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A big Seattle retail chain is coming to Manhattan — and it won’t be selling coffee.
Nordstrom — the upscale department store which, along with Starbucks and Amazon, has stretched beyond its Pacific Northwest roots to become a US retail titan — is finally near a deal to open a flagship store in Midtown, The Post has learned.
The family-run chain — popular for its shoe department and reputation for customer service — plans to anchor a future skyscraper on West 57th Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue that will be built by New York real estate mogul Gary Barnett, according to sources close to the talks.
“This is going to be a major store, they want to make a statement,” said one insider briefed on the plans, adding the luxury store is expected to occupy several floors in addition to the street level of the tower.
Nordstrom didn’t respond to requests for comment. Extell Development, Barnett’s property investment firm, declined to comment.
The swanky flagship could account for as much as a quarter of the development’s total floor space which, according to property records, could span more than 800,000 square feet.
While the main storefront at 225 W. 57th will stretch along the north side of the block, the store may have another entrance at 1780 Broadway, whose facade will likely be preserved as a historic landmark. The side that faces West 58th will likely be used for loading docks, as well as additional access and parking for offices and tenants of high-rise condos, sources said.
“This is going to make the West Side a true shopping mecca that’s competitive with the East Side,” said Faith Hope Consolo, chairman of retail leasing at Prudential Douglas Elliman.
The Time Warner Center, two blocks to the north on Columbus Circle, has surprised real estate insiders with its success as a retail destination, she noted.
Over the past decade, Nordstrom execs have scoured Manhattan for a suitable site, ultimately ruling that most locations were either too small or too out-of-the-way. In the meantime, the company opened an off-price Nordstrom Rack outlet in Union Square two years ago.
Candidates for a flagship site have included the former Drake Hotel on Park Avenue and the Hudson Yards on the West Side.
More recently, Nordstrom landed in the middle of a high-profile tussle over 3 Columbus Circle, a former prospective site that’s located across the street from the parcel now slated for development. Even One 57, the 1,000-foot-high hotel and condo complex that Barnett is completing one block to the east, was a rumored location earlier this month.
Nordstrom’s chosen location “is a smart move,” said retail broker Joanne Podell of Cushman & Wakefield. “It’s an important corridor where there is still value and they would do very well there.”
Barnett also controls a garage on the north side of West 58th Street where Steve Roth’s Vornado Realty Trust has a tower planned. The two bigwigs must come to an agreement on siting and view corridors, which open onto Central Park, if Barnett is to break ground on the Nordstrom project.