Nordstrom on Fillmore gets green light

THE STREAK CONTINUES. Another corporate store has gotten its permit to open on Fillmore Street, despite the city’s “formula retail” ordinance intended to limit chain stores in city neighborhoods. No chain seeking to open on Fillmore has ever been denied a permit.

Nordstrom’s new small-store concept, Nordstrom Local, will open in the empty storefront at 1919 Fillmore Street as a package pickup and delivery spot for online orders. It will carry no inventory. The company’s representatives told the city Planning Commission they had considered other locations, but “the strongest fit” was on Fillmore. “Our customers live here.”

After hearing public testimony that unanimously opposed the store, the Planning Commission voted 5-2 on Thursday to approve the conditional use permit Nordstrom needs to move forward in the space it rented last fall.

LOCAL RESIDENTS WHO testified said one of the busiest blocks of Fillmore, behind a bus stop and between two major thoroughfares, was the wrong location for a pickup-dropoff shop.

“This is intensifying an already-bad problem,” testified Paul Wermer, president of the Pacific Heights Residents Association, which opposed the store. Neighborhood resident Ditka Reiner called it “a formula for disaster.”

“This is really a village main street,” said Kathrin Moore, the first commissioner to speak, who said she has been a frequent visitor to Fillmore for 40 years. “It’s one of those small streets that has a character of a European-style street. That makes it very special.” Moore opposed granting Nordstrom’s permit.

“Nordstrom has the means to find another location that would be better suited for the delivery business,” said commissioner Gilbert Williams, who spoke next and also opposed Nordstrom’s plan.

But all five other members of the Planning Commission supported Nordstrom’s return to San Francisco, even in a much smaller shop than the major department store Nordstrom closed on Market Street in 2023. A Nordstrom Rack discount store closed the same year.

Commission president Lydia So said the panel was sending a message: “San Francisco is welcoming you back, and welcoming back whoever else wants to come back here.”

In response to concerns about the impact of a delivery shop on traffic and transit, commissioner Derek Braun said: “I don’t see stopping this project from moving forward at this location because of what others do illegally on the street.”

Traffic concerns should be taken to transit authorities, Braun and several other commissioners said, and not to the Planning Commission.

“It’s always been a slow road,” said commissioner Sean McGarry. “I really miss the Fillmore of the mid to late ’90s. It’s changed an awful lot. It’s not the Fillmore of old.” But he voted for approval.

NORDSTROM REPRESENTATIVES said similar Nordstrom Local stores were already operating in New York and Los Angeles. In addition to deliveries and returns, they said the Fillmore location would also offer alterations and gift wrapping, and would provide validated parking in the Japantown garage. They said pickups and deliveries during business hours would be made by the same UPS and FedEx trucks already on the street. As a community service, Nordstrom will accept donated clothes for charity and will provide a “beauty cycle” to dispose of donated cosmetics.

Six of Fillmore’s other corporate stores supported Nordstrom’s application, as did nearly two dozen other letters and emails, a number of them form letters from residents of other neighborhoods. [See the letters of support and opposition here.]

Independent businesses and local residents mostly opposed a Nordstrom on Fillmore Street, complaining the location was inappropriate and would drive up rental prices, intensify traffic problems and further change the character of the neighborhood.

“I ask you to help protect what’s left of our local Fillmore neighborhood’s independent spirit,” wrote Miyo Ota, owner of the Mio fashion boutique, the oldest business on the street.

But it was not to be.

SINCE THE CITY’S formula retail ordinance was adopted by voter initiative in 2007, no chain store — defined as a business with 11 or more locations — has been denied the conditional use permit required to open on Fillmore Street.

Instead, a new industry has sprouted to pursue the necessary permits. Enabled by the right lawyers and “neighborhood outreach” consultants — and with the added expense they bring — the number of chain stores on the street has continued to grow. Reuben, Junius & Rose, a downtown law firm, has become the go-to firm for conditional use permits. The firm represented Nordstrom in this case.

Now there are more chain stores on Fillmore and fewer independent businesses. The Fillmore Merchants Association, long a champion of the independents, took no position on Nordstrom Local.