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays; for information, phone 773-539-5001.