Sugar House resident Karen Bsumek, 62, shops online, buying her favorite makeup and perfume at sephora.com. She used to buy the items at Nordstrom and Macy's downtown.

When she absolutely has to see an item up close or try it on for size, Bsumek leaves the city for Murray or Cottonwood Heights. She lives about halfway between Fashion Place and Cottonwood Mall.

Mac Jones, 29, also boots up his computer when shopping. "I have to look online for stores to see where they have gone," he said.

Tom Monfrooy, 65, discovered that Costco on 300 West suits his clothing needs.

"I used to go (to department stores) once in a while," he said. "It would be nice if there was one downtown."

Salt Lake residents will have to wait until 2012, when the two anchor department stores and 800,000 to 900,000 square feet of other retail space opens at the City Creek Center.

A 150,000-square-foot Dillard's had been initially planned as a third anchor store for the City Creek Center. But the LDS Church modified its plans, leaving no room for the department store, based in Little Rock, Ark.

"Right now, the most exciting thing we have going on in Salt Lake City is the renovation of the store in Fashion Place," Dillard's spokeswoman Julie Bull said.

Dillard's has not announced any plans for new department stores in Salt Lake County, Bull said.

Other national retail chains, meanwhile, are taking a wait-and-see approach when choosing whether to locate downtown, like the local businesses. Darrell Tate, a retail and land specialist with Utah real-estate group Commerce CRG, represents some "mall-only" tenants — national retailers with business plans that prohibit moves to places like Bountiful or Foothill Village. They must wait for the completion of the downtown malls before deciding on their options.

"There's certainly a freezing effect," Tate said.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com