A Downtown Bloomingdale's?

Federated Department Stores, the Cincinnati-based parent company of New York's Bloomingdale's, has signed a non-binding letter of intent to lease a 100,000-square-foot building on Broadway between Spring and Broome streets in the city's SoHo district. Speculation is that the space, currently housing the Canal Jean Co., will be converted to a new downtown Bloomingdale's unit.

Neither Bloomingdale's ceo Michael Gould nor Canal Jean Co. officials would comment on the rumor. But New York City officials confirmed to The New York Times that they are reviewing a proposal from Federated about the SoHo site. State officials said they have asked the company to show that the neighborhood supports the planned store.

Kevin Corbett, coo of the Empire State Development Corp., said the state would consider granting some incentives to Bloomingdale's. “Certainly, we're interested in supporting amenities that improve the desirability of Lower Manhattan,” he said, “and we're willing to talk to them and other any other parties interested in making investments there.”

The site is a cast-iron-and-stone building built in 1860, known for candle-shaped columns that adorn its faade. It's a few blocks north of Canal Street, the northern boundary for what officials are calling the “Liberty Zone,” the area most affected by the terrorist attack of September 11. The bulk of government assistance available to developers is limited to businesses below Canal Street. But the proposed new Bloomingdale's would fall within the boundaries of another zone — the so-called “Resurgence Zone” between Canal and Houston streets, an area where many merchants have been struggling in the wake of the disaster, particularly because of the decline in international tourism.

The Times said Federated is expected to argue that incentives are justified because a Bloomingdale's in SoHo would stimulate retail activity not only in the immediate vicinity but also farther south.

The Times said it's unlikely that Bloomingdale's would seek to duplicate its uptown flagship store, at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue, which has about 550,000 square feet of retail space and carries furniture and housewares in addition to clothing. Instead, said the Times, the store would seek to appeal to younger consumers and tourists by carrying fashionable apparel and accessories.

For the past several years, many midtown luxury retailers — from Louis Vuitton to Prada to Chanel — have opened outposts in the city's burgeoning SoHo (South of Houston Street) neighborhood. Barneys New York recently announced plans to open a 7,000-square-foot store on the area's Wooster Street.

Bloomingdale's Brothers was begun in 1872, on New York's Lower East Side, by Joseph and Lyman Bloomingdale as a ladies'notion shop. It soon evolved into one of the country's first department store prototypes, and moved what was then way uptown, to its current location at 59th and Lexington, in 1886. Though it is now a chain of 26 stores in 10 states from coast to coast, the speculated SoHo branch would be Bloomingdale's first New York City branch store. It would also be the only major department store to have a presence below 14th Street in New York.