The party isn't over, but to get the supplies for it at Papermart, you'll have to drive to the suburbs. The flagship store at 5000 Baum Blvd. in Bloomfield has sold its last "Over the Hill" balloon.

Michael Paul and his wife, Alix, established Papermart 25 years ago in the old Ford Building. They liked the location in part because they didn't need a security deposit.

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center bought the building about two years ago and began clearing tenants out as their leases ended. Papermart was the last tenant when its lease expired in January. UPMC extended the lease on a month-by-month basis, but the cost had gone up.

He said he doesn't want anyone to think he was victimized.

"As frustrating as it was for me, I understand" that UPMC didn't want to maintain a building for one tenant, he said. The amount he would have to have spent to stay while searching for a new location "was enough that I couldn't afford to."

Frank Raczkiewicz, a spokesman for UPMC, said the building will be "another cancer research facility" and that the medical giant, which is based in Oakland with headquarters Downtown, has already outgrown the Hillman Cancer Center.

Wednesday was the employees' last day, said Steven Petrose, a 19-year-old who worked at Papermart during a hiatus from Point Park University. "I had been there about six months, but there are people who worked there five years."

He said he enjoyed the job. "I like people, and that's all it is, helping them plan their parties, or when they need a creative outfit."

Mr. Paul, 54, was 29 when he and his wife opened the store.

"We both wanted to do something on our own," he said. "We raised our first two sons in the back, and my mother worked there, and my mother-in-law and father-in-law helped out sometimes, and a sister-in law worked there.

"There is no parking, and it is not a shopping area at night, but my wife and I were sure it was going to work." It worked so well that they opened six other stores -- in Scott, Monroeville, McCandless, Robinson, McMurray and Lower Burrell.

Mr. Paul said Saturday was a weepy day as shoppers jammed in to get 70 percent off everything in the store. "We had lines out the door. It was huge, and kind of exciting," he said. "I saw people I hadn't seen for a long time. But it was really a sad day.

"I loved that location. At lunchtime every day, I could walk to Shadyside or Oakland or Bloomfield for a sandwich. To have all those choices was great. And I loved the crew. They were all nice, hard-working, good people."

After his Valentine's Day sale, he donated store fixtures to Construction Junction and recycled other items. Now he is looking for the site of the next new Papermart in the city.

"I will have a location in the East End," he said.