Sears Makes the Loop

Sears, Roebuck & Co. (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) announced it will unveil a new five-level, 250,000-square-foot store at the corner of State and Madison streets in Chicago on May 23, 2001. The retailer claims that its new urban store, called Sears on State, will be the only full-line retailer serving the more than 1 million Loop-area residents and workers.

Sears on State will be a full-line downtown store offering apparel, home fashions, cosmetics, appliances, consumer electronics, hardware and lawn and garden products. It will also feature eight special businesses, including Cole Vision Optical, H&R Block, Java Java Coffee Shop, Miracle Ear, Sears Portrait Studio, an Afrocentric gift shop called Unity Square, a hair salon and a dental practice.

Sears retained the architectural firm of Daniel P. Coffey & Associates, Ltd., to design the facade of the store in a building originally built in the early 1900s by Holabird & Roche. It housed The Boston Department Store on what Chicago lore said was the busiest intersection in the world. The 17-story historic building was also once touted as the tallest building in the world devoted exclusively to the retail trade of a single business. Other noteworthy aspects of this historic building were its open floor plates, deep basements and escalators. Daniel P. Coffey is a specialist in landmark preservation and restoration.

The urban experiment, which brings the Nation's Number Three retailer back to its downtown-Chicago roots (the store is only a few blocks north and west from its one-time headquarters building, The Sears Tower), is its seventh urban store in Chicago. In 1999, the retailer announced a $30 million program to renovate its six existing Chicago stores by the year 2003. It's also another attempt to redefine itself and separate itself from mass-merchandisers and mall-based chains.