Von Maur
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| Type | Private/Department store |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1872 |
| Headquarters | Davenport, Iowa |
| Number of locations | 27[1] |
| Key people | Charles R. von Maur, Co-Chairman Richard B. von Maur, Co-Chairman James D. von Maur, President |
| Products | Clothing, footwear, jewelry, handbags, beauty products. |
| Website | Von Maur website |
Von Maur is an upscale specialty department store chain with stores located in the Midwestern United States and newly expansion stores in the Southern United States. The chain, based in Davenport, Iowa, sells mid-priced brand-name apparel, accessories, cosmetics, gifts, jewelry and shoes. As of late 2011 the chain has 27 stores in eleven states. New stores have recently opened in Louisville, Kentucky; St. Louis, Missouri; and Alpharetta, Georgia. All of its stores are anchors of shopping malls or lifestyle centers. A hallmark of some of the Von Maur services are a no-interest bearing credit card account, free shipping and free gift wrapping offered every day. Another signature element of Von Maur stores is a live pianist who performs for customers during normal business hours. It competes on the same level as Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, and Bloomingdale's chains.
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[edit] History
[edit] Beginnings
In 1872 German immigrant J. H. C. Petersen and his three sons, patriots who favored democracy in Germany and thus had to flee, by virtue of their being patriots in favor of independence in Germany, opened a store in a 20-foot-by-50-foot storefront in downtown Davenport, Iowa. The store would eventually expand and move into their flagship store, the Redstone Building at 2nd and Main Streets in Davenport.
The brothers were distinguished by their commitment to the fledgling operation; sleeping, if need be, on the counters of the store. The father, J.H.C., ended his life at 510 W. 6th St., Davenport, IA. H.F. Petersen bought "Marquette Heights" before his death. Max built the houses that would later become part of Marycrest upon his daughter Dorothy Stuck's death. Willy's legacy lives on in the Bix bandshell and riverfront park. Were it not for Willy, there would be no Bix Biederbecke park. The Petersen sons fled Northern Germany to start anew in the U.S. Otto Klug, immigrant of the 1848 revolution, ancestors dating back to 15/1700s on Fehmarn Island, became a father-in-law to J.H.C. Petersen.
Mr. Klug was a formidable leader in the early Davenport settlement. Like many of the educated and talented refugees from the 1848 revolution, Otto Klug brought much-needed capital to the American West. His children and sons-in-law, like J.H.C. Petersen, availed themselves of Mr. Klug's knowledge and capital, to help build the Quad-Cities. The Petersen family was sadly not one in which males lived long.
In 1916, the J. H. C. Petersen Company, upon the death of all of its founders, except for its sole survivor, J.H.C. Petersen's son, Willy Petersen, he who built the bandshell that is the current home of the Bix Biederbecke Annual Jazz Fest, sold the family store to a partnership of R.H. Harned, C.J. von Maur, and Cable von Maur.
Willy by that point was living in California, yet his charitable fund lives on. Mr. Petersen was dedicated to leaving a historic legacy in his hometown, honoring his father and brothers.
C.J. von Maur, who came from Austria, established the Boston Store (later renamed Harned & Von Maur) in downtown Davenport in 1887. Despite the common ownership, Petersen's and Harned & Von Maur would continue to operate as separate stores for twelve years, even after C.J. von Maur died in 1926. On May 7, 1928, Harned & Von Maur merged with the Petersen's store in the Redstone Building. The store was renamed Petersen Harned Von Maur, which was often shortened to "Petersen's". The von Maur family assumed complete ownership of the store after R.H. Harned died in 1937.
[edit] 1970s-1980s
In the company's centennial year of 1972, Petersen Harned Von Maur opened its first branch store at Duck Creek Plaza in Bettendorf, Iowa. Another branch store opened at SouthPark Mall in Moline, Illinois, in 1974. In 1976, Petersen's opened its first store outside the Quad Cities area at Valley West Mall in West Des Moines, Iowa. The company continued to open new stores in shopping malls throughout Iowa and Illinois during the late 1970s and 1980s; along the way it acquired two former Killian's department stores in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa, in 1981. As the company shifted its focus to malls, the Petersen Harned Von Maur flagship store in downtown Davenport closed in 1986. (The Redstone Building is now home to the River Music Experience.)
Petersen Harned Von Maur shortened its name to Von Maur in 1989 to reflect the von Maur family's management of the company. One year later, it moved its corporate headquarters and executive offices from the Redstone Building to a 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m2) building on Brady Street (near the interchange with Interstate 80) in Davenport. The company distributes all of its merchandise from this building using its own fleet of semi-trucks. It also has its own credit union and credit department as well as a print shop.
[edit] 1990s
Von Maur successfully entered the Chicago market in 1994 with a 207,000-square-foot (19,200 m2) flagship store at Yorktown Center in Lombard, Illinois. Von Maur currently has 6 stores in Illinois, more than any other state. From there, the company expanded its geographic reach into Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Nebraska during the late 1990s and early 2000s while closing stores in Bettendorf, Iowa and Muscatine, Iowa, during this period. In 2004 Von Maur expanded into Michigan by taking over two mall locations of the defunct Jacobson chain (The Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Laurel Park Place in Livonia, Michigan). In late 2005 it opened a store at Polaris Fashion Place in Columbus, Ohio, the 23rd store in the chain. On January 31, 2007, Von Maur closed its store at Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which brought the store count down to 22. On Saturday, September 13, 2008, Von Maur opened its 23rd store, a 140,000 sq ft (13,000 m2) store in Phase II of The Greene, a project of Steiner Associates in Dayton, OH. The 24th store at the Corbin Park Lifestyle Center in Overland Park, Kansas had its soft opening on Monday, November 3, 2008 and the grand opening on Saturday, November 8, 2008.
[edit] Von Maur shooting
On Wednesday, December 5, 2007, the Von Maur Westroads Mall location in Omaha, Nebraska, was the site of a mass shooting. A sole gunman identified as Robert A. Hawkins, age 19, entered the store, which has three levels, killing eight people and injuring five others before killing himself. The shooting started at 1:42pm.
In response to the shootings, the company temporarily closed that location and set up a victims fund through the United Way of the Midlands.[2] The store reopened on December 20, 2007.[3]
[edit] Today
Today, the privately held company remains under the leadership of the Von Maur family, including co-chairmen Charles R. von Maur and Richard B. von Maur, as well as president James D. von Maur
On November 11, 2010, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Von Maur announced the chain would open its first store in the Southeast in the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta. The regional flagship store would convert a former location previously occupied by Lord & Taylor, then Belk, at the North Point Mall into a much larger anchor. The store opened in early November 2011.[4] Direct mail advertising to some households in the area indicate the actual opening date to be November 5, 2011. Additional stores in the region would include two additional Atlanta stores as well as an eventual expansion into Tennessee, Alabama, and the Carolinas. The chain also is proposing to open its first store in Alabama and second store in the Southeast at the Riverchase Galleria in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover.[5] The store will be located in the space first occupied by Macy's, then Proffitt's, and later Belk; construction for the three-story building is slated to begin in 2012.[6]
In March, 2011, the chain announced that it would enter the Wisconsin market with its first store based on a new lifestyle mall in the town of Brookfield, WI named Poplar Creek. The new store was to be an expansion of the Brookfield Square Mall, but Von Maur chose the larger parcel of land at the corner of Barker Road and Blue Mound Road because of concerns from its retail competitor, Bon-Ton Stores (which owns Boston Store and Carson Pirie Scott). The new store that is proposed will have a three story parking structure with the store, with the three story Von Maur building as the anchor. Final design and other details are still pending.
In November 2011, it was announced that Von Maur would enter the New York market with a store at Eastview Mall outside Rochester, replacing a Bon-Ton store. Von Maur's first northeast location, it is scheduled to open in the fall of 2013.[7]
In 2011, VonMaur announced that it would open a store in Coralville, Iowa. The Iowa City-Coralville Metro Area already has a VonMaur at Sycamore Mall in Iowa City, Iowa, but the company is unsure whether they will keep that location open. Also VonMaur has a store 20 miles north in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at Lindale Mall.
After opening the North Point Mall store in Alpharetta, Georgia in November 2011, Von Maur announced in early January 2012 that they would be opening their second Atlanta area store at the soon-to-be shuttered Bloomingdale's location at Perimeter Mall on Atlanta's north side.[8] There will also be a location at the Riverchase Galleria in Birmingham, Alabama. It is set to open in 2013.
[edit] References
- FundingUniverse.com. "Von Maur Inc. Company History". http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Von-Maur-Inc-Company-History.html. Retrieved 2006-07-13.
- ^ About Von Maur
- ^ Von Maur Victims Fund
- ^ Von Maur Determined To Reopen; Westroads Opens Saturday - Omaha News Story - KETV Omaha
- ^ Von Maur department store chain to enter Atlanta market, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 11, 2010
- ^ http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/10/von_maur_department_store_prop.html
- ^ http://www2.alabamas13.com/news/2011/nov/09/new-store-announced-riverchase-galleria-ar-2677691/
- ^ http://www.rbj.net/article.asp?aID=189371
- ^ http://www.ajc.com/business/bloomingdales-space-to-be-1290683.html
