this article is about the former store holding company that merged with federated department stores inc. for the related southern california based department stores see may company california . for the unrelated mays department stores in new york city see j.w. mays . the may department stores company industry retail fate merged with federated department stores inc. successor macy s inc founded 1877 defunct 2005 headquarters leadville colorado 1877 1888 denver colorado 1888 1905 st. louis missouri 1905 2005 key people david may founder morton may chairman 1951 1967 products clothing footwear accessories bedding furniture jewelry beauty products and housewares subsidiaries famous barr filene s foley s hecht s the jones store kaufmann s lord & taylor l.s. ayres marshall field s meier & frank robinsons may strawbridge s caldor may cohens may florida o neil s m. o neil co. may company cleveland website maycompany.com the may department stores company was an american department store holding company formerly headquartered in downtown st. louis missouri . 1 it was founded by david may in 1877 2 and merged with federated department stores now macy s inc. in 2005 . this company was only a holding company that bought sold and merged regional department stores such as foley s and l.s. ayres . during most of its history the operations of the various divisions were kept separate and had their own buyers and credit cards which were not accepted at other may owned stores . there were times in which two different may s own stores had operated in the same geographical market but were aimed at different customers . most decisions for each of the regional store companies were made by management at the local headquarters and not by the holding company in st. louis . some of the regional stores shared names that were similar to the parent company such as los angeles based may company california but all it had in common with parent was that they were headed by a different member of the may family as the president of their respective regional store chain and were separate legal entities . contents 1 history 2 may centers 3 merger of federated and may 4 references 5 external links history edit christmas advertisement for hamburger s department store los angeles 1905 the 1939 streamline moderne style may company wilshire building in los angeles future home of the academy museum of motion pictures 1877 founded in leadville during the colorado silver rush . 1889 headquarters moved to denver . 1899 may acquires the e. r. hull & dutton co. of cleveland renaming it the may company cleveland later named the may company ohio . 1905 headquarters moved to st. louis . 3 1910 officially incorporated as the may department stores company . 3 1911 the famous clothing store owned by may and the william barr dry goods company merged to create famous barr . 3 1912 may acquires the m. o neil co. o neil s department store of akron ohio . 1923 may acquires a. hamburger & sons co. in los angeles and renames it may company california . 1946 may acquires the kaufmann s chain based in pittsburgh retaining it as a separate division . 3 1947 may acquires strouss hirshberg co. based in youngstown ohio retaining it as a separate division and changing the name to strouss . 1956 may acquires the daniels & fisher company of denver merging it with may stores in the area to create a new may d & f division . 4 1958 may acquires the cohen bros. department store in jacksonville florida turning it into the may cohens chain . 5 1959 may acquires the hecht company of baltimore adding it as a new division . 4 1965 may acquires g. fox & co. 1966 may acquires the meier & frank chain based in portland oregon adding it as a new division . 4 david s grandson morton may became the chairman in 1951 and headed the company for 16 years . morton may was active in st. louis civic affairs and was a patron of the st. louis art museum . 1968 venture stores was founded when target co founder john f. geisse went to work for may department stores . under an antitrust settlement reached with the department of justice may was unable to acquire any more retail chains at the time and the department store company needed a way to compete against the emerging discount store chains . 1970s may sold the 70 store consumers distributing chain of catalog merchants to the canadian consumers distributing company . 6 it closed its stores in 1996 . 1986 may acquires the associated dry goods holding company and its chains including loehmann s lord & taylor and caldor the largest ever retail acquisition in history at that time . 7 1988 may acquires foley s in houston and filene s in boston from federated department stores . 8 1993 may company california and jw robinsons merged to form robinsons may . 1995 may acquires the wanamaker s chain based in philadelphia . 1996 may acquires the strawbridge s chain based in philadelphia . 9 1998 may acquires the jones store chain based in kansas city missouri . 9 1999 may acquires zions cooperative mercantile institution based in salt lake city folding it into the meier & frank subsidiary . 9 2004 may department stores takes over the marshall field s chain from target corporation . 10 2005 may is purchased by federated department stores for 11 billion in stock with all former may divisions being folded into federated s various macy s branches . 10 11 2006 over 400 former may stores with their wide variety of long standing brand names are consolidated and renamed as macy s. in addition federated sells off three former may chains david s bridal lord & taylor and priscilla of boston . 10 may centers edit the company previously developed malls under the name may centers inc. the first shopping center that may department stores developed was an opened air shopping center that first opened in 1947 that later became the baldwin hills crenshaw plaza in los angeles . 12 during the mid 1980s the company noticed that their company s stock was vastly undervalued and that the company was at risk of becoming a hostile takeover target 13 14 may department stores needed to re purchase some of its company s stock to push the share price up . to accomplish this task they needed to get much cash quickly which they did by making a deal with prudential insurance in which the insurance company gave may 550 million in exchange for 50 % ownership of may centers . 15 16 in 1992 prudential purchased the rest of may centers and renamed the company centermark . 16 17 the following year prudential sold the company to a consortium that was composed of general growth properties a real estate investment trust in des moines ; westfield holdings ltd. of australia ; and whitehall street real estate l.p. iii an investment partnership formed by goldman sachs & co. 18 19 in 1996 general growth sold its share to westfield which enabled westfield to add these properties to its existing collection of properties . 20 the majority of the properties that were initially developed by may had become very successful according to whom and had become a part of westfield and remain so as of january 2016 . however not all of the original may properties were sold to westfield and a few properties that westfield did purchased were later sold . laurel plaza is a special case . at the time of the sale of may centers laurel plaza also housed the headquarters for may company california in addition to a regional store so may department stores kept this piece of property . may was trying to enlarge this mall in 1988 . 21 because of damage incurred during the 1994 northridge earthquake may and its successor macy s were unable to dispose of the property until 2014 . 22 westfield disposed of most of its st. louis area malls by selling them to chattanooga based cbl & associates properties . st. clair square was sold in 1996 . 23 mid rivers mall south county center and west county center were sold in 2007 . 24 in 2006 westfield sold four former may center malls to australia based centro . 25 these properties include eagle rock plaza enfield mall west park mall and westland towne centre . economically these locations were not performing as well as they should . 26 in 2012 madison marquette retail services was hired to manage these properties . 27 in november 2015 westfield sold westfield carlsbad formerly plaza camino real to rouse properties . 28 some of the malls that may built included alton square mall alton illinois annapolis mall annapolis maryland ballston common mall arlington virginia eagle rock plaza los angeles california eastland center west covina california enfield square enfield connecticut la jolla village square la jolla california 29 30 laurel plaza north hollywood california 21 22 31 meriden square now westfield meriden meriden connecticut mid rivers mall st. peters missouri mission valley center now westfield mission valley san diego california montgomery mall now westfield montgomery bethesda maryland northland shopping center jennings missouri plaza bonita now westfield plaza bonita national city california plaza camino real now the shoppes at carlsbad carlsbad california st. clair square fairview heights illinois south county center st. louis missouri topanga plaza now westfield topanga canoga park california vancouver mall now westfield vancouver vancouver washington west county center des peres missouri west covina fashion place now westfield west covina west covina california west park mall cape girardeau missouri westland center lakewood colorado merger of federated and may edit on february 28 2005 federated department stores inc. announced that they would acquire the may company in a deal that would create the nation s second largest department store chain with over 1 000 stores and 30 billion in annual sales . to help finance the may company deal federated agreed to sell its combined proprietary credit card business to citigroup as well as may s bridalwear business . the federated may merger was completed on august 30 2005 after an assurance agreement was reached with the state attorneys general of new york california massachusetts maryland and pennsylvania . federated announced plans to close 76 store locations over the ensuing year having pledged in its anti trust settlement to sell most of them in the above mentioned states as viable businesses with preference being given to a group of thirteen competitors . by september 2006 all of the may regional nameplates except for the lord & taylor chain ceased to exist as federated consolidated its operations under the macy s mastheads including the stores most famous names marshall field s filene s and kaufmann s as well as the last nameplate to still have the may name robinson s may . all locations that were not sold off were rebranded as macy s except for one hecht s location in friendship heights . that was rebuilt and rebranded as bloomingdale s. in advance of the retail consolidation may s credit call center in lorain ohio ceased operations on july 1 2006 . lord & taylor the lone department store division not to be largely converted to the macy s nameplate was sold to a group of investors at nrdc equity partners llc for 1.2 billion in october 2006 . david s bridal and after hours formalwear were also soon sold thereafter . references edit federated and may announce merger ; 17 billion transaction to create value for customers shareholders . business wire . february 28 2005 . retrieved on august 19 2009 . dead link the drive to differentiate macy s inc archived april 8 2008 at the wayback machine . a b c d the drive