s. p.a. bergner & co. type subsidiary industry retail founded 1890 in peoria illinois headquarters peoria illinois number of locations 13 2011 1 products clothing footwear bedding furniture jewelry beauty products housewares parent the bon ton website http www.bergners.com bergner s is an upscale midwestern department store established in 1889 . the current flagship store is located in peoria illinois at the shoppes at grande prairie . contents 1 history 1.1 beginnings 1.2 expansion 1.3 mergers and acquisitions 1.4 later years 1.5 bankruptcy and acquisition by proffitt s 1.6 sale to the bon ton 2 see also 3 references 4 external links history edit beginnings edit bergner s was founded in downtown peoria in 1889 by peter alan bergner . the famous red stone building housed six floors that included a tea room a millinery a cobbler and its famous fine china department . the store stood on the corner of adams at fulton streets across from the then rival block & kuhl company . expansion edit in 1957 a second peoria bergner s location opened at the then suburban sheridan village shopping center . between 1961 and 1973 the sheridan village location sold the most merchandise per square foot of any department store in the united states . this bergner s was the largest department store in illinois outside of the chicago area . during the 1970s the chain opened several small suburban locations in pekin bloomington decatur champaign galesburg quincy and peru . during the 1970s bergner s opened a budget store formatted after the original bargain basement downtown store in the madison park shopping center in peoria . not expanding on this concept the madison park store was closed in the late 1980s . in april 2003 after the four year process of the shoppes at grand prairie lifestyle center development bergner s opened a new location serving as their flagship and it is the largest department store south of chicago and north of st. louis . mergers and acquisitions edit bergner s grew robustly in the late 1970s and 1980s . it acquired the eight stores of myers brothers company of springfield illinois in 1978 . in 1985 bergner s acquired boston store and all of its department stores in wisconsin along with three gimbel s locations . in 1989 p.a. bergner bought chicago s carson pirie scott for over 450 million . carson s itself had just bought minneapolis based donaldson s in november 1987 . with this bergner s was a major midwestern presence with stores in five states wisconsin illinois minnesota indiana and iowa operating under the bergner s carson pirie scott and boston store names . later years edit p.a. bergner owned the store until his death in 1926 . 2 his son john velde bergner was president of the company until his suicide in 1938 . 3 maus fr res sa based in geneva switzerland acquired the company after the younger bergner s death and gave the store its unique red logo of six hexagons an emblem bergner s now shares with five corporate siblings as well as two current maus subsidiaries . the downtown peoria store remained open until the mid 1980s and was demolished in 2000 . one technology plaza now occupies the site . in memory to the long history of bergner s to that location the cornerstone of the red rock building is still on display outside the entrance to the college . bankruptcy and acquisition by proffitt s edit in august 1991 bergner s filed for bankruptcy . it exited chapter 11 in 1993 with the new name carson pirie scott & co. and became a publicly traded company . proffitt s inc. now saks incorporated bought the company in 1998 and named the purchased group of stores the northern department store group internally ; its purchase increased the northern presence of the saks company . sale to the bon ton edit in july 2005 saks completed the sale of its southern department store group consisting of proffitt s and mcrae s to charlotte north carolina based belk inc. on october 31 2005 saks announced that it was selling bergner s and its other northern department store group stores carson pirie scott younkers boston store and herberger s to bon ton stores in a 1.1 billion deal . the transaction was completed on march 6 2006 . 4 as of 2006 update the bergner s name is used at 14 locations all in illinois . see also edit carson pirie scott more information about corporate activity references edit the bon ton stores inc. 2011 annual report peter anton bergner . ancestry.com . retrieved 28 december 2015 . john velde bergner . geni.com . retrieved 28 december 2015 . john bergner 44 years old president of the p. a. bergner company store peoria leaped to his death from the high bridge at henry illinois today . he had been in ill health for a month . a coroner s jury brought in a verdict of suicide . bon ton press release external links edit bergner s official site and shopping site the bon ton to acquire 142 stores from saks incorporated for 1.1 billion in cash purchase announcement from october 31 2005 v t e the bon ton and predecessors 2000 present elder beerman 2003 bergner s 2005 boston store 2005 carson s 2005 herberger s 2005 younkers 2005 parisian 2006 2013 1990 1999 j.w. rhodes 1991 watt & shand 1992 1995 am & a s 1994 chappell s 1994 hess s 1994 1980 1989 maxwell s f. 1980s 1989 fowler s 1980s pomeroy s 1987 1948 1979 eyerly s 1948 1989 mcmeen s 1957 1969 stock symbol nasdaq bont website bonton.com partial acquisition ; f. founded retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title bergner % 27s & oldid 743559126 categories department stores of the united statescompanies based in peoria illinoiscompanies based in milwaukeecompanies established in 18891889 establishments in illinoishidden categories articles containing potentially dated statements from 2006all articles containing potentially dated statements navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 05 36 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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