Last Kmart in Chicago set to close

Kmart’s Avondale store — its last location within Chicago’s city limits — is one of 40 stores Sears will close as the company goes through bankruptcy.

In addition to the store at 3443 W. Addison Street, Sears will close another Kmart in Cudahy, Wisconsin, as well as Sears stores in downstate Springfield and in Janesville, Wisconsin, and Michigan City, Indiana by February 2019.

The stores are expected to begin clearance sales late next week.

Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) said Friday that his office had reached out to Sears about their plans for the Avondale site, which sits in his ward, but has not yet heard back. Any plan for the site that required new zoning would have to go through a “community driven zoning and development” process that he has established in his ward.

The vacated store is in a prime location, and Ramirez-Rosa said he expects it will attract many interested parties. One complication: the huge space Kmart occupied might need to be broken up given trends in the retail industry away from huge brick-and-mortar department stores, Ramirez-Rosa said.

“Its very tragic to see that transition that we’re going through effecting that stretch of Addison,” Ramirez-Rosa said.

Sears filed for bankruptcy in October, opening another troubled chapter for the storied Chicago retailer. When it filed for bankruptcy, the company said it planned to close 142 stores by the end of the year, including a Sears in Joliet and Kmarts in Norridge and Griffith, Indiana.

The new round of closures was announced to employees Thursday. A press release from Sears said the closures were “part of Sears Holdings’ processes to accelerate its strategic transformation and facilitate its financial restructuring.”

The last Sears store in Chicago, at Six Corners in Portage Park, closed in July.

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