Independent music store Homer’s plans to close its downtown location May 26.

The Homer’s store at 6105 O St., across from Westfield Gateway mall, will remain open.

“We’re still committed to Lincoln,” said Mike Fratt, Homer’s general manager.

He said employees of the downtown store will be offered jobs at the other store.

Homer’s downtown lease  at 126 N. 14th St. expired in November and Fratt said the company decided not to sign another long-term lease. It had been renting on a month-to-month basis since then, but now the space has been rented to a new tenant.

That tenant is Erbert & Gerbert’s, a small chain of sandwich shops that’s based in Eau Claire, Wis.

John Krings, the company’s chief operating officer, said the restaurant, which will be the first Erbert & Gerbert’s in the state, will open in August.

Fratt said he doesn’t want people to view the Homer’s closing as a digital-music-killed-the-record-store situation, though, because that’s not the case.

But Fratt did say that having a location near the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is not as attractive as it once was, as students turn more and more to downloading music instead of buying compact discs.

He also cited a “lack of retail” downtown as a reason for the closure.

“We stuck it out for a long time, but it isn’t making sense for us any more,” Fratt said.

Omaha-based Homer’s has had a downtown Lincoln store since buying both the Pickles and Twister’s chains in 1994.

It moved to its current location downtown in 2001, from a much-larger space at 1339 O St. that it took over when it bought Twister’s.

Downtown Lincoln Association President Polly McMullen said the Homer’s closing “underscores the importance of the downtown retail retention and recruitment strategy,” which the DLA has done conjunction with the city, Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development and several downtown property owners and developers.

McMullen said that while she’s glad the Homer’s space will not sit empty, it would have been nice if another independent retailer could have been found.

On the bright side, she said, she’s happy the space will not be turned into another bar.

Reach Matt Olberding at 473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.