Nordstrom staying at Oak Park Mall, not moving to Plaza, customers told by employees

Several customers of the Nordstrom at Oak Park Mall say employees told them this week that the luxury retailer is dropping plans to move to the Country Club Plaza.

Instead, they were told, Nordstrom has renewed its lease at the Overland Park mall.

It would be a major coup in the ongoing competition between the rival shopping centers.

Nordstrom officials referred questions to the Seattle headquarters. A corporate spokeswoman said Wednesday there was not an update at this time.

Callers asking the local store’s customer service office about the plans are being told, “We have heard there will be a press release coming soon.”

Earlier this month, Taubman, which owns the Plaza with Macerich, said it expected work to start shortly on the Nordstrom site so it would make its fall 2023 opening.

The Plaza location is still listed as opening in fall 2023 on Nordstrom’s website under “future store openings,” but it is the only one.

But on Tuesday, a Plaza spokeswoman said, “We have begun active discussions with Nordstrom and we have no announcement at this time.” They declined to comment further.

In early 2018, Nordstrom said it would relocate from Oak Park Mall for a new store to be built on the Plaza’s west side. It planned to open in 2021.

But the opening date has been pushed back twice during the pandemic — first to 2022, then to fall 2023.

Buildings on the Plaza’s west side were demolished to make way for the 122,000-square-foot Nordstrom store with cafe, leaving a vast fenced-off area facing several empty restaurants and a former movie theater. The Plaza would not say who is footing the construction bill, the Plaza or Nordstrom.

Nordstrom opened its three-story, 200,000-square foot store in Oak Park Mall in March 1998. The new Nordstrom wing also included more than 15 other retailers

In the 2018 statement on the relocation, Jamie Nordstrom, president of stores, said, “Kansas City continues to be a terrific market for us. We want to grow our business here, which means we need to invest in bringing our customers the best we have to offer when it comes to both our digital capabilities and our physical locations. By building a new store, we’re excited to provide a new experience that makes shopping with us even more convenient.”

In May 2020, Nordstrom announced that it would permanently close 16 of its full-line department stores that year, or about 14% of its stores.

This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 2:20 PM.