Norstrom Signs Deal Crucial To Rebuilding Of Seattle’s Retail Core
After two years of talking and negotiations, Nordstrom Inc. has signed a deal with developers that brings a $100 million flagship store in downtown Seattle a step closer to reality.
The store and corporate headquarters, to be located in the vacant Frederick & Nelson store at Pine Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues, is the key to a $400 million redevelopment project to revitalize the city’s retail core.
Nordstrom signed a letter of intent Friday with Pine Street Associates to go ahead with the project, pending final arrangements for financing and city permits. Construction is to start in January.
Callison Architecture Inc. of Seattle will design the store, which is to open in November 1997.
Matt Griffin, co-manager of Pine Street Associates, said the group is confident it will secure financing by this fall.
Nordstrom “is happy to have this step completed,” said spokeswoman Brooke White.
Pine Street Associates, a partnership of more than a dozen local investors, plans to buy the building, then lease it to Nordstrom. The asking price for the building, vacant since June 1991, was $26 million.
The redevelopment project has already been approved for $24 million in federal funds to pay for the F&N property.
The project will also include a city-financed garage and five-story retail and entertainment center. Pine Street Associates plans to renovate Nordstrom’s present store and the adjacent Seaboard Building for a new retail and office space to open at the end of 1998.
Pine Street Associates is working on leases for both the garage site and the Nordstrom space. The only tenant signed so far is General Cinema Corp., which plans a 16-screen theater over the five-story garage.
Nordstrom is also at the center of a similar downtown redevelopment project in Spokane. As part of the project, which will receive public and private financing, Nordstrom will move across the street to a larger store in a renovated River Park Square.
The Seattle and Spokane projects come at piviotal time for the cities’ downtowns, and for Nordstrom.
Founded in Seattle in 1901 as a shoe store, Nordstrom has grown into a respected national retailer. The company is in the middle of an aggressive expansion, and last week moved non-family members into the company’s top positions for the first time.