Sometimes change is for the better.

That’s LanSirs on Lincoln owner Lance Hansen’s view.

Hansen’s business, after 25 years in downtown DeKalb, is closing its doors for the last time.

“It’s just time for a change,” Hansen said.

He added in a letter to long-time customers, “We’ve given a lot of thought to the competitive posture of LanSirs in the current retail environment … That time has come to move on.”

The store, located at 112 E. Lincoln Highway, was closed Monday while Hansen and crew prepared for liquidation sales. Giant fluorescent yellow signs hang in the windows of LanSirs reading “Thanks for 25 great years” and “50% off.”

“I think when you have a business, it just gets to be time to move on,” Hansen said. “We’ve had 25 really great years here.”

Closing the store has gotten to Hansen, though.

“It’s not happy. It’s bittersweet,” Hansen said. “I won’t really know how to feel until after.

“I don’t look at it as a negative thing, but a positive.”

Hansen came to DeKalb in August 1977 after working in Elgin as a buyer for a retail chain.

“[Retail] is all I have ever done,” Hansen said.

Hansen started in retail when he was 14 – he now is 58.

When Hansen and his wife Sue came to DeKalb, he opened the store, which has remained in the same spot ever since. Hansen has doubled the store’s space since moving in.

Originally, LanSirs sold only men’s clothing, which is where the name comes from (“Lan” for Lance and “Sirs” for men’s clothing).

Several years later, he branched out into women’s clothing, but decided to keep the original name.

Even though LanSirs will close its doors, Hansen said he is not sure what he will do, but remains positive.

“It will be nice to have a Christmas,” he said. “I am still young enough to move on, but I don’t know what I am going to do.”

LanSirs will remain closed today, but will re-open Wednesday at 9 a.m. to begin its going-out-of-business sale. Prices will be cut 50 percent and more.

“This will be a great time for students to get an interview suit,” he said.

The Hansens are proud of their time here.

“[My wife and I] love DeKalb and we wouldn’t trade our past service to the community, both business and civic, for anything,” Hansen said in the letter.