The big bird has finally landed in Cherry Creek Shopping Center and it’s wearing Seven For All Mankind jeans and Kate Spade shoes and carrying a Burberry handbag.
After circling the coveted Cherry Creek mall for years, Nordstrom Inc. is getting ready to open a top-of-the-line store Oct. 19.
Nordstrom’s long-awaited arrival in the upscale shopping center ends years of effort to get into the area and raises the already high-end reputation of the Cherry Creek mall.
It isn’t the first Nordstrom in the Front Range, but it represents the acquisition of a long-desired clientele.
In 1996, unable to garner a spot in the shopping center, the Seattle-based retailer set up shop at Park Meadows and later at FlatIron Crossing mall. As a result, Denver shoppers who longed for Nordstrom’s storied shoe department had to head to the suburbs.
“For Cherry Creek, it represents a unique opportunity to regain market share that was lost when Nordstrom opened in the other two malls,” said Nick LeMasters, general manager of the Cherry Creek Shopping Center. “The Denver customer that enjoys Nordstrom will be able to stay in Denver.”
Nordstrom sees itself more as a boutique than a large department store, with a mix of unique merchandise, high-end designers and some of its own specially produced products: small specialty stores under one roof.
“We want to be where the best stores are,” said Erik Nordstrom, the company’s president of stores. “We want to be where there is a convergence of retail that attracts customers. We really like the mix of stores that are in Cherry Creek.”
With Nordstrom, Cherry Creek becomes one of only six shopping malls in the nation that can claim Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Macy’s as tenants, joining the ranks of such retail meccas as the Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas and Fashion Valley in San Diego.
The arrival of Nordstrom will pad the offerings for upscale shoppers by adding a whole new merchandising base and presentation, said Britt Beemer, chairman and founder of America’s Research Group.
“Their key thinking is that you have to be at the right location, and that is why they wait so long for the right location,” Beemer said. Cherry Creek “is upscale, it’s fashionable and it continues to be an avant-garde area.”
The shopping center’s track record speaks for itself, LeMasters said. It is in the top 1 percent of revenue-producing malls in the country, he said. The shopping center and Cherry Creek North combined make up the single-largest sales tax revenue generator for the city and county of Denver, LeMasters said.
“It was not difficult for us to convince (Nordstrom) and it was not difficult for us to agree on a deal,” LeMasters said.
The Cherry Creek mall customer demographic is 65 percent female, 35 percent male, with a household income at or above $100,000. The two groups that make up this demographic are affluent empty nesters and up-and-coming professionals in the 25-40-year-old range, typically with no children.
“We believe with the addition of Nordstrom we’ll have everything they (core customers) desire now,” LeMasters said.
Cherry Creek and Nordstrom have been courting for years. The first opportunity came when the shopping center was redeveloped in 1990, but Nordstrom didn’t take a pad, LeMasters said.
The company waited until 1996 to open the Park Meadows store because “Part of it was that we wanted to be at the best mall, Cherry Creek, but we couldn’t get in there,” Peter Nordstrom told the Denver Post in 2005.
When Nordstrom opened the Park Meadows store, customers there began to ask for a store in Cherry Creek, Erik Nordstrom said.
“But it isn’t that easy,” he said. “It’s a tight shopping center in an urban area, and it’s been difficult for the developer to help us get there. We tried on many occasions going back to my dad and his cousins, but it didn’t happen.”
In the late 1990s, there were efforts to bring the retailer to the current Safeway location but that didn’t come to fruition.
Not until two years ago, when Lord & Taylor announced it was closing its Colorado stores, did the opportunity arise.
In 2005 the May Department Stores Co., then-owner of Lord & Taylor, sold its Cherry Creek site to the mall’s owner, Taubman Centers Inc., to end litigation between both parties. That move allowed Nordstrom to obtain the space.
In March 2005 Nordstrom negotiated a deal to take over the Lord & Taylor pad.
As Nordstrom has remodeled the site to its own style, other retailers have been primping for their new neighbor.
In the spring, Saks unveiled an updated look, and in Cherry Creek North, Andrisen Morton Women’s underwent a $1 million renovation. Executives at both stores said they were partly motivated by a desire to capture their share of the new traffic Nordstrom will generate.
“Anytime you have a new competitor coming into the market, you want to look at what you can offer,” Saks general manager Kay Cline said when the store revealed its new look. “You want customers to find something new in your store as well.”
Nordstrom has expanded the Lord & Taylor space to 138,000 square feet, making it the mall’s second-largest department store after Macy’s.
Nordstrom’s other two stores in the area are much larger. The Park Meadows store is 245,000 square feet and FlatIron Crossing’s is 172,000 square feet.
But Erik Nordstrom said that, in recent years, most of the stores the company has opened have averaged 140,000 square feet. That’s largely because, as with Cherry Creek, the company has been moving into existing malls in urban areas as opposed to new shopping centers.
LeMasters expects the new store to significantly boost Cherry Creek’s already high sales.
“There’s no question we expect more considerable volume out of this store than Lord & Taylor ever produced,” he said.
Elizabeth Aguilera: 303-954-1372 or eaguilera@denverpost.com.
Service, service, service — and shoes
Why all the hoopla surrounding Nordstrom?
Its customer service goes beyond 150 percent and it has the largest shoe selection in the world, said Britt Beemer, founder and chairman of America’s Research Group.
“Not only do they do returns, they do thank-you notes and everything else,” he said.
Nordstrom, founded in 1901, has a cultlike following among fashionistas.
Its well-known annual anniversary and half-year sales draw a devoted following that includes early crowds who wait in line and answer quiz questions about the retailer to win gift baskets or other prizes.
“We want to be the place where people show to see what is new and walk out with something they didn’t plan on buying when they first came in,” said Erik Nordstrom, the company’s president of stores.
— Elizabeth Aguilera
Twenty years of effort
1986 – Seattle-based Nordstrom considers an initial Colorado site, weighing downtown Denver and Cherry Creek as possibilities. By 1987, however, the chain declines to bid to become the fourth anchor at Cherry Creek Shopping Center, indicating its preference for a downtown setting.
JUNE 1993 – The Taubman Co, developer of Cherry Creek Shopping Center, plans a $300 million downtown retail complex on the 16th Street Mall. Taubman tries to interest Nordstrom in the location, but is unable to get the retailer’s commitment. The Denver Urban Renewal Authority rejects Taubman’s idea for a mall.
AUGUST 1996 – The Hahn Co., developer of Park Meadows shopping center, lures Colorado’s first Nordstrom store.
APRIL 1997 – As Nordstrom searches for a second site in the metro area, Cherry Creek is again considered. John Simon, executive vice president of mall owner The Taubman Co., says he has “encouraged” Nordstrom to consider joining Cherry Creek.
OCTOBER 1997 – Nordstrom announces it will build its second store at FlatIron Crossing, a proposed mall on U.S. 36 in Broomfield, opening in 2000.
DECEMBER 1997 – Nordstrom announces it will build a store at Cherry Creek that will open in spring 2001. Taubman tries to make space by moving Safeway out of the east side of the mall to the west side. Neighborhood groups object and Safeway, tired of waiting for resolution by 2000, begins a $10 million renovation and plans to stay put.
AUGUST 2000 – Nordstrom opens its second metro location at FlatIron Crossing.
MARCH 2005 – Nordstrom signs a letter of intent to occupy Cherry Creek mall space used by Lord & Taylor. It ends a contentious fight over the Lord & Taylor space. The May Department Store Co. – owner of Lord & Taylor and Foley’s – had intended to open a Foley’s Men’s and Home store in the Lord & Taylor space. Taubman opposed the plan and the two wrangled in court until February 2005, when a filing indicates they were talking settlement. Taubman says both sides agree to end litigation. Lord & Taylor sells its space to Taubman Centers Inc. to make way for Nordstrom to open in 2006.
DECEMBER 2005 – Nordstrom wants to expand space further in the Cherry Creek mall and delays opening until 2007.
Compiled by the Denver Post Research Library
