Photos: Vacant Santa Monica Sears getting a second life with a $50-million makeover

The Sears store in Santa Monica operated from 1946. The new complex scheduled to open in the third quarter 2019.

The Streamline Moderne-style Sears building in Santa Monica will retain its look and artwork.

The Sears store in Santa Monica is in a prime location at the end of the Expo Line and across the street from Santa Monica Place shopping center.

Kacy Keys, senior vice president of development for the western region for Seritage Growth Properties, shows off the roof of the Sears store in Santa Monica that will become a patio/lounge area.

The Sears store’s have approval from city officials to transform the Streamline Moderne-style building into an office, dining and shopping complex.

Changes at the Sears start with temporary removal of the roof to make way for seismic upgrades and the creation of an atrium. The design calls for holes to be cut in the floor plates in the middle of the building to allow the atrium’s natural light to reach the basement.

When this store opened on Colorado Avenue in 1947, it was on the edge of the business district of a sleepy blue-collar beach town. The Santa Monica Freeway did not exist.