Abe and Isaac Maas started their retail career in Cochran, Georgia, working with their brothers, Jacob and Sol. By 1880, Abe was operating a store in Dublin, Georgia, and Isaac was operating a millinery store in Ocala by 1885. In 1886, Abe decided to move to a better location and chose Tampa, at the time a small village on Florida's west coast. Abe had been quoted as saying, "It's a waterfront town. Who knows? It may amount to something someday." Abe Maas opened the Dry Goods Palace on December 10, 1886. His brother, Isaac, formally joined his brother on September 15, 1887, and the store became Maas Brothers. After outgrowing its first two locations, Maas Brothers opened its third, and largest, store in 1921. This store was the second largest department store in Florida, and it contained the first escalator installed in Florida. By 1929, Maas Brothers dominated Florida's West Coast. It was known as "Greater Tampa's Greatest Store."
Allied Stores In 1929, Abe and Isaac Maas sold Maas Brothers to Hahn Department Stores. Maas Brothers gained the buying power of the 28 department stores while Hahn gained the addition of another successful chain with a loyal customer base. In 1935, Hahn Department Stores changed its name to
Allied Stores Corporation. Despite being owned by a national company, Maas Brothers was still operated by the Maas family. In 1935, Isaac Maas, who was serving as chairman of the board died at the age of 71. Abe Maas, who was president, became chairman. Jerome A. Waterman, Abe and Isaac's nephew, became president. Jerome joined Maas Brothers in 1907. Abe Maas died in 1941 at the age of 86.
Expansion In 1948, Maas Brothers opened its first full line branch store in downtown
St. Petersburg. Other branch stores opened in downtown
Lakeland in 1954, downtown
Sarasota in 1956 and downtown
Clearwater in 1961. Maas Brothers opened its first mall store, in 1965, in the
Edison Mall in
Fort Myers. By 1981, Maas Brothers opened its 17th store in
Gulf View Square Mall in
Port Richey. This was the last Maas Brothers store built. In 1985, Maas Brothers absorbed the
Savannah,
Georgia, based stores of fellow Allied nameplate
Levy's of Savannah (founded in 1871 as B. H. Levy & Bro.).
Campeau takeover In 1986, Maas Brothers celebrated its 100th anniversary. It was in the same year that Canadian real estate developer
Robert Campeau completed his takeover of
Allied Stores Corporation. As part of liquidation and cost cutting, Maas Brothers was consolidated with the weaker Jordan Marsh Florida franchise on Florida's East Coast in 1987 (Allied's
Jordan Marsh had expanded from New England in 1956, later forming a separate Allied division). The plan was that the stronger Maas Brothers would help the weaker Jordan Marsh. This brought the total number of combined stores to 39 throughout
Florida,
Georgia and
South Carolina. In 1989 the official store name was changed to Maas Brothers/Jordan Marsh. In 1988, Campeau launched a successful takeover battle with
Macy's for
Federated Department Stores. Ironically, Federated would acquire Macy's in 1994. With the acquisition of Federated, Maas Brothers' formal rival, Miami-based
Burdines, became its sister store. As with the Allied acquisition, in order to cut costs, several back office operations for Maas Brothers, Jordan Marsh, and Burdines were consolidated.
Bankruptcy and merger By 1989, Federated and Allied were struggling to make its debt payments incurred from the takeovers. On January 16, 1990, Federated and Allied filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Several underperforming stores were closed, including the flagship downtown Tampa store in February 1991. As part of its plan of reorganization, the Florida operations would be consolidated and several stores would be closed. The Maas Brothers/Jordan Marsh headquarters was closed and consolidated with Burdines in July 1991. On October 20, 1991, the Maas Brothers stores officially became Burdines. •
Tampa. In 2006 the downtown Tampa store after sitting empty and neglected for 15 years was demolished, to make room for a condo tower. After the real estate bust plans for condo were shelved and the property was sold and has become a parking lot. •
Clearwater. The downtown Clearwater store became the Harborview Center was scheduled to be demolished in May 2010. In August 2010 a film crew leased the building for five months filming the move "A Dolphin's Tale" giving the building a brief reprieve. •
Lakeland. The downtown Lakeland store remained open as Burdines until 1994 when it was relocated to
Lakeland Square Mall. It serves as the headquarters for Watkins Trucking, now part of
FedEx. ==See also==