A new version of Gottschalks could return to Bend in 2012 if everything goes according to plan for Gottschalk by Joe Levy, a California company headed by Joe Levy, the former CEO of the department store chain that closed last year after filing for bankruptcy.

Gottschalk by Joe Levy is trying to secure financing to open four stores in 2011, and possibly 12 more in 2012, Bob Lawson, chief financial officer and chief operating officer for the company, said Tuesday. One of those 12 additional stores could be in Bend, while two other Oregon stores might be in Grants Pass and Klamath Falls.

Lawson said he and the company’s other executives would talk about the 12 additional stores in mid-2011, if and when the first four are in operation. The executive team is trying to secure funding to open three stores in California and one in Nevada.

“It’s in the realm of possibility,” Lawson said about a store in Bend. “A lot of things can change. I don’t know what will happen.”

Fresno, Calif.-based Gottschalks filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2009, and eventually liquidated all its stores, including the one in Bend. That store, located in the Pioneer Crossing shopping center, was short-lived. It opened in October 2008 and Gottschalks had vacated the 55,000-square-foot building by about July 2009.

Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores announced in March it would move into about 23,000 square feet of the building. Lawson said it’s likely that Gottschalk by Joe Levy would look for a new building if it returns to Bend.