Venerable I. Magnin to Pass Into History : Retailing: Macy Co. rejects offer by grandson of founder. Fashion Island store and seven others will close.
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 Newport Beach store and seven other sites.
The Irvine Co., which owns Fashion Island, declined comment Friday on what it would do after the 80,000-square-foot store closes early next year. “Obviously, they still control the space,” spokeswoman Dawn McCormick said. “We’ll have to wait and have further discussions about which way to go.”
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,” Magnin said. “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 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.
Word that Newport Beach’s I. Magnin would likely close prompted shoppers and retail analysts to begin speculating about Fashion Island’s future.
Maria Zucht, a Newport Beach resident who has shopped I. Magnin since she was a child, suggested that Fashion Island try to snare a Bloomingdale’s department store.
Said Zucht: “If I can’t have my I. Magnin, I’ll take a Bloomingdale’s.”
Wally Limburg, a retail broker in Newport Beach with CB Commercial, agreed: “This might be an opportunity for Fashion Island to get a high-fashion tenant like a Bloomingdale’s.
“The Irvine Co. wants to make that a cutting-edge mall, so they will hold out for a unique tenant,” Limburg said. “You’re not going to get a typical retailer in there.”
Bloomingdale’s previously acknowledged that it is talking to both Fashion Island and South Coast Plaza about possible locations for an Orange County store. Some of South Coast’s larger stores would likely oppose Bloomingdale’s arrival at the Costa Mesa shopping center, Limburg said, “but Fashion Island tenants would welcome Bloomingdale’s with open arms.”
Retail observers also suggested that Fashion Island might do well to court Dillard, a Little Rock, Ark.-based retailer with more than 200 stores, or Barneys New York, a tony East Coast retailer that has stores in Costa Mesa and Beverly Hills.
On Friday afternoon, the outdoor fountains at Fashion Island danced, Christmas music played and a chilly wind blew off of the ocean as shoppers digested news that the I. Magnin store would close.
“It’s like losing a member of your family,” Zucht said. “I’ve been shopping (at) I. Magnin since I was 5 years old, and here I am 40, bringing my daughter.”
Mia Zucht, 11, who bought some bath soap for a friend, finds I. Magnin “a fun place to shop. I just like it because it has different things. You can buy the stuff at Robinsons-May at any place.”
I. Magnin has been a “special store” for Leonard Lewkowict, a Montreal resident who visits the Newport Beach shop at least once a year during trips to Southern California. “They have everything here,” Lewkowict said. “It’s a very special store. The way (sales personnel) served us today after having learned (of the closing) is a testament to how special these people are.”
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 I. Magnin operations will be phased out because it “is not expected to make a meaningful contribution to the combined company’s bottom line.”
The Chain is Broken
I. Magnin, the 118-year-old specialty retailer, will close early next year, a casualty of the pending merger of parent R.H. Macy & Co. with Federated Department Stores Inc. Location and disposition of I. Magnin stores in California:
Times staff writers Debra Vrana and Greg Johnson in Costa Mesa contributed to this report.
