A robot fight club? Calgarians have ideas for former Nordstrom space

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A land of retail opportunity occupies a massive space in a corner of Calgary’s Chinook Mall where the old Nordstrom once lived.

The Seattle-based department store’s departure from Canada shocked many and closed a number of stores across the country earlier this year, leaving a parking-lot-sized gap in one of this city’s most popular shopping malls.

The two-floor, 140,000 sq ft store opened in September 2014 and was the first the Nordstrom open in the country.

Since it was officially shut down, Calgarians let their imaginations run wild with what could possibly occupy the area where it was.

There might be a lesson to learn from Nordstrom’s departed former neighbour Microsoft, which closed more than a year before Nordstrom did.

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That store was turned into an art gallery, and when the gallery closed, it became home to The Latest Scoop, a lifestyle concept store.

In comparison, though, the former Nordstrom space is significantly larger, and commercial real estate experts in Calgary, when its closure was first announced, said it provided a good opportunity for a lot of things, including lower-end retail stores or a dollar store.

Rumours have swirled around Reddit over recent months, with some saying that Neiman Marcus, a luxury US department store, could make that space its first Canadian storefront.

It makes sense, given that both Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus cater to a similar clientele. For now, however, those are just rumours.

According to Cadillac Fairview, the space is still available, and no one has snagged the opportunity to take it up yet.

“Our leasing team continues to explore options,” Anna Ng, a spokesperson with Cadillac Fairview, told Daily Hive Urbanized.

“There is good interest.”

Could that interest come from a robot fight club operator? One Redditor certainly hopes so.

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Users on r/Calgary, the city’s official subreddit, also have other ideas.

One user suggests a grocery store, a seemingly useful and logical idea, given that the Safeway that was in the mall closed down.

Others have taken a more fun approach, a skate park, a laser tag arena floating around, or the aforementioned robot fight club.

Vancouver’s Nordstrom, which was the company’s best-selling Canadian store, remains vacant. The space in Toronto’s Eaton Centre, where the Seattle-based retail giant was, is now an interactive exhibit.

What should the former Nordstrom Calgary store be used for? Let us know in the comments.

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