Macy to Let I. Magnin Pass Into History : Retailing: Eight of the department stores will be closed and four converted. A grandson’s offer for all 12 was not accepted.

R. H. Macy & Co. went ahead Friday with plans to discontinue its financially troubled I. Magnin retail operations, despite an offer by a grandson of the chain’s founder to buy the 12 remaining Magnin stores.

As expected, Macy announced it will phase out the tradition-rich Magnin retailing name while converting four existing Magnin sites--including the Woodland Hills store--into different specialty stores. Liquidation sales were set for the eight other sites.

The action officially ended a bid by Beverly Hills retailer Jerry Magnin to buy all the Magnin stores. Magnin, who owns the Ralph Lauren Polo store on Rodeo Drive, said Friday he had offered Macy $40 million for the 12 stores.

Magnin, grandson of Mary Ann Magnin, who founded the chain in San Francisco in 1876, said he first inquired about purchasing the stores in 1991 and resumed that bid three months ago. Magnin wouldn’t identify the source of financing for the offer because his last offer wasn’t accepted.

“I think our offer was a fair one,” said Magnin. “It is a naive assumption that liquidation will bring much more than that.”

Macy, which also operates the Bullock’s chain, declined comment on Magnin’s proposal.

Macy said liquidation sales will commence Friday at the Magnin stores in Beverly Hills, Newport Beach, Palos Verdes, Pasadena, San Diego, Carmel, Phoenix, Ariz. and at its San Francisco headquarters.

Those Magnin stores will be closed Monday through Wednesday to allow store personnel to prepare for the liquidation sales, which could continue until early next year.

However, Macy will convert the Magnins in Woodland Hills, Palm Desert, Palo Alto and Walnut Creek into specialty men’s or home stores within the Bullock’s chain or into specialty Macy operations, such as Macy men’s store.

Macy, which will maintain the I. Magnin catalogue sales operation, said it will continue to explore options for the other eight Magnin stores--including the possibility of further conversions to Bullock’s and Macy’s specialty formats.

Sources at the company have said it has explored the possibility of selling store sites to St. Louis-based May Department Stores and the Jackson, Mich.-based Jacobson Stores.

Macy is in bankruptcy but is to emerge from bankruptcy protection when it merges with the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in late December. In a joint statement, Federated and Macy said Magnin operations will be phased out because it “is not expected to make a meaningful contribution to the combined company’s bottom line.”