BROADWAY BIDS CALLED UNWORTHY : FEDERATED WON'T SELL NORTHRIDGE, OTHER SITES.

Byline: Associated Press 

Federated Department Stores Inc. said Wednesday it did not receive any acceptable bids for The Broadway in Northridge and six other stores it intended to sell in California.

The Cincinnati-based retailer said it received seven sealed bids for the California stores during the 30-day bidding process. Federated would not disclose the bidders or the bid amounts.

Federated said it has notified California Attorney General Dan Lungren that none of the bids satisfied requirements for sale of the stores, as established in the agreement with Lungren.

Federated said it will keep all seven stores for now.

In addition to The Broadway in Northridge, the stores are Coddingtown Macy's in Santa Rosa, Sunvalley Emporium in Concord, Newpark Emporium in Newark, Hilltop Emporium in Richmond, Solano Emporium in Fairfield, and the downtown Sacramento Weinstock's.

The company reached the agreement with Lungren after his office began investigating whether Federated's purchase of the Los Angeles-based Broadway group of 82 stores in October would hurt consumers by restricting retail competition in California.

Federated said it has converted about 50 of the 82 Broadway, Emporium and Weinstock's stores to the Macy's nameplate. Another five are becoming Bloomingdale's, the first entry of that store group into West Coast markets.

The Macy's West division of Federated, based in San Francisco, operates more than 100 stores in California and five other Western states. The division's sales in 1995, excluding Broadway, were $2.5 billion.

Federated has annual sales of more than $15 billion. The company operates more than 400 department stores and 150 specialty stores in 36 states. Its store groups are Bloomingdale's, The Bon Marche, Broadway, Burdines, Emporium, Goldsmith's, Lazarus, Macy's, Rich's, Stern's and Weinstock's.