After nearly 30 years in Edgewater, the owners of Broadway Antique Market are retiring and selling the store.
Co-owners Duane Scott Cerny and Jeff Nelson have run the city’s largest and oldest multi-dealer antique store, at 6130 N. Broadway, since 1998, when they moved their business from Wrigleyville.
“We have contributed to the decor of literally thousands of homes around the country,” Cerny, 67, told the Sun-Times.
Part of their motivation to sell is their ballooning annual property tax bill, which recently spiked to $103,000 from $70,000, Cerny said.
“A six-figure bill is just not sustainable,” he said.
Property taxes aside, business has been solid for a long time, Cerny said, adding that he has watched Edgewater thrive since moving to the neighborhood. He is excited about recent efforts to redevelopment Broadway for more growth.
“The neighborhood has been good to us,” Cerny said. “Ideally, what we’re hoping is for someone to come in who can buy the business and the building and keep the store alive.”
Cerny and Nelson don’t have an official last day yet. The store will stay open through the winter holidays.
The two-story Art Deco building is listed for $2.5 million. It was built in 1939 as a furniture store. When Cerny and Nelson bought the building, they saved it from becoming a Blockbuster Video store. Before that, they ran an antique store in Wrigleyville for eight years.
Some of the dealers at the Broadway Antique Market have had stalls at the store since the Wrigleyville days. Many plan to retire alongside Cerny and Nelson.
One of them is Jeff Cohen of Lincoln Park, who started selling at the Cerny and Nelson’s first antique mall in 1990. He happily followed them to the Edgewater store and remains a vendor today.
“We have had a long run. It’s been terrific,” Cohen said. “If Broadway closes, that’ll be my calling to retire.”
Cohen sells jewelry, vintage watches and Art Deco home decor. He said it will be a sad day if the shop closes.
Chicago has many vintage and antique stores, he said, but the multi-dealer-style shop at Broadway Antique Market is a dying breed.
“It’s a destination for Chicagoans — for tourists, for bargain shoppers, for collectors, for other antique sellers,” Cohen said. “It’s not just an antique mall. What they’ve built is a department store of cool and unique finds.”
Cerny said he is ready to retire and devote more of his energy to writing. In 2018, he published a memoir about being an antique dealer, “Selling Dead People’s Things.” He also writes a column for The Village View, a New York City newspaper.
Their store is loved by local residents and international visitors, Cerny said. Broadway Antique Market is listed in an Italian guidebook as one of the top 10 things to do in Chicago — alongside the Art Institute and Magnificent Mile.
“I just want to give a huge thank you to Chicago for putting us on the map,” Cerny said.