CLEVELAND -- Officials announced Monday that the last of the downtown department stores will soon close.

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Dillard's Closing

NewsChannel5's Joe Pagonakis reports that many people have memories of shopping at what used to be Higbee's and later became Dillard's.

The announcement is not very good news for the local economy, especially before the holiday season.

The company said that the store, which has been at that location since 1988, is closing in mid- to late January because of a reduced number of shoppers. Store representatives said that they tried very hard in the last few years to make the downtown location at Tower City attractive to shoppers, but to no avail.

The closing means that 150 workers will lose their jobs. Officials said that they will try to find them other jobs within the company.

As to what the city will do with the 200,000 square feet of space, officials are confident that the space can and will be filled.

"This is an extremely difficult time, but our hope is that we can just stay on our plan... and over time, it's going to really pay off," said Lee F. Hill, president of the Downtown Cleveland Partnership. "Our downtown is a much better downtown than it was 10 or 15 years ago."

Many shoppers who could not get to the suburbs to shop would take the bus to Dillard's, and they said that they will definitely miss the store.