Nordstrom Is Adding More Space in Midtown, Opening in 2019 (Update)

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Is the west side the best side? Nordstorm sure seems to think so. WWD has learned that the Seattle-based retailer is adding a total of three new sites for its first Manhattan flagship, headquartered at 225 West 57th Street: 1776 Broadway, 5 Columbus Circle, and 3 Columbus Circle, the latter of which was previously announced as Nordstrom's first freestanding men's store.

The move adds nearly 80,000 square feet of selling space, and they'll be interconnected so that shoppers can access them all without leaving a building, the paper is reporting. The department store is expected to open all four sites simultaneously in 2019.

"It's going to be the best Nordstrom store —” the newest one with a lot of exciting elements," co-president Pete Nordstrom said, rising ambitiously to the status of "international flagship." After all, "It can't be just another nice regional store. It's got to be better."

One major reason to need all of this space? Competition is stiff with well-established retailers like Bergdorf Goodman, Macy's, and Barneys looking to provide unique shopping experiences for its customers. "Space creates flexibility and if you are going to partner with brands, you've got to consider things that are important to them," Nordstrom pointed out. "Often it's the amount of space and the adjacencies."

Shoppers can be on the lookout for designer shops-in-shop as well as not-so-concrete store concepts and special collaborations in Nordstrom's second largest store — only the Seattle flagship is bigger. Oh, and that downtown location could still be in the works: scouting is still active, but nothing's been locked down.

Update: A previous version of this article stated that the addition of new addresses was pushing back the department store's debut to 2019, but a representative to Nordstrom has clarified to us that Extell's Central Park Tower at 225 West 57th Street had previously pushed back its completion date to 2019, mandating the department store's debut; the additions have not affected this date.