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Another Fourth Street retailer is leaving downtown, but a nearby store already has committed to taking its place. Household, the home-furnishings store owned by Cincinnatian Janet Steinbeck, will close its Tower Place location early next year. Household's sales have been fairly good, but not enough to support the high cost of operating the downtown store, a store official said. The closing will leave Household with two suburban locations, both of which will remain open. An existing Tower Place tenant, the Spectrum music store, will take over Household's skywalk-level location. Spectrum will be expanding with the move, relocating to Household's 3,000-square-foot space from its current 1,575-square-foot location on the street level of the mall.

With the move in early 1994, Spectrum will change its name to Camelot Music. Spectrum is a division of Camelot. Tower Place officials say "several national retailers" have expressed interest in occupying Spectrum's current space. Downtown retailing has been in the dumps since the late 1980s, especially on Fourth Street where McAlpin's sales have declined for the last five years and Tower Place hasn't been able to meet expectations. There are a number of retail vacancies on Fourth Street, and there's a threat that Cincinnati-based McAlpin's might close early next year. The city is trying to make a proposal that would persuade McAlpin's to remain downtown - but not by relocating to the city-owned Fountain Square West as the department store wants. The Fifth Street Fountain Square West site has been reserved for a new Lazarus store, replacing that chain's aged Seventh Street building.