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Marc Giauque reportingToday marks the beginning of a temporary end for the downtown Macy's store. Management of the department store has now been turned over to another company tasked with selling all the merchandise.
It's all to make way for demolition later this year, making way for construction of the City Creek Project.
Nearly a block away, clawed machines begin to eat their way from West Temple to the east. Inside the ZCMI Mall, very few stores remain.
Noreen James, Wilderness Woods employee: "I remember when I first moved out here, I went to Ogden, and I had grown up there, and it felt like a ghost town. The main mall was closed, and so many of the many stores were closed. That's how this is starting to feel."
At the "Wilderness Woods" store, wind chimes, rocks and other gifts are marked down. Noreen James has worked here for years.
Noreen James, Wilderness Woods employee: "If I had ever opened my own store, it would have look a lot like this one."
Upstairs, Kent Perry hopes to keep his doors open, until at least mid April.
Kent Perry, Store owner: "Spring is coming, and spring will see the end of everything."
At Macy's, across the hallway, the sale signs sit atop racks of clothes. Spokeswoman Dianne Hinton says there's some sadness for some who are moving on.
Dianne Hinton, Macy's: "It was ZCMI at one time, and then Meier & Frank, and now it is Macy's. Some of those employees have worked for the store in every single incarnation."
Macy's will return in four or five years, as one of the anchors on the City Creek Project. Starting today, a private group will begin liquidating what's here.
Other stores, smaller ones aren't sure if they'll be back.
Steve Christopher, Gift Shop Owner: "That's a few years down the road, but we will just have to see."
Steve Christopher hopes his gift shop can come back.
Christopher is hoping to set up shop somewhere else downtown. Two other shop owners in the mall say that probably won't happen for them. They claim owners of some of the vacant properties on Main Street are simply asking for too much money.
