department stores inc. type private industry retail founded 1961 1961 founder sonny gindi al gindi headquarters new york city key people raymond gindi chief operating officer products clothing footwear bedding furniture jewelry beauty products electronics and housewares . owner gindi family website c21stores.com century 21 is a chain of department stores in the northeastern united states . there are stores located in brooklyn ny long island westbury ny morristown nj paramus nj rego park queens ny lincoln square upper west side ny jersey gardens elizabeth nj and center city philadelphia pa . the largest location is in lower manhattan across the street from the world trade center . 1 the century 21 department store chain is unrelated to century 21 real estate pre dating that firm by ten years . history edit century 21 sign inside century 21 the company was founded in 1961 by sonny gindi ralph gindi and al gindi . 2 the original store is located at 472 86th street in bay ridge brooklyn . founder al gindi s son raymond gindi currently serves as century 21 s chief operating officer . 3 the century 21 flagship location is in lower manhattan . the store became an emotional flashpoint during and after the september 11 attacks . the store was evacuated after the first plane hit the world trade center and the interior was heavily damaged from the collapse of the twin towers . initially it was not certain that the store would be rebuilt but the owners opted to remain at the same site and the store was renovated and reopened in the summer of 2002 . thousands of people waited hours on the morning of the reopening so they could have a sales receipt from that day . 4 5 on october 28 2014 the firm opened its first location outside of the greater new york area housed on 2 floors of the former strawbridge s flagship on market street in center city philadelphia . 6 references edit new york times articles linking century 21 to the world trade center jewish voice new york sonny gindi founder of century 21 department store dies at 88 by fern sidman june 20 2012 philadelphia inquirer will buyers flock to philadelphia s century 21 by elizabeth wellington april 30 2014 new york times a beloved store was a casualty too october 14 2001 new york times century 21 a downtown fixture reopens to cheers march 1 2002 philadelphia inquirer shoppers check out century 21 new center city department store by erin arvedlund october 25 2014 external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title century 21 department store & oldid 739501045 categories department stores of the united statesshops in new york city 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 edit links this page was last modified on 15 september 2016 at 02 09 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view