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Pawn Shop at Polish Triangle Days Numbered, Owner Wants to Move On

By Alisa Hauser | August 25, 2016 9:54am
 A building at 1219 N. Milwaukee Ave.
A building at 1219 N. Milwaukee Ave.
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DNAinfo/Alisa Hauser

NOBLE SQUARE — A pawn shop at Milwaukee and Ashland avenues is looking to close and a new tenant is being sought for the building it occupies.

The owner of Value Pawn wants to move from the Polish Triangle location because "the neighborhood doesn't support it," said Steve Rebarchak, a broker for Levin Associates trying to find a tenant or buyer for the building at 1219 N. Milwaukee Ave.

The owner of a building next door said that Value Pawn has been a "good neighbor."

"We've seen glory days and bad days and things look better now. It looks like the neighborhood is bouncing back," said Donald Rosedale, the owner of the building at 1223 N. Milwaukee Ave.

The two-story, 5,700-square-foot building where Value Pawn is located is owned by WFAH LLC, a venture led by Scott Lee Cohen, according to county records.  He bought the building for $460,000 in July 2011, records show.

Cohen, a former Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor who dropped out of that race in 2010, was not immediately available for comment.

The owner of the Value Pawn outpost, one of four in the city, is Gustavo Montes, state records show. Cohen lists himself as the owner of the Value Pawn chain on the shop's website.

Montes declined requests for comment.

Rebarchak said that the building was "under utilized" and more could be done with the empty basement and second floor.

"We'd like to see one tenant take the whole building, maybe a three-story restaurant or coffee shop. The neighborhood is changing. It's a great location with a ton of foot traffic going by to the L stop," Rebarchak said.

Value Pawn opened in 2011 and was initially called Bucktown Pawn, though it was not in Bucktown. The name recently changed to Value Pawn.

A marketing flier for storefront bills it as an "ideal location for a restaurant or coffee shop on a very busy intersection."

A never opened "Kung Fu pizza" at 1225 N. Milwaukee Ave. that replaced Alexi's Bar & Grill has sat empty because of stalled plans, though the lease for that spot could be expiring soon, according to Rosedale. 

Rosedale said that Alexi's Bar & Grill closed six years ago. And Sweet Cakes Bakery, another tenant in Rosedale's building at 1223 N. Milwaukee Ave., closed earlier this year.

A layout for the existing Value Pawn building at 1219 N. Milwaukee Ave. [Provided]