Nordstrom will stay

Nordstrom has decided to stay downtown at the Crossroads Plaza mall.

Now what?

Blake Nordstrom, president of Nordstrom Inc., announced Friday morning that the upscale retailer had been so wowed by recent proposals from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' project developer, Taubman Centers, that it decided to remain at Crossroads.

"We love what we see," Nordstrom said of Taubman's plan. "It's innovative. It's fresh. It's a Salt Lake project. It's an urban project. It's not a suburban mall.

"It takes a lot of elements and brings them together in a way that this community can support and be proud of. It's not a New York or Chicago or Seattle thing. It's Salt Lake."

Nordstrom's current Main Street store will remain open throughout the redevelopment process, Blake Nordstrom said. The new store is expected to be about 124,000 square feet on two levels, with tentative plans to open in the spring or fall of 2007. The new store will be located "somewhere on the Crossroads Plaza block," Nordstrom said, but did not specify where.

Blake Nordstrom declined to discuss what, if any, incentives were offered by the LDS Church. Nor did he discuss what many are anxiously awaiting — actual project specs, which have yet to be released by Taubman or the church. Nordstrom did say that he "loves" what he's seen so far and that Taubman's proposals have improved dramatically "in the last few months."

"Taubman has been the key. The church deserves tremendous credit for their support, their resources, their commitment to seeing this downtown and this area be the best it can be," Nordstrom said. "They partnered with Taubman and literally gave them the green light to do what was necessary to build a first-class project and address the many concerns and opportunities that we and many other businesses had — the mix of tenants, the parking issues, a number of elements that were making it difficult to do business here. This plan they put together far exceeds any expectations that we had."

Friday's announcement was a sea change for the retailer, which had consistently argued that Crossroads was no longer a good fit. The facility had become "tired," Nordstrom had said. Parking was insufficient. The tenant mix was unacceptable.

As the store's lease agreement neared its August 2005 end date, Nordstrom lobbied hard to be allowed to relocate to The Gateway. After weeks and months of debate, the move was nixed by the City Council, and the store prepared to pull out of downtown Salt Lake City.

Even after the church made its announcement last October, pledging upward of $500 million toward renovating the two blocks now home to ZCMI Center and Crossroads Plaza, Nordstrom maintained anything the church did would be "too little, too late."