Vancouver Westfield mall patrons will get their last chance this holiday season to shop at the mall’s Nordstrom store, which is set to close in January. Yet, seven months after that closure was announced, Westfield executives haven’t disclosed their plans for the 71,000 square-foot mall anchor space that Nordstrom has occupied since 1977.
In response to a query last week by The Columbian, Chris Yates, marketing director for Westfield Vancouver mall, issued the following statement from Australia-based Westfield Group:
“Westfield has a strong record of recovering former department store real estate and introducing new elements, energy, choices and conveniences for our customers — and while we’re seeing quite a bit of interest from potential new arrivals, there are no announcements to make today.”
The company’s lease at Westfield Vancouver mall runs through January. Nordstrom spokeswoman Naomi Tobis said Monday the high-end apparel retailer will close the store on Jan. 10.
Nordstrom announced in February that it would close both the Vancouver store and its much larger 150,000-square-foot store in Portland’s Lloyd Center, both at the end of January, describing the two stores as being among its lowest performers.
The fate of the Nordstrom space in Lloyd Center is also unknown. Lloyd Center is embarking on a $50 million renovation under new owner Cypress Equities, which purchased the mall in 2013. In July, it said it would announce plans for its Nordstrom site within three to four months. The Seattle-based retailer has been a presence at the Lloyd Mall since 1960.
Nordstrom’s store in downtown Portland is about 15 miles from Westfield Vancouver mall. Its Washington Square store is about 26 miles away, and its store at the Clackamas Town Center mall is about 15 miles away.
News about a replacement for Nordstrom at Westfield has been a long time coming. In April, Yates said mall owners weren’t necessarily searching exclusively for traditional retailers for the Nordstrom site.
“We’re working to backfill (the space) and it’s definitely going to be an exciting use,” he said at the time.
The Vancouver mall lost Mervyns as an anchor store in 2007. That space was eventually filled by the Cinetopia movie complex, which opened in 2012.
Mall owner Westfield Group operates more than 100 shopping malls in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Nordstrom is enjoying strong financial results of late. On Thursday, it’s stock price hit a 52-week high during the trading session after the retailer announced a new share repurchase program of $1 billion through Mar 1, 2016. Nordstrom posted total revenues of $6.3 billion for the six months ending Aug. 2 with a profit of $323 million for that period.
The company operates 262 stores in 35 states and is continuing to expand, with its first Canadian store scheduled to open this fall, in Calgary. The company’s most recent annual report said it planned to open 27 Nordstrom Rack stores and three Nordstrom full-line stores in total during 2014.
Tobis, the Nordstrom spokeswoman, said the company currently has no plans to open a Nordstrom Rack in Clark County.
