Macy’s in downtown St. Paul may be planning a going-out-business sale.
Both the Pioneer Press and the Star Tribune are quoting unnamed sources this afternoon who say that an official store closing announcement will be made Thursday.
Company sources and city officials have not commented.
“We’re not commenting on rumors,” said Clarice Tushie-Lessard from Mayor Chris Coleman’s office. “We’ll have more to say tomorrow.”
The store — long under-performing as first Dayton’s, then Marshall Field’s and now Macy’s — is a bulwark of a landmark in downtown St. Paul, taking up a full block of prime real estate that will be hard to fill.
In 2001, city officials made a deal with Macy’s, giving a $6.3 million forgivable loan in return for a promise that the store would stay open through 2012.
The time is up.
Even last week, city officials and council members said they’d heard no news about a closing.
But over the past few decades, some shoppers have considered Dayton’s the place to go when they want to be alone.
