in 1913, morris kaufmann and his son edgar bought out the other family members and incorporated kaufmanns. isaac, ludwig and nathan kaufmann partnered with morris and julius baer to start a new department store, kaufmann & baer co.. they built the 13 story, 700,000 square foot building at the corner of sixth and smithfield in downtown pittsburgh. the store opened on march 18, 1914, advertising that there was "no connection with any other store". on december 2, 1925 gimbel brothers purchased kaufmann & baer co., with the store name updated to gimbels on january 3, 1928. batus inc., a tobacco conglomerate, purchased the entire gimbels chain in 1974. in 1986, after years of declining sales, batus announced that gimbels was for sale. unable to find a buyer for the entire chain, batus closed the unprofitable gimbels-pittsburgh division, closing all of its locations and selling the properties, except for some of the high profit gimbels locations in shopping malls rebranded as kaufmann's stores.