struggled to stay afloat through the 2008 snowstorm, the recession and the long and winding recovery that ensued. But each year, said owner John Jost, his successful store at Washington Square buoyed Excalibur's eight other locations through to the prosperous holiday season.

But the national company that owns Washington Square

. Now, Jost says, his 35-year-old business is sunk.

Jost said he would file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Thursday and that his eight stores in Oregon and Washington will close Monday. He said he's already issued final paychecks to his 50 employees.

"It's our livelihood, too. I'm unemployed like they are as of Monday," said Jost, who bought the company with his wife in 2007. "It's really sad, this is a company that's been around for decades, it's a staple in the community."

Jost said he looked at a number of alternative locations, including a spot in Beaverton's

But, he said, between the likely three-month process of applying for development permits, building out a new store and attracting customers to a new location, he'd be digging himself in too deep a hole.

"This is how the retail environment works. You'd have to continue borrowing on your credit line to try to get through and, in the meantime, you'd have put your vendors in a bad position," he said, explaining that he likely would reach the same end point with bankruptcy, but have much more merchandise on hand that he couldn't afford.

"It just didn't look worth the risk."

Jost said he'd tried to renegotiate his lease at the

two years ago, but the only agreement that was reached was to encourage the mall owner Simon Property Group to market his space to another retailer. Apparently, he said, no one bit.

Jost said he's emailed the leasing executive with Simon to ask for some kind of relief in recent weeks but never received a response.

As part of the bankruptcy filing, Jost said he's asked to hold liquidation sales at his stores in Northeast Portland's Lloyd Center and Eugene's Valley River Center malls. As a thank-you to employees, he offered them 50-percent off deals on any items they'd been eyeing.

Jost said he and his wife had both worked in management and sales for large corporations and had hoped to cap their careers with a local company they could grow. They chose Excalibur because it was a family business that for years had provided its employees with good wages and solid benefits.

"This was a way out of corporate America and into our dream of owning a business," Jost said. "I never thought that leasing would be the thing that pulled the plug on the whole thing."

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