Indiana company poised to buy Younkers, revive as online shopping site

The return of the Iowa-born Younkers department stores, at least as an online retailer, may happen soon.

An Indiana-based tech company called CSC Generation Holdings is poised to buy the Bon-Ton stores, including Younkers, Bon-Ton, Herbergers, Boston Store, Bergners, Carsons and Elder Beerman, USA Today reported.

Most of the new company's sales would be online, although some brick-and-mortar stores would be reopened in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, according to USA Today sources.

The CSC deal is expected to be completed soon. CSC declined to comment to the Des Moines Register on a proposed buyout. The company last year bought DirectBuy, an online buying club.

Younkers stores closed Aug. 29 after parent company The Bon-Ton Stores Inc. filed for bankruptcy and was sold to a liquidation company. Days later, the defunct department store's website posted a notice claiming a comeback could be in the works.

More:Is Younkers coming back? Website suggests defunct department store may return

"Younkers is coming back!" the website read, promising more details in the coming weeks. Similar postings were on other Bon-Ton store websites.

Great American Group's Scott Carpenter, which is leading the liquidation of Bon-Ton's assets, issued a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Friday.

"All of Bon-Ton Stores’ physical store locations will be closed as of today. The company’s intellectual property is in the process of being sold. We cannot speak to the purchaser’s future plans with the company. All inquiries should be referred to the buyer, which will be disclosed once the transaction is closed."

Younkers operated for 162 years before it closed, with 49 stores in seven Midwestern states. There were four Younkers department stores in the Des Moines metro.

The company's flagship store in downtown Des Moines, which boasted the first "electric stairs" (an escalator), the Younkers Tea Room that served its iconic rarebit burgers and hosted hundreds of children visiting Santa, closed in 2005.