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Modern Display, known for its Christmas decor, is moving out of Salt Lake City after four decades

The family-owned business is moving into a larger building in the Salt Lake Valley.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Modern Display, pictured on Thursday, June 9, 2022, at 424 S. 700 East in Salt Lake is relocating after more than 40 years in the same spot.

Modern Display, the Salt Lake City business known for its extensive holiday decor and displays, is leaving its landmark location, where it has been housed since 1980.

The family-owned business will be moving out of its location near downtown Salt Lake City, at 424 S. 700 East, north of Trolley Square, after next Friday, June 17, the company announced Thursday.

That location is best known for its massive front window, and the glittering Christmas displays that entice commuters on 700 East to stop in.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Modern Display, pictured on Thursday, June 9, 2022, at 424 S. 700 East in Salt Lake is relocating to Murray.

The company will be moving to Murray, to a former Shopko location at 5959 S. State St. The new location needs a remodeling, the company said in a news release, and is expected to open in August.

“It’s bitter because it’s not fun to be leaving our ‘home,’ but sweet because we’re still around, just moving,” said Spencer Vriens, executive vice president of Modern Display, said in a statement. Vriens’ grandfather founded the company in the 1940s.

The Salt Lake City location, Vriens said, has “been a great place for our family to grow, to learn how to work, and to carry on my grandpa’s legacy.”

Modern Display specializes in decor for home and for businesses, and also caters to the trade-show and expo market. One of its most popular store displays is the massive table of Department 56 holiday dioramas.

For years, the company was famous for supplying Christmas lights to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its Christmas displays on Temple Square — until the shows there got so big the church started buying its own lights wholesale.