Thursday, April 29, 1999 | 11:06 a.m.
Owners of the Fashion Show mall believe they're out of the running for attracting the city's first Nordstrom department store to Las Vegas.
Representatives of the Howard Hughes Corp. on Wednesday gave some of the details of the Fashion Show's expansion plans and they don't include the Seattle-based retailer.
Local retail experts have said when Nordstrom makes a move, it probably would look to one of the lucrative Strip shopping centers, with Fashion Show and a 1.5 million-square-foot retail outlet at the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino as the most likely locations.
Company co-president Pete Nordstrom said in January that the company was close to making a decision about locating a store in Las Vegas.
In February, the company released its list of cities where the company would build this year and Las Vegas wasn't on it. A Nordstrom spokeswoman said earlier this month there was no new information about the company's plans for Las Vegas. Nordstrom had $3.6 billion in sales last year.
On Wednesday, during a Howard Hughes Corp. media tour of its properties, company representatives listed the seven anchor stores that will be part of the expanded Fashion Show -- and Nordstrom wasn't among them.
Representatives of Mandalay Bay and Nordstrom could not be reached for comment today.
Hughes spokesman Tom Warden said Lord & Taylor and Bloomingdale's would join five existing anchors -- Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's, Robinsons-May and Dillard's -- when the Fashion Show doubles in size in the next three years. Warden said construction would begin next year with completion planned in 2002.
Warden said the mall would be extended to the west toward Industrial Drive and the same flavor at the existing structure -- an underground parking lot beneath the 1 million square feet of stores and restaurants -- would be used at the addition.
The company plans to keep the mall open during the construction project, Warden said, and will work out the scheduling details to maintain customer traffic while the new 1 million square feet is added. He said it hasn't been determined how the seven anchors will be configured and whether the five existing stores will get new locations.
Although it appears Nordstrom isn't in the Fashion Show's future, Warden wouldn't speculate on whether the popular department store would be a potential anchor in a regional mall being planned in Summerlin near the western beltway.
"The company is focusing on Fashion Show first before we even start on the Summerlin project," Warden said.
The Howard Hughes Corp., which was acquired in 1996 by the Columbia, Md.-based Rouse Co., is the developer of the Summerlin master planned community and several office and industrial properties in addition to the Fashion Show in Las Vegas.
The media tour Wednesday focused on the Resort at Summerlin, the 541-room luxury hotel-casino being built by Seven Circle Resorts, and the Hughes Center, an upscale office park lined by a row of restaurants.
Next week, ground will be broken on Park Towers at Hughes Center, a luxury condominium development with 84 units that range in price from $720,000 to $2.4 million.
Park Towers officials said they have sold more than half of the units, most of them to current Las Vegas residents, and the twin-tower project is expected to be completed by the end of next year.
Developed by Irwin, Steven, Andrew and Alan Molasky and Mark Fine, the project will include a spa and fitness center, a pool, a tennis court and a business center.
Other highlights from the Hughes tour:
Summerlin sales are 47 percent ahead of last year's record pace. In 1998, the company sold 2,881 homes -- roughly 10 percent of the total sold in Las Vegas for the year -- and 2,470 in 1997. Company officials attribute their success to the large inventory and the fact that they have products in nearly every market segment.
A new private school is moving into the area known as Summerlin South. The Alexander Dawson Foundation of Colorado has identified Summerlin's Garden Village as the location for a new school.
The company has broken ground on the extension of Summerlin Parkway to the west to join the western beltway. The 2.4-mile extension is expected to be completed next year.
The new Vons grocery store at the Trails Village Center has become the highest grossing store in the chain, Hughes officials said.
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