The former Sears store at Devonshire Mall will soon be a distant memory.
Crews have been at the former mall anchor for much of the summer already, but heavy equipment began appearing earlier this month.
Devonshire Mall Property Manager Aaron Edwards said it would be a long, slow goodbye for the store.
"The demolition is a slow, steady, and methodical process that will take months to bring the building down," said Edwards in an email to WindsorNewsToday.ca.
Mall General Manager Chris Savard confirmed in March to WindsorNewsToday.ca that the space will look different.
"A new mall entrance will be created on the north end of the building, and a number of spaces in the northeast quadrant will be re-demised to make way for a new, exciting large format tenant," Savard said. "Talks are progressing nicely for a number of new dramatic and compelling uses for this new site."
The Sears had two sales floors, plus basement areas for package pickup, repair, and other services. It closed in January 2018 when Sears Canada ended operations.
On Thursday morning, Devonshire Mall announced on X that SportChek and Mark's Warehouse Canada will relocate to the north end of the mall.
The two specialty retailers are currently operating near other mall entrances.
Since Sears ceased operating, the former building was used as a pop-up Halloween store and as a mass vaccination site during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The store was an original anchor of the mall when it opened as a Simpsons-Sears in 1970.