Nordstrom plans to build Ala Moana store

By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer

Nordstrom is trying on Ala Moana Center for size, again, and this time believes it has found the right fit for its first full-line department store in Hawai'i.

Nordstrom said it expects the three-story store will open in fall 2007 or spring 2008 after 18 to 24 months of construction.

The retailer and mall owner signed a letter of intent, which means important terms and details still need to be worked out, but Nordstrom said it doesn't anticipate anything that might nix the plan after two unfruitful attempts.

"We're feeling good about this," said Brooke White, a Nordstrom spokeswoman. "We're feeling it will stick."

Kama'aina shoppers yesterday said they were excited and eagerly awaiting Nordstrom's expanded presence.

"We definitely need another department store," said Kane'ohe resident Karen De Mello, 54, while shopping at Ala Moana yesterday. "Since J.C. Penney's went away we only have a few selections in apparel."

Dwight Yoshimura, general manager of Ala Moana Center, said mall customers have long said they would like to see Nordstrom at the center, and "we're excited we can now provide it."

Yoshimura said details still need to be worked on, but the general idea is to create a new mauka wing of the mall by putting the store outside the mall's existing border and adding a collection of shops that connect Nordstrom with the center's core.

The Nordstrom store is slated to be on most of the block bordered by Kapi'olani Boulevard and Kona, Ke'eaumoku and Kaheka streets — displacing a dozen or so businesses in the area, including Bakery Kapiolani and a church but not the Ala Moana Building.

Ted Imai, Bakery Kapiolani president, said he was informed of the plans last week and isn't sure whether he'll seek to relocate the bakery he established with partners on the site in 1959.

"I'm not sure what we'll do," Imai said.

Nordstrom spokeswoman White said construction would begin in the fall of 2005 at the earliest.

The site, which is owned by General Growth, was once slated for an entertainment complex topped by a hotel under a 1998 plan by the mall's previous owner, Daiei Inc.

Real estate observers suggested that General Growth, which bought Ala Moana in 1999, likely settled on the site with Nordstrom and as a way to sidestep a lease provision that allows Macy's to block addition of another department store at the existing mall.

Macy's assumed the provision when it bought former department store chain Liberty House, which sued General Growth in 2000 to block a previous Nordstrom plan for a store in the parking area mauka of the mall's center court.

A Macy's representative could not be reached for comment yesterday, but the company previously has said it wouldn't negotiate an approval for Nordstrom to build a store at the mall.

Nordstrom's White said she understood the lease restriction was no longer an issue. Mall manager Yoshimura said he wasn't aware how Macy's lease provision factored into site selection.

Nordstrom President Blake Nordstrom said in a statement that Ala Moana was the place his company most wanted to establish its flagship Hawai'i store.

"Nordstrom at Ala Moana will give us the opportunity, at last, to serve our loyal Island customers with a full-line store ... we couldn't be happier that this is finally working out," he said.

It has been about 15 years since Nordstrom began seeking a site for a full-line store in Hawai'i. The company signed two other preliminary agreements: a 1996 agreement with Ala Moana canceled by Liberty House's lawsuit and one with Victoria Ward Centers that was canceled when General Growth bought that Kaka'ako retail complex in 2002.

If the newest plan comes to fruition, the store likely will employ 400 to 450 people, including several dozen who work at a Ward Centers Nordstrom shoe store that would be closed once the full-line store opens.

Nordstrom's clearance outlet at Ward Centers, called Nordstrom Rack, would remain.

At 200,000 square feet, the planned store would be bigger than typical Nordstrom stores built over the past several years ranging from 140,000 square feet to 165,000 square feet.

Compared with other department stores at Ala Moana, Nordstrom's planned store would be bigger than the 160,000-square-foot Neiman Marcus but smaller than the 400,000-square-foot Sears and 327,000-square-foot Macy's. The former J.C. Penney store at the mall was 181,000 square feet.

Jon-Eric Greene, senior vice president of retail services for local real estate firm Colliers Monroe Friedlander, said Nordstrom's planned department store undoubtedly will do well.

"Nordstrom and Ala Moana makes all the sense in the world," he said. "If (a Nordstrom department store) is going to enter the market, the obvious point of entry is at Ala Moana."

Advertiser Staff Writer Debbie Sokei contributed to this report. Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.