It was where the Christmas catalog came to life and where a child’s dreams seemed more possible than ever. And it was a big store, too, and it even had the car garage out back. It had everything. Appliances, sporting goods, furniture, clothing, tools, and, oh, so many toys for all ages.
It was a bigger, better, and more expensive version of the G.C. Murphy, an everything-store that buzzed with business just a short walk west on 11th Street, but the goods sold at Sears-Roebuck were “American practical”, and utilized when fixing the home or the car when something needed replacing, or when the retailer sold something new and shiny.
That is, up until 1978, when local consumers opted for a roof over the walkway.
That’s why, 47 years later, “old” is in front of its name. Like the “old” Wheeling-Pitt Building, the “old” Stone & Thomas, and the “old” Bill’s Hamburger. So, yes, the corner of 11th and Chapline streets has become the home of the “old” Sears building, too, but these days the once wide-open first floor has been walled and separated for medical offices and non-profit organizations.
That’s not the case on the second and third floors, though, and not on the basement level, either. The former automobile service area still stands in the rear where there are 15 included parking spaces, and there’s a little more than 57,000 square feet for development.
“When the current owner (Koat Realty LLC) purchased it, the vision was a grocery store on the first floor and apartments on the two top floors, but then the pandemic happened, and now the owner is too busy with other projects,” explained listing agent Lee Paull from Paull Associates. “Those ideas are still very good ideas now, and I believe there’s enough people living in the downtown right now that a grocery store could work.
“There are companies out there that have grocery stores the right size,” he said. “Everything in the building is up to date with the roof, the electric, and the plumbing, and the interior is almost 60,000 square feet. The building does need some rehabilitation, and I’m sure the next owner would tear down all of the (first-floor) walls that have been put in over the years so they could start over and make it theirs.”
The former home of Sears Roebuck sits on 0.57 acres, was constructed in 1940, is covered with a rubber roof, and has two loading docks with an entrance off Chapline Street. The owner is asking $595,000, and Paull is the listing agent.
“The building has multiple furnaces and air conditioning units,” the broker explained. “It’s a good building that could use some renovation, but it very easily could become a part of what we’ve seen taking place in our downtown Wheeling area with all of the new residential living.
“I know the young people in the community like living downtown because my son lives down here,” Paull reported. “He loves it, too. He loves being close to what we have down here now, and he’s looking forward to what should follow.”
Multiple Makeovers
Although the state-funded, $37-million streetscape will not be 100 percent complete until spring, the majority of the work along Main and Market streets is finished. The project began in late 2022, and before that a number of companies performed two years’ worth of underground infrastructure improvements.
“I haven’t agreed with everything the city has done downtown, but I have agreed with all of the infrastructure work,” he said. “Developers don’t want to wait for it. They want to tap in immediately, so it’s a big positive that the work was performed before the streetscape.
“Now, if interest rates come down a little more in the future, I believe we’ll start seeing a lot of redevelopment in the downtown,” Paull speculated. “It would be good to see because a lot of people remember when the mall attracted all of the stores out of downtown Wheeling. I remember talking to my dad (Lee III) about it when I was much younger, and I told him I thought the downtown would be a ghost town.”
Paull recalls it all. The Ohio Valley Mall opened in October 1978, and Sears was the first to leave Wheeling and the first anchor store to open at the 1.2 million square-foot complex. JCPenney, L.S. Good, and Stone & Thomas are three more retailers that operated locations at the mall, and Sears and the others have all shuttered their Belmont County stores. JCPenney is one of several big-box retailers open daily at The Highlands in Ohio County.
“I remember when it was announced that the mall was going up in St. Clairsville because (the mall atmosphere) was the new thing, and it led to the demise of downtown Wheeling,” Paull recalled. “The shoppers wanted a different atmosphere instead of walking along the streets of a downtown. That was the new trend.
“But downtown Wheeling is evolving into something new, and that includes the residential part, so we’re hoping this building can add to that and have the amenities that those people are going to need,” he explained. “We have a lot of change happening right now, and that’s why this property has a lot of potential.”
Anyone interested in the property can contact Lee Paull at Paull Associates at 304-233-3303.
