When the Sears store on St. Paul’s Rice Street closes at year’s end, downtown residents will lose a busy motor vehicle licensing bureau.
The bureau, located on the store’s second level, handles driver’s license and state identification cards, title and plate registrations, as well as vehicle registration renewals — the license plate tabs that must be renewed annually.
Driver and Vehicle Services, a division of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, has a backup plan. The bureau recently posted a notice that it will move in January to the Sunrise Banks building at 200 W. University Ave., about a four-minute walk away.
The Sears location developed a following over the years after offering evening and weekend hours, as well as an express line for license plate tab renewals. The new hours at the Sunrise Banks building have not been posted.
The downtown St. Paul exam station at 445 Minnesota St. in the Town Square building offers driver’s licenses, identification cards and instruction permits but not tab renewals.
The Sears store, which opened in 1963, is closing as the embattled retailer continues to slash costs following an October bankruptcy filing.
