Sears closes its final store inside Chicago's city limits

Sears has closed its final store in Chicago, ending its retail legacy in the city.

Sears Holdings Corp. announced this year that the store in the Portage Park neighborhood on Chicago's northwest side would close. The store that closed Sunday had opened in 1938.

The retailer now based in suburban Hoffman Estates has been scaling back its Chicago presence for years, with its name coming off the famed Sears Tower skyscraper in 2009.

Sears still has hundreds of stores, including several in Chicago's suburbs.

Sears started in the 1880s as a mail-order catalog business. The beleaguered retailer has been closing stores amid falling sales.

A liquidation sale started a few months ago at the Chicago store. Plans call for the property to be redeveloped as stores and apartments.