Willis Tower to entice the firm to stay. Two years later, Sears began moving its own offices out of the Sears Tower. In 1994, Sears sold the building to Boston-based AEW Capital Management, with financing from MetLife. At the time, it was one-third vacant. By 1995, Sears had completely left the building, moving to a new office campus in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. In 1997, Toronto-based TrizecHahn Corporation (the owner of the CN Tower at the time) purchased the building for $110 million, and assumption of $4 million in liabilities, and a $734 million mortgage. In 2003, Trizec surrendered the building to lender
Sears, Roebuck & Company Mail Order Building (Los Angeles, California) Deco tower and "Sears" sign became a "beacon for Eastsiders returning home on area freeways," and has been described by the Los Angeles Conservancy as "one of the dominant visual icons of the Eastside" of Los Angeles. The distribution center was closed in January 1992, eliminating jobs for 585 full-time workers and 775 part-timers. The facility's general manager said at the time that the Boyle Heights center was the most expensive that Sears operated, partly because the facilities were "outdated." In 2004, developer MJW Investments announced it had acquired the building and would make it the centerpiece of a proposed