Months after Ruminator closed its doors for good, founder and CEO David Unowsky is still reeling from a breakdown in negotiations that occurred after he believed the issue had been resolved, leaving him bitter and with questions about Macalester’s motives.

For Macalester, the July 25 closure was the final chapter in months of negotiations with the bookstore and years of persistent debt that ultimately cost the school over $650,000.

According to Unowsky, an anonymous Macalester alumnus came forward in January with a substantial donation, injecting new life into the 33-year-old bookstore’s campaign to raise $500,000 by January 31.

The pledge allowed Macalester to grant Ruminator a one-month extension of the deadline.

Meanwhile, Ruminator was also attempting to generate funding through the sale of public stock. Julia Eagles ’06 was part of a group of Macalester students that collected over $1500 for the store.

“We tried to make it clear that Ruminator was in a tough financial situation and this was in no way a profitable investment, but rather an opportunity to support our local bookstore,” Eagles said.

By March, Ruminator had raised less than $200,000 in public stock and accepted failure. Unowsky returned the money to each donor, but the Macalester students elected to donate their collection to the store. Macalester gave Ruminator another month to fulfill its end of the deal.

The anonymous alumnus investor said that he felt progress was being made until the end of March, when Vice President for Administration and Treasurer David Wheaton and High Winds Fund Director Tom Welna became more hesitant to proceed with negotiations.

“From that point on, it was very difficult because it was clear [Wheaton and Welna] weren’t making decisions,” the investor said. Progress began to stall, and Unowsky stopped paying rent in April because of deteriorating negotiations.

However, Macalester offered a lease with terms much less favorable to Ruminator, including no renewal of the lease after five years, and the investor reluctantly sent a letter accepting the new terms on June 18.

Macalester responded by withdrawing from negotiations. In a letter dated June 18, the same day that the investor accepted the new terms, Wheaton concluded that both parties were “unable to resolve our differences.”

In a letter to Wheaton dated June 29, Unowsky reiterated that there were “no irreconcilable differences.”

“I’m very angry,” Unowsky said. “[The bookstore] was saved, we had a deal, and [Macalester] pulled out.”

He added that Macalester is losing at least $250,000 by not honoring the new agreement because the investor had pledged up to one million dollars to save Ruminator.

“I asked Rosenberg why he wouldn’t [accept the donation] and he would never really provide an answer,” the investor said. “No one else is going to pay that debt back that David [Unowsky] owed them.”

Wheaton defended the administration’s decision. “Macalester did far more than any landlord or banker would have done under these circumstances, and we did more than any other entity in this community to give the store a chance to continue,” he said.

“We felt we needed to put some limits on the very large amounts of time and money that we were going to devote to this particular issue.”

Macalester President Brian Rosenberg gave two reasons for finally terminating the lease. He cited Unowsky’s decision to stop paying rent and the last six months of taxes and said that the decision arose when Macalester needed to order textbooks by June. “We wanted to give [Macalester’s textbook sales] back to Ruminator, but by June, we just decided we had to make a call,” Rosenberg said. “It became irresponsible to use tuition money to pay for Ruminator.”

He added that projects that directly connected Macalester students to the community like Admission Possible and Pluralism and Unity were more beneficial and meaningful to the school’s mission.

“People talk about a ‘deeply meaningful commitment’ [to Ruminator], but the reality is that the community hasn’t been committed to the store,” Rosenberg said. “The people were voting with their feet and their dollars.”

Macalester will begin selecting a new tenant for the vacant storefront amid allegations from Unowsky that the school and its mission are becoming increasingly corporate in nature.

He said that he believes that because of the new terms of the lease, which included no guaranteed parking after two to three years, Macalester is preparing for real estate development in the parking lot. Unowsky said that the absence of a “for rent” sign indicates that Macalester already has a plan for his former store.

Welna said that neither parking nor development had anything to do with the school’s decision to stop subsidizing Ruminator, and that no specific timetable exists for the development of Ruminator’s former parking lot, located on the north side of Grand Ave. between Macalester St. and Cambridge St.

“The thing that makes no sense in [Unowsky’s] theory is that the development on the north side [of Grand] would only have enhanced the retail on the south side,” Welna said.

In a letter dated July 28 and published on Bookselling this Week’s website, Unowsky wrote that “administrations and boards change, and values like loyalty, community, and integrity get replaced by corporate image and real estate development.”

Rosenberg called Unowsky’s comments “a real mistake.”

“There’s no evidence that we’ve become more corporate,” he said. “We have the same values of academic excellence. This is not about real estate development.”

Welna said that because of the store’s prime Grand Avenue location, pursuing tenants is unnecessary and Macalester has already received about two dozen inquiries.

According to Welna, Macalester will use several criteria in selecting a new tenant for the former bookstore site. The college will evaluate whether the business serves the needs of the college community and the larger neighborhood, has a regional draw like Ruminator did, doesn’t duplicate an existing store, and has “good sound financial,” according to Welna.

“Our mission with community tenants is not to be involved on a daily basis as we were with Ruminator for over two years,” he said.

While Macalester investigates replacements for Ruminator, Unowsky and the community continue to adapt to a new era. Unowsky filed for bankruptcy and now does freelance writing for Ruminator Review. His former employees are divided between working at Ruminator Magazine, working at other jobs, and looking for work.

He said goodbye to his bookstore with the community by holding a wake on July 25, the last day of business, with food, music, and poetry readings by local writers.

“We tried to put a positive spin on it and celebrate what we’ve done over the past 34 years,” Unowsky said. “It was like being at my own funeral and hearing people say nice things about me. There’s a lot of sadness in the community.”

Eagles called the bookstore a “beloved cornerstone” of the city.

“It’s a real loss for Macalester and the St. Paul community,” she said. “I’m sorry for the new first-years who didn’t get to experience Ruminator.”

The investor, too, said he left the experience disillusioned. “I’m never going to donate the amount of money to Macalester that I was going to this time,” he said. “It’s clear that the values Macalester has stood for may still be in [its] recruiting materials. But actions speak louder than words and they just didn’t demonstrate those values in this process.”