Just as the announcement comes that nearly 100 Sears and Roebuck stores are closing, more and more of the stores earlier shuttered by the chain are being upgraded and modernized for other purposes.
According to a series of Facebook posts published by the individual stores, the Chicago-based chain is drastically reducing its retail footprint across the country. Published reports indicate that most of the stores will be out of business by the end of this month.
Among the planned closures: stores in the Arizona cities of Green Valley, Kingman, and Parker; one store in Colorado, in Canon City; and a single store in Taos, New Mexico.
The latest round of closures follows on the heels of more than 100 Sears stores that have gone out of business in the last three years.
While the closing of the stores means a loss of jobs for any given community, as well as space going to waste in shopping malls, not all of the for Sears outlets remain vacant forever.
Work has finished on the repurposing of a former Sears store in Dallas that has just recently been transformed into outpatient medical facility space; while a one-time Sears location in Houston has now found new life as an innovation hub with offices and work space.
The transformation of those two retail locations, notes Loopnet business writer David Matthews, “show that many shuttered Sears stores still occupy valuable real estate that can once again anchor a development.”
A former 121,000 square foot Sears store in the Vancouver Mall in Vancouver, Washington, has been repurposed as a Hobby Lobby, as well as an outlet for Round1 USA, which specializes in multi-entertainment offerings such as bowling, billiards, and arcade games.
That store was just purchased by a private investor for $27.6 million. A representative for the seller told the Columbian newspaper that the transaction “represents another successful repurposing of a legacy big box retail property into alternative uses including fitness and entertainment.”
Last year a one-time Sears location in Chicago opened in 1925 and closed in 2016 was repurposed as a $40 million mixed-use development with 59 rental residences and first floor retail. The store, in the city’s Ravenswood neighborhood, was one of the first original Sears locations.
The company Transformco, which is located in the suburbs of Chicago and lists for sale many of the former Sears locations, recently put two one-time Sears stores in metro Jacksonville, Florida on the market.
On its website, Transformco says it is “transforming existing retail spaces into dynamic new venues offering shopping, entertainment, commercial and mixed-use experiences that attract a broad range of consumers.”
By Garry Boulard
