Roshek Brothers Department Store was a large retail store in downtown Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque, Iowa

Dubuque is a city in and the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. In 2010 its population was 57,637, making it the ninth-largest city in the state and the county's population was 93,653....

. The company was founded by J.J.and F.H. Roshek. In its prime, Roshek's was the primary shopping destination in Dubuque and was the largest department store in the state of Iowa.

Roshek's operated for more than 40 years in a 9-story building at 700 Locust Street in Dubuque. The building was built in two halves beginning in August 1929. Originally the whole building was to be finished within a year, but as of the fall of 1931, only the north half was finished. Wholly completed in 1932, the building is a block long and half a block wide and is the tallest building in Dubuque. It replaced two four-story buildings, the former Rider-Wallis dry goods building, located on the south half of the same block (demolished to complete this building), and a smaller four-story Roshek building across the alley immediately east, which was located on the southwest corner of Eighth and Main streets, which was later occupied by Montgomery Ward

Montgomery Ward

Montgomery Ward is an online retailer that carries the same name as the former American department store chain, founded as the world's #1 mail order business in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward, and which went out of business in 2001...

. The building's architect was Charles Wheeler Nicol (1888-1953), a noted regional designer of major hotels and school buildings. This was and remains the state's largest building to be used as a department store.

Other department stores were also located downtown. In the 1960s, prior to the construction of Kennedy Mall

Kennedy Mall

Kennedy Mall is a shopping mall located in Dubuque, Iowa. The mall is located just north of Dodge Street at the intersection of Dodge and Wacker Drive. The street address for the Mall is 555 John F. Kennedy Road. Cafaro Company owns the mall.-History:Kennedy Mall was the first climate controlled...

, Stampfer's was on the northeast corner of Eighth and Main streets. J.C. Penney

J.C. Penney

J. C. Penney Company, Inc. is a chain of American mid-range department stores based in Plano, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas. The company operates 1,107 department stores in all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. JCPenney also operates catalog sales merchant offices nationwide in many...

 was on the west side of Main Street, just north of Stampfer's.

In the 1960s Roshek's decided to move their operations to smaller quarters at Kennedy Mall

Kennedy Mall

Kennedy Mall is a shopping mall located in Dubuque, Iowa. The mall is located just north of Dodge Street at the intersection of Dodge and Wacker Drive. The street address for the Mall is 555 John F. Kennedy Road. Cafaro Company owns the mall.-History:Kennedy Mall was the first climate controlled...

, a regional shopping center on the western edge of the city. Roshek's became one of the mall's anchor tenants, along with Montgomery Ward and Younkers

Younkers

Younkers is an American department store chain founded as a family-run dry goods business in 1856 in Keokuk, Iowa. The retailer has since evolved over more than 150 years to include a presence in locations throughout Iowa and surrounding states in the Midwest region of the United States...

, a Des Moines department store which made its first appearance in Dubuque when the mall was built. The new Roshek's store opened in 1970. The Roshek family subsequently sold the store to Gambles-Skogmo, Inc. The store closed in 1982. Today what was originally Roshek's space in the mall is occupied by two other department stores, Sears

Sears, Roebuck and Company

Sears, officially named Sears, Roebuck and Co., is an American chain of department stores which was founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in the late 19th century...

 and Younkers

Younkers

Younkers is an American department store chain founded as a family-run dry goods business in 1856 in Keokuk, Iowa. The retailer has since evolved over more than 150 years to include a presence in locations throughout Iowa and surrounding states in the Midwest region of the United States...

.

After Roshek's moved from downtown, the former department store was converted into an office building. For most of the time since conversion, it has been known as the Dubuque Building, except for a period of several years when it was called CyCare Plaza.

On January 15, 2009, IBM announced that it will move into the building, creating a new technology service center with 1,300 employees after improving the building to make it a LEED-certified building