Gateway may get a big-box retailer

Nordstrom isn't welcome, but Target might be OK at The Gateway — that was the way the Salt Lake City Council split the baby Tuesday night for Gateway owners The Boyer Co.

But at least one council member opposed the Solomon-like decision, saying it was "the worst of all worlds."

First the council voted 6 to 1 to deny Boyer Co.'s petition that The Gateway be rezoned to facilitate a Nordstrom move. Then, however, the council opted, again by 6 to 1 vote, to have city staffers explore the possibility of allowing other department stores, which don't sell high-fashion clothing, to open at The Gateway. In the first vote Councilwoman Jill Remington Love was the lone dissenter. In the second it was Dale Lambert.

"The worst of all worlds," Lambert said. "We just told Nordstrom they couldn't relocate and then, to make Gateway feel good and solve that problem, we are about to let them do whatever they want.

"This is the worst possible decision we could have come up with this evening."

The council's decision was indeed complicated.

The council declined to rezone The Gateway to facilitate a Nordstrom move away from Main Street's Crossroads Plaza to Boyer's sprawling mixed-use development just three blocks west.

Following that vote, several dozen Nordstrom employees at the meeting left the council chambers and began weeping in the outside hall.

Among the tears, Brooke White, spokeswoman for the high-fashion retailer, said her company has seen "nothing new" that would change their plans to close their doors when their Crossroads Plaza lease expires in August 2005.

However, White left a glimmer of hope that Nordstrom might stay at Crossroads if the company receives the right offer.

"We've never stopped taking phone calls," she said.

While denying Nordstrom, the council didn't leave Boyer Co. with nothing. The council decided it might allow some sort of large department stores — possibly even Target — at The Gateway. The council lifted the 45,000-square-foot restriction, paving a way for stores larger than 45,000 square feet but less than 100,000 square feet to open there. Next the council will wait for a review of the city's definition of department stores, currently being developed by the planning department.