No longer. Global and national retailers such as Nike, Apple, Louis Vuitton and Macy's have take... Mag Mile losing last bit of

No longer. Global and national retailers such as Nike, Apple, Louis Vuitton and Macy's have taken over, more interested in building their brands than building local character.

The latest casualty is also the last local independent name on the street: Hanig's Footwear, an upscale shoe store that has been operating in the heart of the Mag Mile since 1978 and caters to locals and celebrities, including actress Kathy Bates and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

After much wrangling with preservationists fighting to save the landmark Farwell Building that houses Hanig's, the city cleared the way earlier this month for Chicago-based Prism Development Co. to build a luxury condos on the site. Hanig will lose its lease and move out, most likely by this summer.

"Michigan Avenue has reached the point that Fifth Avenue reached years ago," said Paul Vogel, principal at Chicago-based Realty Development Research and a customer who buys his Mephistos at Hanig's. "The advertising value of having a store there is beyond the retail value. You can't justify the location based on retail sales because the rent is so high, so you look at it as an advertising expense."

While Hanig's departure marks the end of an era, a backlash has begun in some major cities, where residents protest the conversion of treasured shopping districts into billboards for retail brands.

Late last year, the Paris city government banned Sweden's fast-fashion discount chain H&M from opening a flagship store on the Champs-Elysees, an attempt to stop what the French describe as the "banalization" of the fashionable boulevard, already populated with Gap, Disney and other ubiquitous stores.

Bostonians, led by Mayor Thomas Menino, have been waging a year-long battle to keep local merchants from being squeezed out of Faneuil Hall Marketplace.

Nicolas de Benoist, an industrial designer from Paris, was strolling North Michigan Avenue on Friday and noticed many familiar stores. In his opinion, the stores are entertainment, an experience designed to make shoppers notice the brand.

"The Champs-Elysees has the same kind of stores," said de Benoist. "We have all the same brands. You should look at these stores as 3-D advertising. It's all about the experience."

Peter Hanig, owner of Hanig's Footwear, is a preservationist who lives in an Arts and Crafts house, works in the store every day and brought the popular "Cows on Parade" exhibit to Chicago. Ever since the Terra Foundation for American Art, owner of the Farwell Building, signed a preliminary agreement last year to sell the property to Prism, Hanig has been searching for another Mag Mile location with no luck.

An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people walk some portion of the mile-long stretch of stores between the Chicago River and Oak Street on a busy Saturday, according to the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association. About two-thirds of them are tourists spending an average $452 each during their visit. All told, retailers on the avenue, including the malls, generate just under $2 billion a year in sales, according to the group.

Rising demand sparked a 25 percent spike in rent on the street to $325 for the year ended June 2006, one of the biggest percentage increases among the world's mature shopping boulevards, according to the most recent annual report from Cushman & Wakefield.

Hanig said he pays $265 a square foot for his 3,000-square-foot Mag Mile store. Spending more would hurt profits, but it's something he would consider, if he could only find a space. He wants to avoid a mall because the thinks there is less foot traffic.

The Terra Foundation, his current landlord, has offered Hanig retail space in the new building, said Donald Ratner, Terra's chief financial officer.

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