A longtime Station Square toy store will be closing its doors early next year, falling victim to slow sales, as the popular entertainment spot seeks to plot its future after losing the Pittsburgh casino license last year.

S.W. Randall Toyes & Giftes has been a fixture in the Station Square Freight House Shops since 1984, making it one of the oldest retailers in a converted railroad building that opened in 1979.

But recent times have not been so good, as Station Square owner Forest City Enterprises has shifted the emphasis away from retail in favor of entertainment and eating.

"There's no business here," said Shawn Gantz, the manager of the Station Square store.

Randall's owner Jack Cohen said the Station Square store's sales have been slipping for the last five years. The future became bleaker for the store after Forest City lost its bid for the state slots license to Don Barden last December. The award was upheld by the state Supreme Court last summer.

"We were hoping we were going to get the gambling but that didn't happen," Mr. Cohen said. "That would have made a big impact. That's where it belongs, to tell you the truth."

The other Randall stores in Shadyside, Squirrel Hill and Downtown will remain open. At Station Square, Mr. Cohen said the move of the Bradford School to the complex in 2005 didn't help his business.

"I don't know that they're really shoppers," he said. "They just go to school there."

S.W. Randall follows a number of other restaurants or businesses out the door of the Freight House Shops in recent years.

Forest City still has not found a replacement for the Cheese Cellar, which closed in 2004. Neither the Crawford Grill nor the Palm Bar survived in the space at the front of the Freight House Shops next to S.W. Randall. A small retailer near the food court also has closed its doors.

Tom Schneck II, Station Square director of marketing, said the loss of S.W. Randall was "kind of disappointing" but he theorized that it had more to do with competition from Wal-Mart and others for the toy dollar than anything else.

Nonetheless, he acknowledged that Forest City is concentrating its efforts on "retooling the existing center" of Station Square to "get it up and functioning."

That involves finding tenants for the Randall, Cheese Cellar and Palm Bar spaces as well as the old Rebecca Tambellini restaurant in the Commerce Court building, which Forest City acquired earlier this year.

"The focus is leasing up spaces that are vacant. Obviously the long-term plan is to think about what's next," he said.

The Freight House, he added, has always been "a tough building. People don't want to pay for parking. We've always had to keep ourselves unique and very different."

Forest City also is trying to fill two floors of vacant office space in the Commerce Court building.

Not all the news has been bad. The Melting Pot restaurant recently expanded into adjacent space that once housed retail. Houlihan's renewed its lease, Mr. Schneck said, and Forest City has attracted new restaurants to fill the former Jersey Mike's Sub location in Bessemer Court and space in the Freight House Shops food court.

Mr. Schneck said Buckhead Saloon, a relatively recent addition, has been doing well in the Commerce Court building. Hometowne Sports, driven in part by the fanaticism over the Steelers, has gone from one store to three in the same building.

Longer term, Forest City is looking for development opportunities on both ends of the site. The west side once housed the Chevrolet Amphitheatre. The five-acre site now is being marketed for potential development. That site had been slated to hold the slots casino.

On the east side, Forest City had pitched a plan to build as many as 1,250 condominiums as part of its proposal for the slots casino.

Asked whether residential development was still a possibility for that side, Mr. Schneck replied, "As far as I understand, all of our options are open. We have control of the land. We own it. So we're looking at all opportunities. The company isn't ruling out anything at this point."

While S.W. Randall fell on hard times at the Freight House Shops, several other retailers said they are holding their own.

Carol Wilson, co-owner of Accentricity, a jewelry store, said Station Square had a good Light Up Night earlier in the month, better than last year. She said business tends to pick up when the Steelers play at home and when there are conventions in town.

"We have good weeks and bad weeks, the same as everybody else," she said.

She added Accentricity also gets business from teachers and administrators at the Bradford School but not so much from students "because kids don't have money."

Jim Mannella, manager of Bradley's Books near the toy store, said business hasn't been bad. Sales tend to increase during the holidays and the summer, he said.

"Overall, I'd say it's OK," he said.

At the American Country Collection, Katie Jones, a sales clerk, said business at Station Square can be better on weekends than at the store's outlets in three malls, particularly when the Steelers are at home.

But one shop owner, who asked not to be identified, took a contrary position. He said business has been tough and he wondered what Forest City was going to do to compensate for the casino loss.

"This is strictly tourist," he said of Station Square.

And Steelers fans aren't always a cure-all, he said. They can be as fickle with their spending as they are with their quarterbacks.

"The Steelers, if they lose, everybody loses," he said.