North Hollywood Macy’s is closing for good

The 475,000-square-foot Macy’s store in North Hollywood, a vestige of an earlier era of retail, is finally shuttering for good. It will soon be replaced by NoHo West, a sprawling mixed-use community with stores, offices and apartments.

Customers were greeted by closing and clearance sale signs this weekend, the L.A. Times reported. But only a quarter of the 3,000-car parking lot was filled.

The anchor store opened in 1955 as a department store called May Co. It was converted to Macy’s in 2006, but the 25-acre plaza has been struggling since the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

Although some North Hollywood residents are weary of its imminent transformation, spearheaded by Goldstein Planting Investments and Merlone Geier Partners, others in the community are eager for change.

“Right now, we have a big, ugly, empty parking lot with a very underutilized Macy’s in it. So underutilized that it’s going to close,” Councilmember Paul Krekorian told the Times. “It absolutely is imperative that we move forward there so it doesn’t add to the blight we have on the Laurel Canyon Corridor.”

The store will finally shut its doors in late September or early October. NoHo West is slated to break ground by February of next year. [LAT] — Cathaleen Chen