Crowley's
Encyclopedia
Crowley Milner and Company, generally referred to as Crowley's, was a department store
chain founded in Detroit
, Michigan
in 1909. After several years of financial difficulties, the company ceased operation in 1999 and its assets were sold.
Its flagship store, corporate office and warehouse complex occupied two blocks in downtown Detroit for almost 80 years. The store was a direct competitor of the J. L. Hudson Company and the Ernst Kern Company
until Kern's closed in 1959. Crowley's and Hudson's were both noted for their lavish annual Christmas displays. Faced with a decline in retail traffic in downtown Detroit, Crowley's closed its downtown location in July 1977. The firm operated a store in Detroit's New Center area that remained open until the chain's demise in 1999.
In 1995, the chain acquired Steinbach
in the northeast US. When Crowley's ceased operation in 1999, several of its locations were purchased by discount chain Value City
. Three in the Detroit area were rebranded Crowley's Value City and remained part of the Value City chain until it also ceased operating in 2008.
.
Partridge & Blackwell formed in 1901 and was on the edge of insolvency due to poor management and the recession of 1907. The opportunity to assume control of the retailer came when an executive of the Central Savings Bank of Detroit, one of the store’s creditors, approached Joseph Crowley. Crowley agreed on the condition that his two brothers and Milner join him and Crowley, Milner and Company was born.
Immediately after the incorporation of Crowley, Milner and Co., its owners envisioned the store as one of the highest quality retail operations in Detroit. At the turn of the twentieth century, Detroit was regarded as one of the most affluent cities in the United States, and Crowley, Milner & Co. helped to uphold this image. The owners stocked the store with luxurious clothing and gifts imported from Europe and opened a full-service restaurant and grocery store. Within ten years, the Crowley, Milner & Co. expanded its building and was the largest department store in Michigan.
The Partridge & Blackwell Building occupied the western half of the block bounded by Farmer Street, Gratiot Avenue, Library and Monroe Streets. It contained six floors with large triple windows on the second through fourth floors divided by piers faced with white glazed brick and terra cotta. The piers formed arches above the windows of the fifth floor with windows on the sixth floor spaced between the corbel
s supporting the elaborate cornice above. Two large illuminated signs proclaiming ""P.& B." inside a heart graced the northwest and southwest corners fo the roof. Crowley, Milner expanded the building by removing the cornice to add a seventh and eighth floor and expanding east to Library Street. In 1920, they then constructed an eleven-story "home store" on the site of the Goldberg Brothers store east of Library Street. Initially, the 100000 sq ft (9,290.3 m²) annex was connected to the main building by a tunnel. In 1923, the city of Detroit granted permission to connect the two structures above ground and an elaborate five-story bridge opened in 1925. The entrances on Farmer, Gratiot and Monroe were framed by large arches and the windows above the doors on the second floor were topped by a large pediment
. One notable feature of the department store was wooden escalators which remained until the structure was demolished in 1977.
The company stumbled slightly when Milner was killed in 1923 while traveling to his store in Toledo. The company lost its president and merchandising expert and his 42 percent interest in the corporation was sold by his heirs. Without Milner, the store eventually came to be known as Crowley's, but the company retained its full name until 1999. Joseph Crowley succeeded his friend and partner as president, but the loss of full control of the by the tight-knit group affected the company for many years.
Like many retailers, the Great Depression
impacted Crowley's deeply. Sales plummeted from $39 million in 1928 to only $10 million in 1929. Joseph Crowley died in 1937 and his widow repurchased the shares of the company sold by William Milner's heirs to give the Crowleys majority ownership in the corporation. Daniel J. Crowley, Joseph's son, became president and helped the company chart a course to recovery.
. This was followed by a store in the Grand River/Greenfield shopping area in northwest Detroit in 1960 and identical stores in the Livonia and Macomb
Malls in 1964. However, this expansion was at the expense of the downtown store. By 1960, the store consolidated enough to allow the Veteran's Administration to lease the lower six-floors of the annex building for $147,000 per year.
In 1972, the firm purchased the Demrey’s chain which consisted of a store at Woodward and Milwaukee in the New Center
neighborhood, and in the suburbs of Birmingham
and Farmington Hills
. The New Center store later moved into the New Center One Building.
The Lakeside Mall
store in Sterling Heights
opened in 1975 followed in 1980 by stores at Universal Mall in Warren and Arborland Mall in Ann Arbor. The Tel-Twelve Mall unit opened in 1985. In 1986, stores opened in Westland
and two stores in Flint
and Burton
, approximately one hour north of Detroit.
The downtown store closed in 1977 due to declining sales. This was followed by closure of the office and warehouse building in 1978 and the Ann Arbor store in 1983 when the Arborland Mall was converted to a discount center. Offices moved to a building on Lafayette Boulevard at the western edge of the downtown business district and remained there until the company's liquidation. The Grand River-Greenfield store was only 45000 sq ft (4,180.6 m²), but continuously performed well in sales. It was located in several storefronts along Grand River Avenue and in 1987 the landlord wanted to redivide the building to lure new businesses. It offered Crowley's a portion of the renovated structure but the store declined.
In 1985, members of the Crowley family, who still owned more than 51 percent of the company stock agreed to sell the store to Oakland Holding Company.
This was an attempt to lure customers back from newcomers to the Detroit market such as MainStreet
, a unit of Federated Department Stores
which later became Kohl’s, and Mervyns
. Crowley’s changed its product line to feature more upmarket with lines by Calvin Klein
and Ralph Lauren
aimed at the Hudson's or Lord & Taylor
shopper. This move alienated many traditional customers as Crowley’s was seen as a more mid-market store with locations in Detroit’s older suburbs.
The introduction of a prototype men's clothing store next to its Farmington
, Michigan location proved to be a successful move. Sales were strong, and the company discussed plans to introduce more similar stores in the future. This store within a store had its own entrance and focused on men’s suits and accessories; similar to the Men's Wearhouse
. The young men’s and sportswear was in the located in the main store. Also, Crowley's instituted a "Frequent Buyer" program at all of its stores, as a method of encouraging customer loyalty. The program kept track of each customer's monthly purchase amounts, and then the stores issued gift certificates based on each person's sales figures.
Despite the initial success of the Frequent Buyers program and the new store format, annual sales dropped almost $10 million from 1991 to 1992.
In March 1991, Crowley, Milner & Co. announced it was seeking a merger partner that was large enough to help the company expand. It was management's opinion that long-term growth for the Crowley's chain would come through acquisition of some type, with the most likely scenario being an acquisition by another party.
In late 1992, the company opened a store carrying only women's clothing in Lansing
, based on the concept of its men's store in Farmington. The store was unsuccessful and analysts were split on the reasons. Some felt it was due to the location or layout while others cited the unfamiliarity of the Crowley's brand in the Lansing market.
In 1993, the company obtained a revolving line of credit from Schottenstein Stores, which provided Crowley, Milner & Co. with the ability to resume payments to its creditors. It then implemented other changes which included a new computer software system to manage personnel, closing the Westland store and eliminating the Frequent Buyers program.
The result was that sales increased in 1994 and the company announced its first profitable quarter in almost five years. Management continued to rebuild financial stability by obtaining a new working capital loan from Congress Financial Corporation to replace the agreement with Schottenstein Stores Corp. Management also announced a two-for-one common stock split, introduced its own credit card and the new slogan “Detroit’s Own Department Store”.
Sales in 1995 rose to $109.9 million. On November 21 of that year, Crowley’s purchased the Steinbach chain with 24 stores in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Vermont from the Schottenstein family. The company planned to sell approximately 10 of the stores and continue operation of the others. It ultimately retained 16 stores.
In 1996, Crowley’s proposed a new store for Novi
’s Main Street development but this fell through in 1999 as did a 1998 takeover of local women’s fashion chain Winkelman's. It did expand into the Winkelman’s store at Tel-Twelve Mall
and opened a separate Men’s store in that mall.
On June 1, 1997, Crowley's opened its enlarged store in the atrium of the New Center One Building. The expansion was 7500 sq ft (696.8 m²) in space previously occupied by Winkelman's and a bookstore which became children’s and home stores separate from men's and women's clothing. This was not their largest location, but was the most profitable store by square footage. At the same time it hearlded the success of the New Center store, Crowley's announced a costly lesson from its purchase of Steinbach in the form of a $4 million loss during the first quarter of 1997. This was up from $1.3 million for the first quarter of 1996.
The losses proved too great and in 1997, the company began to downsize in the hope of remaining viable. The Livonia Mall, Universal Mall, Macomb Mall and Westborn Mall stores were sold to discounter Value City
who operated three as Crowley's Value City. The Westborn Mall location was resold and demolished to construct a supermarket. Crowley's lost the lease on the Birmingham store it acquired as part of the Demrey's merger when the landlord announced it would redevelop the site into a retail-entertainment complex.
Another mall-based location at Lakeside Mall
in Sterling Heights was sold to Target Corporation
to create an expansion to the Hudson's store. Four Steinbach stores in New Jersey (Ocean Township
, Paramus, Manalapan
, Egg Harbor Township
) were also sold to Value City.
However, this large influx of cash still wasn't adequate to offset losses which were $5.2 million for the first half of 1998. On January 4, 1999, Shottenstein Stores and Value City took control of Crowley's in a stock swap transaction. Two weeks later, trading of the company's stock was suspended. On February 8, 1999, Crowley’s filed for reorganization under Chapter 11
bankruptcy laws and announced it would liquidate the remaining nine Crowley’s and 16 Steinbach’s stores and sell eight additional locations to Value City.
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
chain founded in Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
in 1909. After several years of financial difficulties, the company ceased operation in 1999 and its assets were sold.
Its flagship store, corporate office and warehouse complex occupied two blocks in downtown Detroit for almost 80 years. The store was a direct competitor of the J. L. Hudson Company and the Ernst Kern Company
Kern's
Kern's, or the The Ernst Kern Dry Good Company, was a department store established in Detroit in 1883 by Ernst Kern, who was born in Germany. In 1886, the original store was consumed by fire and was rebuilt at Randolph and Monroe...
until Kern's closed in 1959. Crowley's and Hudson's were both noted for their lavish annual Christmas displays. Faced with a decline in retail traffic in downtown Detroit, Crowley's closed its downtown location in July 1977. The firm operated a store in Detroit's New Center area that remained open until the chain's demise in 1999.
In 1995, the chain acquired Steinbach
Steinbach (store)
Steinbach was a department store chain based in Asbury Park, New Jersey.- History :Steinbach was founded in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and maintained branch stores along the New Jersey shore, and in the central part of New Jersey. The company was at one time affiliated with the Kresge-Newark...
in the northeast US. When Crowley's ceased operation in 1999, several of its locations were purchased by discount chain Value City
Value City
Value City was an American discount department store chain with 113 locations. It was founded in 1917 by Ephraim Schottenstein, a travelling salesman in central Ohio. The store was an off-price retailer that sold clothing, jewelry, and home goods below the manufacturer suggested retail price...
. Three in the Detroit area were rebranded Crowley's Value City and remained part of the Value City chain until it also ceased operating in 2008.
History
In 1909, Joseph J. Crowley, his brothers William and Daniel, and William L. Milner joined to save the Detroit-based store of Partridge & Blackwell that was struggling financially. Joseph Crowley previously worked as a credit manager for the Detroit wholesale firm of Burnham Stoepel and had great experience reorganizing struggling ventures. He and his brothers opened the Crowley Brothers Wholesale Dry Goods Company in 1902. William Milner was a regular customer of the Crowley Brothers through his W.L. Milner Department Store of Toledo, OhioToledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
.
Partridge & Blackwell formed in 1901 and was on the edge of insolvency due to poor management and the recession of 1907. The opportunity to assume control of the retailer came when an executive of the Central Savings Bank of Detroit, one of the store’s creditors, approached Joseph Crowley. Crowley agreed on the condition that his two brothers and Milner join him and Crowley, Milner and Company was born.
Immediately after the incorporation of Crowley, Milner and Co., its owners envisioned the store as one of the highest quality retail operations in Detroit. At the turn of the twentieth century, Detroit was regarded as one of the most affluent cities in the United States, and Crowley, Milner & Co. helped to uphold this image. The owners stocked the store with luxurious clothing and gifts imported from Europe and opened a full-service restaurant and grocery store. Within ten years, the Crowley, Milner & Co. expanded its building and was the largest department store in Michigan.
The Partridge & Blackwell Building occupied the western half of the block bounded by Farmer Street, Gratiot Avenue, Library and Monroe Streets. It contained six floors with large triple windows on the second through fourth floors divided by piers faced with white glazed brick and terra cotta. The piers formed arches above the windows of the fifth floor with windows on the sixth floor spaced between the corbel
Corbel
In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...
s supporting the elaborate cornice above. Two large illuminated signs proclaiming ""P.& B." inside a heart graced the northwest and southwest corners fo the roof. Crowley, Milner expanded the building by removing the cornice to add a seventh and eighth floor and expanding east to Library Street. In 1920, they then constructed an eleven-story "home store" on the site of the Goldberg Brothers store east of Library Street. Initially, the 100000 sq ft (9,290.3 m²) annex was connected to the main building by a tunnel. In 1923, the city of Detroit granted permission to connect the two structures above ground and an elaborate five-story bridge opened in 1925. The entrances on Farmer, Gratiot and Monroe were framed by large arches and the windows above the doors on the second floor were topped by a large pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
. One notable feature of the department store was wooden escalators which remained until the structure was demolished in 1977.
The company stumbled slightly when Milner was killed in 1923 while traveling to his store in Toledo. The company lost its president and merchandising expert and his 42 percent interest in the corporation was sold by his heirs. Without Milner, the store eventually came to be known as Crowley's, but the company retained its full name until 1999. Joseph Crowley succeeded his friend and partner as president, but the loss of full control of the by the tight-knit group affected the company for many years.
Like many retailers, the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
impacted Crowley's deeply. Sales plummeted from $39 million in 1928 to only $10 million in 1929. Joseph Crowley died in 1937 and his widow repurchased the shares of the company sold by William Milner's heirs to give the Crowleys majority ownership in the corporation. Daniel J. Crowley, Joseph's son, became president and helped the company chart a course to recovery.
Expansion
The company began its transformation from a single store to a chain in 1959 when Crowley’s expanded to the Detroit suburbs by opening its first store in the Westborn Shopping Center in DearbornDearborn, Michigan
-Economy:Ford Motor Company has its world headquarters in Dearborn. In addition its Dearborn campus contains many research, testing, finance and some production facilities. Ford Land controls the numerous properties owned by Ford including sales and leasing to unrelated businesses such as the...
. This was followed by a store in the Grand River/Greenfield shopping area in northwest Detroit in 1960 and identical stores in the Livonia and Macomb
Macomb Mall
Macomb Mall is an enclosed shopping center located in Roseville, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Anchor stores include Babies "R" Us , Kohl's, Old Navy and Sears. Macomb Mall features over 50 inline stores and restaurants, as well as a movie theater...
Malls in 1964. However, this expansion was at the expense of the downtown store. By 1960, the store consolidated enough to allow the Veteran's Administration to lease the lower six-floors of the annex building for $147,000 per year.
In 1972, the firm purchased the Demrey’s chain which consisted of a store at Woodward and Milwaukee in the New Center
New Center, Detroit
The New Center is a significant commercial and residential historic district located in Detroit, Michigan, adjacent to Midtown, one mile north of the Cultural Center, and approximately three miles north of Downtown...
neighborhood, and in the suburbs of Birmingham
Birmingham, Michigan
Birmingham is a city in Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan and an affluent suburb of Detroit. As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,103...
and Farmington Hills
Farmington Hills, Michigan
Farmington Hills is a community in southeastern Michigan. It is the largest city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Its population was 79,740 at the 2010 census...
. The New Center store later moved into the New Center One Building.
The Lakeside Mall
Lakeside Mall
Lakeside Mall is a Taubman-built super-regional full-line shopping mall located in the northeastern Metro Detroit suburb of Sterling Heights, Michigan. The mall is located on M-59 between Hayes and Schoennherr Roads. Lakeside Mall features five anchor stores: J.C. Penney, Lord & Taylor, two...
store in Sterling Heights
Sterling Heights, Michigan
Sterling Heights is a city in Macomb County of the U.S. state of Michigan, and one of Detroit's core suburbs. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 129,699...
opened in 1975 followed in 1980 by stores at Universal Mall in Warren and Arborland Mall in Ann Arbor. The Tel-Twelve Mall unit opened in 1985. In 1986, stores opened in Westland
Westland, Michigan
Westland is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located about west of downtown Detroit. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 84,094.-Politics:...
and two stores in Flint
Flint, Michigan
Flint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau reports the 2010 population to be placed at 102,434, making Flint the seventh largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the...
and Burton
Burton, Michigan
Burton is a city in Genesee County in the U.S. state of Michigan and a suburb of Flint. The population was 30,308 at the 2000 census, making Burton the second largest city in Genesee County.- Neighorhoods :...
, approximately one hour north of Detroit.
The downtown store closed in 1977 due to declining sales. This was followed by closure of the office and warehouse building in 1978 and the Ann Arbor store in 1983 when the Arborland Mall was converted to a discount center. Offices moved to a building on Lafayette Boulevard at the western edge of the downtown business district and remained there until the company's liquidation. The Grand River-Greenfield store was only 45000 sq ft (4,180.6 m²), but continuously performed well in sales. It was located in several storefronts along Grand River Avenue and in 1987 the landlord wanted to redivide the building to lure new businesses. It offered Crowley's a portion of the renovated structure but the store declined.
In 1985, members of the Crowley family, who still owned more than 51 percent of the company stock agreed to sell the store to Oakland Holding Company.
Decline
In 1990, Crowley's opened a new prototype men's store adjacent to its Farmington store which immediately was successful. The store-within- a-store concept focused on men's businesswear and was immediately expanded to other branches. Another innovation was a "Frequent Buyer" program as a method of encouraging customer loyalty. Customers who reached purchase thresholdsThis was an attempt to lure customers back from newcomers to the Detroit market such as MainStreet
MainStreet
MainStreet was a department store chain based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The chain was launched in November 1983 by Federated Department Stores . Throughout the 1980s, the chain expanded to twenty-nine stores in Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota...
, a unit of Federated Department Stores
Federated Department Stores
Macy's, Inc. is a department store holding company and owner of Macy's and Bloomingdale's department stores. Macy's Inc.'s stores specialize mostly in retail clothing, jewelery, watches, dinnerware, and furniture....
which later became Kohl’s, and Mervyns
Mervyns
Mervyns was an American middle scale department store chain based in Hayward, California. It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, and housewares. Many of the company's stores were in shopping malls...
. Crowley’s changed its product line to feature more upmarket with lines by Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
and Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren is an American fashion designer and business executive; best known for his Polo Ralph Lauren clothing brand.-Early life:...
aimed at the Hudson's or Lord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor, colloquially known as L&T, or LT, based in New York City, is the oldest upscale, specialty-retail department store chain in the United States. Concentrated in the eastern U.S., the retailer operated independently for nearly a century prior to joining American Dry Goods...
shopper. This move alienated many traditional customers as Crowley’s was seen as a more mid-market store with locations in Detroit’s older suburbs.
The introduction of a prototype men's clothing store next to its Farmington
Farmington, Michigan
Farmington is a city in Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit and is part of the Metro Detroit area. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,372. It is fully surrounded by Farmington Hills, except for a small portion bordered by Livonia to the...
, Michigan location proved to be a successful move. Sales were strong, and the company discussed plans to introduce more similar stores in the future. This store within a store had its own entrance and focused on men’s suits and accessories; similar to the Men's Wearhouse
Men's Wearhouse
Men's Wearhouse is a men's dress apparel retailer in the United States. The company is based in the Westchase area of Houston, Texas, and it is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange...
. The young men’s and sportswear was in the located in the main store. Also, Crowley's instituted a "Frequent Buyer" program at all of its stores, as a method of encouraging customer loyalty. The program kept track of each customer's monthly purchase amounts, and then the stores issued gift certificates based on each person's sales figures.
Despite the initial success of the Frequent Buyers program and the new store format, annual sales dropped almost $10 million from 1991 to 1992.
In March 1991, Crowley, Milner & Co. announced it was seeking a merger partner that was large enough to help the company expand. It was management's opinion that long-term growth for the Crowley's chain would come through acquisition of some type, with the most likely scenario being an acquisition by another party.
In late 1992, the company opened a store carrying only women's clothing in Lansing
Lansing, Michigan
Lansing is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located mostly in Ingham County, although small portions of the city extend into Eaton County. The 2010 Census places the city's population at 114,297, making it the fifth largest city in Michigan...
, based on the concept of its men's store in Farmington. The store was unsuccessful and analysts were split on the reasons. Some felt it was due to the location or layout while others cited the unfamiliarity of the Crowley's brand in the Lansing market.
In 1993, the company obtained a revolving line of credit from Schottenstein Stores, which provided Crowley, Milner & Co. with the ability to resume payments to its creditors. It then implemented other changes which included a new computer software system to manage personnel, closing the Westland store and eliminating the Frequent Buyers program.
The result was that sales increased in 1994 and the company announced its first profitable quarter in almost five years. Management continued to rebuild financial stability by obtaining a new working capital loan from Congress Financial Corporation to replace the agreement with Schottenstein Stores Corp. Management also announced a two-for-one common stock split, introduced its own credit card and the new slogan “Detroit’s Own Department Store”.
Sales in 1995 rose to $109.9 million. On November 21 of that year, Crowley’s purchased the Steinbach chain with 24 stores in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Vermont from the Schottenstein family. The company planned to sell approximately 10 of the stores and continue operation of the others. It ultimately retained 16 stores.
In 1996, Crowley’s proposed a new store for Novi
Novi
- Places:In Bosnia and Herzegovina:* Bosanski Novi, a town in northwestern region of the country.In Italy:* Novi di Modena, a commune in the province of Modena...
’s Main Street development but this fell through in 1999 as did a 1998 takeover of local women’s fashion chain Winkelman's. It did expand into the Winkelman’s store at Tel-Twelve Mall
Tel-Twelve Mall
Tel-Twelve Mall is a shopping mall located in Southfield, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, USA. Developed as an enclosed mall in 1968, it was demolished and rebuilt in 2001 as a power center composed of big box tenants. Its anchor stores include Best Buy, DSW Shoe Warehouse, Lowe's, Meijer,...
and opened a separate Men’s store in that mall.
On June 1, 1997, Crowley's opened its enlarged store in the atrium of the New Center One Building. The expansion was 7500 sq ft (696.8 m²) in space previously occupied by Winkelman's and a bookstore which became children’s and home stores separate from men's and women's clothing. This was not their largest location, but was the most profitable store by square footage. At the same time it hearlded the success of the New Center store, Crowley's announced a costly lesson from its purchase of Steinbach in the form of a $4 million loss during the first quarter of 1997. This was up from $1.3 million for the first quarter of 1996.
The losses proved too great and in 1997, the company began to downsize in the hope of remaining viable. The Livonia Mall, Universal Mall, Macomb Mall and Westborn Mall stores were sold to discounter Value City
Value City
Value City was an American discount department store chain with 113 locations. It was founded in 1917 by Ephraim Schottenstein, a travelling salesman in central Ohio. The store was an off-price retailer that sold clothing, jewelry, and home goods below the manufacturer suggested retail price...
who operated three as Crowley's Value City. The Westborn Mall location was resold and demolished to construct a supermarket. Crowley's lost the lease on the Birmingham store it acquired as part of the Demrey's merger when the landlord announced it would redevelop the site into a retail-entertainment complex.
Another mall-based location at Lakeside Mall
Lakeside Mall
Lakeside Mall is a Taubman-built super-regional full-line shopping mall located in the northeastern Metro Detroit suburb of Sterling Heights, Michigan. The mall is located on M-59 between Hayes and Schoennherr Roads. Lakeside Mall features five anchor stores: J.C. Penney, Lord & Taylor, two...
in Sterling Heights was sold to Target Corporation
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
to create an expansion to the Hudson's store. Four Steinbach stores in New Jersey (Ocean Township
Seaview Square Mall
Seaview Square Mall is a defunct indoor shopping mall located in Ocean Township, in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, that has been repurposed as a power center. The mall, located at the intersection of Route 35 and Route 66, was originally constructed in 1977 as an indoor mall...
, Paramus, Manalapan
Manalapan Mall
The Manalapan Mall opened in 1971 on the corner of U.S. 9 southbound and Symmes Road in Manalapan Township, New Jersey. The mall served the Marlboro Township and Freehold area....
, Egg Harbor Township
Shore Mall
Shore Mall is a regional mall, opened in 1968, located in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey on U.S. Route 40 / U.S. Route 322. The mall is accessible from Exit 36 off the Garden State Parkway. The mall is owned by Cedar Shopping Centers. The mall has a gross leasable area of 620,000 ft², located...
) were also sold to Value City.
However, this large influx of cash still wasn't adequate to offset losses which were $5.2 million for the first half of 1998. On January 4, 1999, Shottenstein Stores and Value City took control of Crowley's in a stock swap transaction. Two weeks later, trading of the company's stock was suspended. On February 8, 1999, Crowley’s filed for reorganization under Chapter 11
Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code
Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is available to every business, whether organized as a corporation or sole proprietorship, and to individuals, although it is most...
bankruptcy laws and announced it would liquidate the remaining nine Crowley’s and 16 Steinbach’s stores and sell eight additional locations to Value City.
Further reading
- Crowley, Milner & Co. Corporate History, Detroit: Crowley, Milner & Co., 1997
- "Crowley's Will Add Store at Tel-Twelve," Crain's Detroit Business, April 30, 1990, p. 2.
- Crump, Constance, "Crowley's Goals: Black Ink, Merger Partner," Crain's Detroit Business, June 15, 1992, p. 3
- "Improvement In Sight?: Crowley Execs Say Focused Strategy Will Restore Profits," Crain's Detroit Business, February 25, 1991, p. 1
- "Interfacing With the Time Clock System," Chain Store Age Executive, November 1993, p. 61.
- Wilson, Melinda, "Out-Of-Towners Increase Stake in Crowley's," Crain's Detroit Business, March 19, 1990, p. 1.
- International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 19. St. James Press, 1998.