Nordstrom Taking Third Swing at Honolulu Store

SEATTLE-Nordstrom Inc. is making a third public run at opening a full-service department store in Honolulu. The locally headquartered retailer says it has signed a letter of intent to open a 200,000-sf store at Ala Moana Center in Honolulu in late 2007 or early 2008. Two previous LOI announcements for its first full-service store in Honolulu, in 1996 and 2001, never resulted in a store. Ala Moana is comprised of more than 1.8 million sf of retail space and is touted one of the better performing retail centers in the country. Last month, mall owner General Growth Properties announced a redevelopment project that would include an additional 140,000 sf of retail and restaurant space. Nordstrom has been trying to open a department store in Honolulu for more than 15 years. In 1996, it announced a LOI for a full-service store at Ala Moana Center but the anchor tenant at the time, Liberty House, objected, and the deal was nixed. Shortly thereafter, Liberty House, which had been leasing space within its island stores to Nordstrom for shoe departments for 38 years, terminated the leases. Nordstrom retaliated by opening stand-alone shoe stores.In 2000, Nordstrom opened one of its discount Nordstrom Rack stores at Victoria Ward Center and, one year later, announced a LOI to open a full-service department store there. For undisclosed reasons that store also never came to fruition. It eventually consolidated its shoe stores into a single location at Ward Center. If this latest attempt proves fruitful, the Ward Center shoe store would close upon the opening of the full-service location at Ala Moana.A Nordstrom spokesperson did not return a phone call Tuesday seeking comment on the company’s confidence level that this LOI will turn into a signed agreement and an eventual grand opening.