Salt Shaker

Nordstrom Inc. (Seattle) has signed a letter of intent to remain in downtown Salt Lake City as part of a major redesign of the city’s Crossroads Plaza Mall.

The new Nordstrom store will be approximately 124,000 square feet on two levels. Nordstrom will remain open throughout construction of the new mall and tentatively plans to open its store in 2007.

The Nordstrom store will be part of a comprehensive redevelopment of Crossroads Plaza Mall and ZCMI Mall by the owner, Taubman Centers Inc. (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.). The mixed-use project will include downtown living, together with the existing office and hotel uses on those blocks. “We are delighted to have reached an agreement with Nordstrom,” said Bruce Heckman, Taubman’s vp of development. “They are a critical first piece to a complex puzzle on these two blocks.”

“We’ve always wanted to remain a part of the Salt Lake community and continue to take care of our people and our customers,” said Nordstrom president Blake Nordstrom. “We believe the plans presented to us by the LDS Church and Taubman make sense because they bring together all the crucial elements we need to make our business work here. What makes this project different than previous proposals is that it brings together a strong mix of stores, has a solution to the challenging parking that exists today and has additional elements to give customers a reason to visit Main Street.”

Nordstrom opened its current downtown Salt Lake City store in 1980.