(Ian Ritter is national online editor for GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)

NEW YORK CITY-Nordstrom could eventually add more than 50 full-line stores to its portfolio of 95 department stores across the country, said Mike Koppell, the Seattle-based retailer's CFO, yesterday at the Goldman Sachs Annual Global Retailing Conference at the Hilton New York. Nordstrom was one of the many companies that revealed their expansion plans at the event.

Some of Nordstrom's growth could be a result of the recent merger of Federated Department Stores and May Department Stores. Federated executives say they will close 73 units as a result of the deal, and Nordstrom executives have expressed interest in some of those spaces, though they haven't specified how many.

Nordstrom, which also operates 49 Nordstrom Rack discount stores, could open more than 50 additional full-line units if the company's test of smaller-format locations succeeds, Koppell said. In 2007, Nordstrom executives plan to open its first smaller store, an 80,000-sf unit in Waterside Shops at Pelican Bay, a fashion center in Naples, FL.