Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Sears is seeking a new owner for its Steamboat Springs store.

Richard Jaschke, transition stores manager for the corporation, said the Sears location in River­side Plaza on Steam­boat’s west side will host an open house Wed­­nes­­day to provide information to those interested in taking over the ap­p­liance and home mer­­­chandise store.

Jaschke could not be reached for additional comment Tuesday or Wednes­day.

The store’s former owners, Thaine and Lisa Mahanna, also could not be reached for this story.

The Mahannas moved Sears from its longtime location on Shield Drive in January, hoping Riverside Plaza’s visibility from U.S. Highway 40 and a growing business community on the city’s west side would help boost sales.

Between the two locations, the Mahannas co-owned the local Sears for a total of about 3 1/2 years.

Lisa Mahanna said the cost of rent on Shield Drive also was a factor in the January move.

“Definitely, cost is a part of it,” she said in January. “There’s definitely been a decrease (in sales throughout the past year), just like everybody else.”

She also said at the time that she and Thaine had talked with other Riverside business owners — such as Steamboat Powersports’ Michael Graves, the Riverside Plaza landlord — about generating interest in the plaza as a whole.

Graves also could not be reached for this story.

Sears is scheduled to report its second-quarter results before the market opens today, according to The Associated Press.

The AP reported that analysts polled by Thomson Reu­ters expect Sears to record a loss of 18 cents per share on revenue of $10.62 billion.

Last year, Sears reported earnings of 42 cents per share on revenue of $10.55 billion.

Sears’ stock closed up 64 cents Wednesday, a nearly 1 percent increase, to $67.25 a share.