Auction bids are rolling in for the big red “K” that adorned the front of the Kmart on Lake Street in Minneapolis until the store closed earlier this year ahead of the city-owned building’s much-anticipated demolition.
About three dozen online bids have been received as of Friday afternoon, driving the price up from $100 at the start to $755, according to GovDeals.com.
Bidding ends Dec. 1, and the winner will then have to pay up with a 12.5% fee tacked on before hauling it from storage off N. 2nd Street just east of Interstate 94.
The metal “K” stands 9 feet tall by 11½ feet wide and is 1 foot thick. City officials estimate its weight at roughly 900 pounds.
The letter doesn’t look quite the same as it did before it came down this year, said city spokesman Casper Hill. Gone is the word “mart” that the K wore in sash-like fashion to complete the store’s name.
What does one do with a “K” when laid down is big enough to seat several for a socially distanced coffee klatch? Residential or business display outside seems logical. Use on a giant-sized Scrabble board seems less likely.
The Kmart discount retail outlet opened on Lake Street in 1977 in the middle of Nicollet Avenue, effectively severing the heavily traveled thoroughfare in the heart of south Minneapolis. A Supervalu grocery store also operated on the same 10-acre tract for many years.
For decades, the Kmart was among the most hotly debated buildings in Minneapolis, if not the entire Twin Cities.
On one side, it was viewed as vital to providing essentials to many who had few shopping options nearby for reasonably priced goods such as clothing, toiletries and household goods. At the same time, its placement straddling Nicollet was derided as a visual scar and a travel annoyance for motorists and mass transit alike.
The store had been scheduled to shutter by last June 30 after the city bought out its lease in March, but the riots following the death of George Floyd while in police custody in May accelerated its closure.
As the building awaits its demise at a date yet to be determined, the U.S. Postal Service began renting out space this week for at least one year and operating a temporary replacement for two post south Minneapolis post offices that were lost in the riots.
The Link Lonk
November 21, 2020 at 02:00AM
https://www.startribune.com/sign-of-the-times-lake-street-kmart-s-big-red-k-up-for-bids/573143981/
Sign of the times: Lake Street Kmart's big red 'K' up for bids - Minneapolis Star Tribune
https://news.google.com/search?q=Red&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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