As a boy growing up in rural Linn County, Kelly McDonald’s parents often took him to the bustling Meier & Frank department store in downtown Salem to get school supplies. That store, now Macy’s, will close this year after almost seven decades selling shoes, cookware and clothing. And McDonald, a Salem investor who’s part of a group that bought the building earlier this year, is part of shaping its future. It’s a major change for downtown Salem as the last remaining anchor store closes. The store, which occupies a full city block at 400 High St. N.E., opened in 1955, and was managed by Salem civic legend Gerry Frank for its first decade. The 188,000-square-foot store will likely close this spring, according to McDonald, though he said he’s waiting on an exact timeline from Macy’s. A current employee, who asked not to be named because Macy’s policy does not allow employees to speak with the media, said they were notified of the closure in October. The store should close in around two months, the employee said Monday. A Macy’s corporate spokesperson on Tuesday maintained that the New York City-based corporation will close 65 stores this year, but hasn’t decided which ones. The company didn’t respond to questions about how many are employed at the Salem store. But the impending closure has been an open secret among employees for months.  Several sections of the store, including luggage and towels, are now empty, bare shelves grouped together. A handful of customers were shopping on each of the store’s three floors Monday afternoon. An empty section inside downtown Salem’s Macy’s store on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. (Madeleine Moore/Salem Reporter) McDonald is part of a group of local investors who bought the Salem Center Mall last spring with the intention of revitalizing the property. He said the group who bought the Macy’s building under the company name OGSC Macy’s includes fellow mall owners Patrick Carney, a real estate lender, and Mark Shipman, a real estate attorney, as well as several new investors. The partners bought the building in August for an undisclosed amount after Macy’s approached the mall’s owners, McDonald said. Marion County records list the property’s value as $12.3 million. “We have a big vision for the space. Putting it all together, it’s no small task,” he said. McDonald said the group intends to remodel the space into smaller retail and entertainment units, including a larger tenant that’s expected to occupy between 25,000 and 40,000 square feet.  He declined to give other details, saying leases are still being negotiated. The historic building won’t be demolished, and the attached parking garage, which has space for 600 vehicles, will remain, McDonald said. Housing isn’t currently part of their plan. He said he understands people’s sadness at the closure of a longtime retailer, but said he’s excited to turn the centerpiece into something that better serves the needs of today’s Salem. “It’s just changing. It’s not what we remember growing up,” he said. “It’s going to be new memories for a different generation.” Meier & Frank Building under construction. First floor frame work prior to pouring concrete. Taken from approximately the northeast corner of High and Center Streets, looking to the northeast. Photo taken Nov. 26, 1954. (Willamette Heritage Center 1998.027.0009, originally from the collection of Gerry Frank) A storied history Meier & Frank opened the Salem store on Oct. 27, 1955, to much fanfare. The store site had been the home of Salem High School, which was built in 1906 as the city’s first high school. The school moved in 1937 to its current location on Northeast 14th Street, where it now operates as North Salem High School. The 1906 building was demolished in 1954 to make way for the new store. “Throngs” of shoppers lined up hours before the scheduled 12:15 p.m. opening, which was attended by then-Gov. Paul Patterson and then-Salem Mayor Robert White, according to the Capital Journal. Souvenir programs were distributed. The opening ceremony featured a 700-pound cake in the shape of the new building. A Capital Journal article on Oct. 27, 1955, shows crowds flocking to the Meier & Frank store in downtown Salem on opening day. Opening day at Meier & Frank. Interior wall-to-wall women shoppers. (Willamette Heritage Center 1998.027.0019, originally from the collection of Gerry Frank) The store represented an $8 million investment — nearly $94 million today — and was at the time the largest store in Oregon outside Portland. In an editorial on opening day, the Oregon Statesman heralded the opening as “another important milestone in the development of Salem as a commercial center.” Other Salem businesses took out advertisements in the newspaper congratulating Frank, then 32, on the store’s opening.  He relocated to Salem to manage the new location, beginning his decades of involvement and service in Salem government and civic life. “I figured if I was going to be successful, I had to get to know the movers and shakers and the citizens of Salem, and they had to get to know me,” Frank said in a 2020 interview with the Willamette Heritage Center. Frank died in 2022 at age 98. The Salem store drew shoppers from all over the Willamette Valley, hailing from southwest Portland, Eugene and Corvallis.  “We were doing the largest per capita business of any store in America in a community of this size,” Frank said. When it came time for back-to-school shopping during the 1950s and 1960s, the store turned downtown Salem into a hub for fashion shows, particularly those aimed at college students, according to a November article by the heritage center. A backdrop of the U.S. Capitol, built on the rooftop of Salem’s Meier & Frank store for its fifth annual “Rooftop Stardust College Fashion Show and Dance” in 1960 (Willamette Heritage Center Collections, 2006.64.501.13.2, originally published in the Oregon Statesman) The Democratic and Republican national conventions in 1960 inspired the theme of the “Fifth Annual Meier & Frank Rooftop Stardust College Fashion Show and Dance.” The event featured an 80-by-31-foot reproduction of the U.S. Capitol, a rooftop view of the State Capitol, live performances and elephants and donkeys, representing the political parties, according to the article. A procession of delegates carried state banners seen at political conventions and donned “the latest in plaids and woolens for campus attire,” the article said, quoting coverage at the time from the Capital Journal. “During one of the more spectacular parades of fashions, fireworks in the form of a U.S. flag were set off atop the backdrop, and the models came marching toward the front with burning sparklers.” Newspapers reported that almost 5,000 people attended the event, which ended with a barbecue, a dance and a party at Frank’s house. It was typical of the grandeur and community focus that characterized the store’s early years, according to newspaper coverage from the time. An Oregon Statesman article from Oct. 24, 1955, described the planned opening of the Meier & Frank department store in downtown Salem. The Salem store was also home to a restaurant, the Oregon Room, and a coffee counter that offered a break for shoppers. With a mirror wall on one side and a rock wall on the other, the restaurant “looked pretty neat,” said Russell Stinnett, who started working at the restaurant in 1973, in a 2020 interview with the heritage center. Specialties included the gourmet salad and the Crater Lake sandwich. On Saturdays during the holiday season, kids and families would head to the restaurant for “Santa Claus breakfast,” a chance to see Santa and his elves. In 1965, the Portland-based Meier & Frank was acquired by May Department Stores Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, one of the 10 largest retailers in the U.S. The Salem store retained the Meier & Frank name. In 2005, Macy’s parent company, Federated Department Stores, announced plans to acquire Meier & Frank. By 2006, the Meier & Frank name came down from the building and the store was rebranded as Macy’s. Former Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren attended Frank’s 2022 memorial service in Salem. He said Frank objected to the name change when they spoke, but said he would support it once the decision was made. Frank called regularly to inquire about the business or inform Lundgren when items were running low. A downtown anchor Salem city and business leaders said the impending closure reflects nationwide shifts in retail, not issues with Salem’s downtown or economy. Shoppers have moved away from department stores that sell a range of goods and generally prefer to buy online, reserving in-person shopping for smaller and more local businesses or unique items. TJ Sullivan, president of the Salem Main Street Association, described the impending closure as another example of adapting to change as more people enjoy shopping at local boutiques. A long time ago, downtown Salem had horse stables, Sullivan said, because people took their horses and buggies to town. Since people stopped riding horses for transportation, there are no longer stables downtown.  “Just because something closes doesn’t mean it’s the location’s fault,” Sullivan said.  He said he fears that people will misunderstand the closure as a sign that downtown Salem is not doing well.  For now, he is optimistic about the building’s owners, who he said have started making Salem Center Mall more clean and safe.  The closure follows the 2018 closure of Salem’s Nordstrom, which was torn down to make room for the recently opened Rivenwood Apartments, and 2020 of JC Penney. A crane gently eases the skeletal frame of the Center Street skybridge onto the former site of the Nordstrom store on Saturday, June 25, 2022. (Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter) Many described Macy’s departure as an opportunity for downtown. “To me it is a transition of how downtown is going to be moving forward, which is having more liveable spaces, more activities and restaurants, and less large retail,” said Council President Linda Nishioka. She’s an owner of the Koz on State Street apartment building in downtown. “It could be an opportunity for Salem to repurpose a really large building that’s underutilized into different kinds of spaces and more than one retailer,” said Kristen Retherford, city of Salem director of community planning and development. While the JC Penney building remains vacant, Retherford said she’s not worried about the future of the large space. Penney closed just before the pandemic, which made development challenging, and is owned by Portland developer Lindquist Development Company. “They’re local, they’re invested in a different way,” Retherford said of the mall and Macy’s owners. The attached parking structure also makes the space attractive to a variety of tenants, she said. The property is located within the downtown urban renewal area, which means development projects can receive city grants, though Retherford said the owners haven’t approached her about such funding. McDonald said he’s eager to use the Macy’s space, as well as the Salem Center Mall, to bring more entertainment and shopping options to downtown. The mall on Jan. 1 began working with a local leasing agent better positioned to focus on Salem development. Salem Center hosted a kid-friendly New Year’s Eve party that drew 250 people. McDonald hopes to organize similar events, and said Salem needs more spaces where grandparents like him can bring their grandchildren for fun. “We love being able to use the space for community stuff – that’s why we bought it,” McDonald said. The closure comes as Salem is seeing a wave of development, including the planned construction of another apartment building on the site of the former city hall, the remodel of the former Liberty Plaza into a retail hub called The Forge, and city efforts to improve vacant parcels near Riverfront Park known as Block 50 and Block 45. “How could you not be optimistic about downtown Salem? We haven’t seen this kind of activity in forever,” McDonald said. Joe Siess contributed reporting. Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241. A MOMENT MORE, PLEASE– If you found this story useful, consider subscribing to Salem Reporter if you don’t already. Work such as this, done by local professionals, depends on community support from subscribers. Please take a moment and sign up now – easy and secure: SUBSCRIBE. The post Downtown Salem Macy’s to close, ending 70-year department store history appeared first on Salem Reporter.