The Gottschalk chain plans to sell stock publicly.

Officials of the Fresno-based company, California’s largest independently owned department store chain, filed a preliminary prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission detailing plans to convert to public ownership with a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The company plans to sell nearly 1.4 million shares of stock and raise between $18 million and $22 million, to be used mostly for expansion, officials said. The chain has nine stores, with a 10th under construction. Most of the stock will remain with the Levy and Blum families, relatives of Emil Gottschalk, who founded the company in 1904.