Is It Curtains For Rubenstein’s In Downtown Shreveport?

It's was an integral part of downtown commerce for half a century.  It was one of the premier department stores in the Ark-La-Tex.  Generations of families shopped there. But it's been it's empty since it closed its doors in 1987.  Now it may be torn down.

Rubenstein Brothers Department Store actually opened in 1932 in two buildings--the Lanford building and the Rubenstein building.  Now, because of neglect, both buildings have fallen into disrepair.  The Shreveport Historical Preservation Comission (SHPC) has deemed the structures as possible "demolition by neglect."  Basically that means that they are prime candidates for demolition because they've sat empty for so long that they're wasting away.

Current owner Roland Toups bought the properties with the idea of turning them into parking towers.  He said he would like to repair the buildings, but without the city's help it just isn't economically feasible.

SHPC has asked Toups to present plans to fix the structures at their next meeting on March 21st.