A vacant Sears building next to Tucson Mall is being renovated for a Living Spaces furniture store, according to plans filed with the city. The California-based retailer is targeting the property at 4570 N. Oracle Road, which has sat empty since Sears closed its Oracle Road store in 2020.
The site spans more than 180,000 square feet, according to reporting by the Arizona Daily Star, whose Gabriela Rico authored the report on the plans. As part of the renovation, Living Spaces plans to eliminate 43 parking spaces to add a second loading dock at the north end of the former Sears site, per the filed plans. The company did not respond to the Star's questions about its interest in the Tucson market or a possible opening timeline, leaving the project's schedule unconfirmed.
What Living Spaces Could Bring to the Site
Living Spaces, founded in 2003 and based in La Mirada, California, operates 45 stores across the country, including locations in Gilbert, Glendale, Phoenix and Scottsdale. Its stores typically carry furniture, home-office necessities, and outdoor dining, patio and entertainment pieces, and many locations include an in-store café and a monitored indoor kids' play space stocked with games, a playground and movies.
The chain's largest showroom, at 1 million square feet, is in Buford, Georgia. Its Phoenix store, which the company has described as its second outlet in the Valley, opened in a 450,000-square-foot facility at 6600 W. Latham St. on April 24, 2014, according to azcentral.com. That location featured a 150,000-square-foot showroom and included an attached distribution center.
A Pattern of Converting Former Sears Stores
Living Spaces has pursued this strategy before. In Colorado, the company purchased a 200,000-square-foot former Sears building in Thornton for $13 million in January, aiming to open within the Larkridge Shopping Center where Sears had closed in March 2021, according to businessinthornton.com. Thornton's Retail Administrator cited the city's rapid residential growth and the chance to join an established shopping center as reasons for the move, the outlet reported. That Thornton project was planned alongside a separate 106,400-square-foot Living Spaces store under construction in Lone Tree, which was expected to begin construction in June 2022 with a target opening in June 2023.
Tucson has its own history of repurposing former Sears sites. The Sears store next to Park Place Mall on East Broadway closed in 2018, and that property was bought in 2022. Round 1 Bowling & Amusement had already leased about 44,000 square feet on the ground floor and basement of that building in 2018, the Arizona Daily Star reported. Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers is set to open on the ground floor of the former East Broadway Sears property with a large patio facing Broadway, while Evergreen Devco's 2022 purchase of the buildings came with plans for additional stores, restaurants and climate-controlled self-storage units, and possibly multifamily housing.
Oracle Road's Changing Retail Landscape
The Oracle Road corridor near Tucson Mall has seen its own churn in recent years. American Home Furnishings closed its furniture store next to the mall in 2008, and Comcast took over that location in 2015 before shutting down the operation during the pandemic. Sam Levitz, which had been in business for 71 years, closed its stores in 2024, adding another vacancy to the area's furniture retail scene that Living Spaces could now help fill.
