Macy's St. Paul store loan deal over soon

In less than a week, the downtown St. Paul Macy's store will be free to close without having to pay millions of dollars in penalties to the city.

Back in 2001, the store was called Dayton's and it received a $6.3 million loan from the city of St. Paul that which required the store to remain in continuous operation for the next decade. The loan will be forgiven at the end of 2012.

The store became a Marshall Fields and then a Macy's, but it remained bound by the contract with St. Paul. As a company, Macy's has been performing well in recent years, but retail analyst Howard Davidowitz says it will still consider closing underperforming stores come January.

"Every intelligent retailer reviews its store portfolio after the holiday season," he said.

The company has closed five Macy's stores this year. It also closed four Bloomingdale's, including the one at the Mall of America. It announced those closings in early January.

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