Boyle Heights to Get New Sears Store Next Year

Sears Roebuck & Co. in July will begin gutting the first three floors of its former catalog distribution center in Boyle Heights, clearing the way for the economically depressed neighborhood’s first major retail development in decades, company officials said Wednesday.

The 250,000-square-foot store, scheduled to open August 2002, will replace an aging store in Boyle Heights that last received a major face lift during the 1970s. The existing Sears store is attached to the long-empty, 10-story catalog distribution center whose Art Deco Sears emblem is visible from nearby freeways.

“This is an important addition given that it is in East L.A.,” said Joanne Carras Halbert, director of economic development for Mayor Richard Riordan’s office. “It’s a confirmation of how vital this neighborhood is, how successful inner-city retail is and of the fact that many retailers are missing the boat by not being in the inner city.”

The department store is part of a broader redevelopment project that, if completed, would transform the 74-year-old, 1.6-million-square-foot Sears building into a retail and office complex. Univest, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based developer that owns the 31-acre Sears tract, is in negotiations to open a Super Kmart store at the Sears site, a Univest spokesman said.

Sears’ decision to build a store in the lower floors of the empty distribution center is tied to Genesis L.A., an inner-city economic development initiative unveiled during the late 1990s by Riordan. The private investment fund was created to channel expansion capital to manufacturing and technology companies in economically depressed parts of Los Angeles. The Sears tract is one of 22 target sites identified in the city’s most-distressed neighborhoods.

Though the lower floors of the Sears building will house retail tenants, the Univest spokesman said “the focus in the upper floors will be on [creating new] jobs . . . and Genesis L.A. is very supportive of us in that regard.”

Kmart, which made a $1-million contribution to the Genesis L.A. fund in 2000, would not comment on the Boyle Heights project. “We have been working with Genesis L.A., and we have been looking at particular sites in Los Angeles,” Kmart spokeswoman Julie Fracker said. “But there’s nothing to confirm at this point.”

The new Sears store will have about 45,000 square feet more sales space than the existing location. Sears, which leases space at the site from Univest, would not comment on the fate of its current store after the new one opens. Construction inside the old distribution center isn’t expected to disrupt business at the existing store, said Fred Rosenberg, head of facility planning for Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears.

“Customers will be really surprised when they see the new facility,” Rosenberg said. “It’s going to be a very modern facility with a much different feel to it.” The new store will include wider aisles and escalators, better lighting and bigger sales departments.

Rosenberg described the decision to build a new store in Boyle Heights as making economic sense for the retailer. “No question, we’ve had a lot of support from the community,” Rosenberg said. “And we’ve been very successful there.” Sears doesn’t release individual store revenue totals, but Rosenberg described the Boyle Heights location as “very successful in regard to comparative store sales over the last seven years.”