BY LISA FASIG BIANK
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Gronauer Furs, the holdout of the defunct Shops at 18 West Fourth Street, will leave its home of seven years next week to operate on the other side of Fourth Street and in Northern Kentucky.

Owner Ray Gronauer Monday said the furrier will sublease into March the storefront at Fourth and Race streets, which Sterling Cut Glass vacated in late August. Gronauer will have the option to renew the lease in March.

The furrier also will open a salon on the second floor of Miss Martha's women's boutique in Fort Mitchell. That will open Friday.

The departure makes for the final goodbye to the bedeviled Shops at 18 West Fourth in the historic Gidding-Jenny building. The 1ï-year-old retail complex sank last fall when its main tenant, Barry Miller, was convicted of bank robbery and pulled his stores' leases. Most other tenants followed, and in June, off-price retailer T.J. Maxx said it was interested in the site and the adjoining building at 10 W. Fourth St.

''We assumed that this building was eventually going to be leased out,'' said Mr. Gronauer, who wanted to avoid moving in the middle of the holiday shopping season.

''(We) decided that this was a good time to make a break,'' he said.

Mark Fallon, who is brokering the lease through Jeffrey Anderson Real Estate, said T.J. Maxx will send a project management team in next week to survey the 37,000-square-foot site. It will expect renovations, such as the installation of an escalator.

''Timed with the Gronauers going out, that's when we're effectively turning possession over to Maxx,'' Mr. Fallon said. ''Come hell or high water, they will be in and operating by May 1.''

T.J. Maxx executives could not be reached Monday, but a spokeswoman has said the retailer is interested in the site, though it hasn't signed a lease.

Gronauer Furs has operated in the Gidding-Jenny building since 1990. When Gidding closed in August 1995, Gronauer stayed put, becoming a part of the Shops project that opened in April 1996.