Jonas Leopold Brandeis's first retail store, called The Fair, was located at 506 South 13th Street. The eight-story building was designed by
John Latenser, Sr., and contained retail space on the first three stories and the basement. Two additional stories were added later. The total cost of the original structure was $650,000. The mall was also anchored by
Sears which closed in 2019. Crossroads was the 9th enclosed shopping mall in the United States and became the place to be in Omaha. The simple mall design, connecting the three-story anchors by an "arcade level", soon proved to be successful when Brandeis opened
Southroads Mall in southern Omaha in 1966. Southroads was designed after Crossroads, but was anchored by Brandeis and
JCPenney.
Merge with Gold's Brandeis acquired
Gold and Company, a Lincoln-based department store, in 1964. The Gold's flagship store, in downtown Lincoln, was the only store in the company but took up a large portion of the Lincoln market. Gold's kept their name but operated as a division of J.L. Brandeis until it was phased out of the chain and closed in 1981.
Golden age of Brandeis At the top of its game, Brandeis had around fifteen department stores in its chain. The flagship store downtown had become one of Omaha's most prized symbols of modern culture. Brandeis was Nebraska's department store. The chain had its peak in the early 1970s with 3,000 employees and $100 million in sales. The Crossroads Mall store opened in 1960 with mixed results but soon took off and proved to be one of the best stores in the chain, earning an average of $38 million (~$ in ). Crossroads proved to be extremely successful for Brandeis, despite the risk of opening the first new Brandeis in 50 years. Locations opened across the entire state, downtown (Columbus and Hastings) and in the malls (
Conestoga in Grand Island, Southroads &
Westroads in Omaha, and
Gateway in Lincoln). Soon locations were developed in Iowa, at Midlands Mall in Council Bluffs and
Valley West Mall in Des Moines.
Downfall and acquisition by Younkers Brandeis lost its major store and much of its public approval when the flagship store closed in 1980. The downtown Lincoln (former Gold's) location followed soon after in 1981. It was the end of an era. The Crossroads anchor became the new flagship store, but had lost its power over the Omaha and Nebraska markets. When plans came for a new
Dillard's at Crossroads Mall in the mid-1980s, Brandeis executives knew that there was no chance of competition. They made a deal with
Younkers, another department store based out of Des Moines, and sold its chain to Younkers in 1987. Younkers kept 11 of the stores and converted them to the Younkers name. ==See also==