The financially troubled owner of downtown St. Paul’s Alliance Bank Center notified tenants Monday it would shut off utilities in two days' time, sending businesses scrambling to find new spaces, orchestrate difficult moves and grapple with goodbyes to storefronts that served as home for years.

Shop owners and business proprietors received an otherwise unsigned notice from “Alliance Center LLC” — the limited liability corporation owned by Madison Equities — around 4 p.m. Monday encouraging them to pack up and leave, followed by a notice of “power shut-off” issued by the city of St. Paul.

Tenants were originally given two days to leave. They now say the city has promised to keep the lights on until April 1.