(Ian Ritter is national online editor for GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)

NEW YORK CITY-Nordstrom could eventually add more than 50 full-line stores to its portfolio of 95 department stores across the country, said Mike Koppell, the Seattle-based retailer's CFO, yesterday at the Goldman Sachs Annual Global Retailing Conference at the Hilton New York. Nordstrom was one of the many companies that revealed their expansion plans at the event.

Some of Nordstrom's growth could be a result of the recent merger of Federated Department Stores and May Department Stores. Federated executives say they will close 73 units as a result of the deal, and Nordstrom executives have expressed interest in some of those spaces, though they haven't specified how many.

Nordstrom, which also operates 49 Nordstrom Rack discount stores, could open more than 50 additional full-line units if the company's test of smaller-format locations succeeds, Koppell said. In 2007, Nordstrom executives plan to open its first smaller store, an 80,000-sf unit in Waterside Shops at Pelican Bay, a fashion center in Naples, FL.

Nordstrom plans five new department stores this year, three next year, five in 2007 and three in 2008. Two of those openings, at Natick (MA) Mall, outside of Boston, in 2007, and the following year at the Ala Moana Center, in Honolulu, represent new markets for the retailer.

New York City-based accessories retailer Coach Inc. is looking toward Asia for future growth. The company already has 105 units in Japan and is projecting a total of 140 in that country, said Lew Frankfort, the company's chairman and CEO. Through the year 2010 and beyond, Coach executives are planning major expansion into China; the company already has 10 units in Hong Kong.

Domestically, Coach officials plan to add five factory stores a year to its portfolio of discount stores, which currently number 82. The company plans 25 new stores in the US this year, including a flagship location on Beverley Hills, CA's Rodeo Drive, and currently operates about 200.

Meanwhile, executives at Pittsburgh-based Dick's Sporting Goods, the operator of about 240 units, said that the company could eventually grow to 800 stores. Officials have planned 26 new stores this year.

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GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Nordstrom May Add 50 Stores

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