A downtown Racine retailer, Seebecks, at 402 Main St., will call it quits on Sept. 1. “We are so proud of our beautiful storefront in Downtown Racine but after 4-1/2 years, we are very emotional to announce that we will be closing the Racine location,” wrote Jon and Vicki Seebeck in a Facebook post Thursday.
The owners said they would not be closing their location in Pleasant Prairie, the company’s primary store and gallery for 28 years.
Seebecks opened in downtown Kenosha in 1992 before becoming one of the first retailers to open a store in the evolving State Road 50 corridor between Green Bay Road and Interstate 94.
The two current galleries represented artists from across the United States, and it marketed the fact that 80 percent of its merchandise was American made. It also offered jewelry, pottery and art glass as well as custom framing.
The Racine Seebecks gallery moved into the space that had also been a long-standing gallery and framing business before that. Brad Harring had operated Avenue Gallery and Frame in the same location for many years. He died in July 2013.
The entire building is assessed at $420,000 and it has rental apartments on the second level. Johnson Redevelopment Corp. is the building’s owner. It paid taxes last year of $13.903.