Loyal music aficionados need not wait much longer for Hoodlums’ return — but not in the Memorial Union.

The record store formerly located in the basement of the MU will open anew at Guadalupe Road and McClintock Drive in mid-September, teaming up with neighboring bookstore Changing Hands.

A November fire in the MU closed dining halls and conference rooms and led to months of construction.

Hoodlums co-owners Steve Wiley and Kristian Luce said the long building-restoration period forced them to find a new home for the business that had thrived in the MU for a decade.

“It was an unfortunate situation for all of us that things had to end so abruptly,” Wiley said. “In our 10 years at the Memorial Union, we worked very closely with [ASU] staff and they allowed us to use the building for events we just couldn’t have pulled off anywhere else.”

Wiley and Luce didn’t have to look far for a new location.

“The day we decided to drive around and see what locations in Tempe were available, our conversation started with us saying to each other, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could get in next to Changing Hands?’” Wiley said.

“We all felt that the mixture of books, music and visual art was one of great synergy,” he added.

Wiley said he and Luce met with Changing Hands co-owners Gayle Shanks and Bob Sommer, who suggested Hoodlums take over the lease from another used bookstore located next door.

During the next six months, Hoodlums and Changing Hands worked together to secure the new lease.

Changing Hands general manager Cindy Dach, said she sees some connections between Hoodlums’ move from the ASU campus and the bookstore’s own move from downtown Tempe.

She said the downtown area has become less conducive for independent business, leading many original stores to move elsewhere.

“Local business has been driven out of the downtown core of Tempe,” Dach said in an e-mail.

Together the two stores want to create a better area, she said.

“We envision a lot of discussion between our employees and our community,” Dach said. “We become an even greater cultural destination.”

Hoodlums will collaborate with Changing Hands’ programming starting Sept. 24 when Wiley will interview author Tom Moon about his new book “1001 Recordings to Hear Before You Die.”

“Music geeks like us are always into a good album-list debate,” Wiley said. “Hoodlums is going to feature a lot of the albums in [Moon’s] book in our listening posts and throughout the store.”

Wiley said he would be working consistently with Changing Hands, in an attempt to turn Guadalupe Road and McClintock Drive into the best place for independent events.

“We called some of our friends in the art world, they called some of their friends, we had a beer or three, and we schemed up the idea of rotating different art on our walls and in our display case,” Wiley said.

But despite the new location, Hoodlums plans to remain part of the ASU community.

Wiley and Luce worked over the summer to create a new Web site, www.hoodlumsmusic.com, and blogs to keep students informed.

Hoodlums’ e-mail list, Music Junkies, has grown steadily since word of a reopening leaked, and members will receive the same music discount that Hoodlums offered at its MU location.

Reach the reporter at channing.turner@asu.edu.