LINCOLN SQUARE — Barely a week after the Lawrence Avenue Sears store closed for good, all traces of the retailer have been erased from the building.
A crane was spotted Tuesday morning removing Sears signage — large and small — from the facade at 1900 W. Lawrence Ave.
The Lincoln Square Sears was one of the first built by Sears, Roebuck & Co. in the 1920s as the company expanded from a strictly mail-order enterprise into brick-and-mortar retailing. Sears Holdings announced in May that the store would close in August.
The property has already been snapped up by Springbank Real Estate Group, which specializes in transit-oriented developments.
Springbank has presented plans for a mixed-use development that would retain the facade of the 90-year-old building while gutting the interior to accommodate 40 apartments and 32,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.
The fate of the stripped signs is unknown, though there is precedent for new developments in the neighborhood to honor a building's past life: Gene's Sausage Shop paid homage to the former Meyer Delicatessen and Lou Malnati's incorporated signage from the old Golden Angel into its North Center restaurant.
Lawrence Avenue Sears before its sign came down. [DNAinfo/Patty Wetli]
The Lawrence Avenue Sears, stripped of its signage. [DNAinfo/Patty Wetli]
Rendering of the planned redevelopment of the Lawrence Avenue Sears. [Springbank Real Estate Group]
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