Main St. urged for Nordstrom

Downtown's largest property holder — an arm of the LDS Church — has made a public pitch to Salt Lake City leaders, urging them to keep the city's department stores, including Nordstrom, on downtown Main Street.

In a press release and letter to the Planning Commission Thursday, attorney Alan Sullivan, representing Property Reserve Inc., the real estate investment affiliate of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said the city should hold to its adopted ordinances and in doing so not allow Nordstrom to move to The Gateway project.

"For the city to expect investors to revitalize Main Street, it will be important for the city to stick with its established policies," Sullivan said in a telephone interview Thursday with the Deseret Morning News. "PRI wants the Planning Commission to adhere to the policy that it has had for many years, and that is that Main Street is the place for department stores."

PRI owns ZCMI Center and is buying Nordstrom's current home, Crossroads Plaza mall — both on Main Street — and plans a major overhaul of the two shopping centers.

A press release from the LDS Church's public affairs department noted that "national retail consultants" for the mall makeovers suggest that dividing the city's major department store locations would injure the city's economic health.

The letter and press release came in response to Boyer Co.'s petition to have the city rezone The Gateway project to allow for department stores. That petition will be before the Planning Commission Wednesday.

Jake Boyer, project manager for The Gateway mixed-use development Boyer Co. built four blocks west of Main Street, said if the city takes Sullivan's advice, Nordstrom will leave town and the city will lose future sales tax revenues.

"The thing that's most disturbing about this (letter) is that the church not only wants Nordstrom to leave the city, but in addition to that, they don't want us to have any anchors," Boyer said. "We feel like (not having any anchor stores) is unreasonable to ask of us when we've invested $300 million in an old rail yard."

Given a recent ruling by the city's Board of Adjustment broadening the city's definition of a department store, Boyer said if the city doesn't allow the rezone it will be forbidding stores of more than 100,000 square feet from opening at The Gateway. Boyer's zoning request to the Planning Commission is for a Target store but would also allow for other "department stores," like Nordstrom.

If the city won't allow anchor stores at The Gateway, the project should not have been built, Boyer said.