The Dreifus family, which owns and operates Sylvan Furniture Co., has agreed to sell five buildings it owns on the west 200 block between Riverside and Sprague avenues downtown.


Sylvan Furniture had notified customers in a recent letter that new owners want to start remodeling soon.


The five buildings, which abut one another and front on either Riverside or Sprague, include a total of 50,000 square feet of floor space and range in size from a single-story garage to a four-level retail building, says Chuck Dreifus, president of Sylvan Furniture. Dreifus, who is the son of Sylvan Furniture founder Sylvan Dreifus, says he expects the family business to complete vacating the buildings by the end of April and to wrap up the sale at that time.


He declines for now to disclose the prospective buyer of the buildings or the terms of the pending transaction.


Sylvan Furniture opened in 1945 at 227 W. Riverside and operated there until late 2001, when the company moved the store to 1233 N. Division. For a short time, the company had operated an Ashley Furniture store at the North Division location, but decided to convert that into a new location for Sylvan Furniture after foot traffic decreased at its Riverside location.


Since moving its store, Sylvan has used its Riverside location as a clearance outlet, where it has sold inventory that it no longer carries at its North Division store.