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Northwest Tower Construction Sends Wicker Park Sprint Shop Across Milwaukee

By Alisa Hauser | May 27, 2015 9:33am

Sprint relocated to 1625 N. Milwaukee Ave., formerly Ron Seymour's home and photography studio. [DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser]

WICKER PARK — A Sprint store that has operated out of the base of Wicker Park's Northwest Tower for over a decade has moved across the street as construction to convert the iconic 12-story building into a 93-room boutique hotel by next summer continues.

Steve Lipe,  Sprint's new landlord, confirmed on Tuesday that Sprint has rented out the entire two-story, 5,000-square-foot building at 1625 N. Milwaukee Ave. and is expected to stay there through the end of the year.

Next year, Sprint will head back across the street and become the ground-level tenant in a new, under-construction building that is part of the hotel complex, a spokesman from the hotel's developer Convexity Properties said on Tuesday.

Sprint's former store, at 1600 N. Milwaukee Ave., will eventually become a diner for the public and guests of the hotel, developers have previously said.

Sprint is only renting the first floor its new temporary quarters for retail. An upstairs apartment, formerly the home of Ron Seymour, a photographer who lived there for 25 years, will remain vacant, Lipe said.

Albeit temporary, Sprint's new space is bright and airy.  Workers for the wireless giant and Sprint's customers can see onto the street rather than a view of temporary scaffolding marred by graffiti.

Inside the new Wicker Park Sprint store.  [DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser].

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