Nordstrom Says 'Aloha' to Hawaii

While Nordstrom will be celebrating the opening of a new Nordstrom Rack store in Hawaii today, it will also be licking its wounds over an expansion setback in the Aloha State. Just as the Seattle-based retailer is opening its first rack store in the state, at Victoria Ward Center in Honolulu, it has been rebuffed in its attempt to open in the Ala Moana Center. Liberty House, one of the island state's biggest retailers, exercised its right – as an anchor of the shopping center – to oppose the planned 268,000-square-foot store as its neighbor. Nordstrom had been planning for the Ala Moana store for four years, since signing a letter of intent in 1996.