Financial problems at Nordstrom Inc. forced the retailer to pull its second foot out of Greater Cincinnati, saying Monday it would no longer pursue a deal to build a store in Deerfield Township.

        The announcement comes less than two weeks after Nordstrom halted discussions to build a downtown Cincinnati store. It also ends years of efforts by planners to bring the sought-after chain to the Tristate.

        The decision also leaves in question a proposed mall on 80 acres in Deerfield Township that named Nordstrom as its only definitive anchor.

        Seattle-based Nordstrom had committed to both locations in May. The Warren County store would have opened in fall 2003.

        “To think that we went from having two potential locations in Greater Cincinnati to having none in a matter of months, certainly has to be disappointing to local officials and shoppers who had counted on having a store like that in the region,” said Dan Theno, Deerfield's economic development and community relations administrator.

        However, the township is not panicking, Mr. Theno said.

        “That land is not going to remain an open space forever,” he said. “It is too valuable and is in too strategic a location. Something positive is going to be built there.”

        The decisions to pull out of Cincinnati come as Nordstrom's new management team, led by chief executive Blake Nordstrom, re-examines its expansion plans. The retailer, which has been struggling against declining profits and soft sales this year, appointed the new team in August and said it wanted to focus on more profitable stores.

        Since June, shares of Nordstrom dropped from the $25 range to the $15 range. Monday, shares rose $1.12 1/2, to $17.12 1/2.

        “It's just not right for our business right now,” Nordstrom spokeswoman Paula Weigand said. “We're continuing to look at the real estate calendar, and there could be some other changes.”

        Yet Nordstrom on Monday announced plans to build a store in Palm Beach, Fla. Ms. Weigand said proposed stores in Columbus and Louisville are still on the books.

        Unlike the downtown Cincinnati location, which Nordstrom said it would like to revisit in at least a year, the retailer doesn't know when it would look at Deerfield Township again. But, Ms. Weigand said, “We still want to have stores in Cincinnati someday.”

        Some shoppers are tired of waiting.

        “I can't understand why Columbus and Cleveland and Indianapolis rate and yet Cincinnati is always left out,” Montgomery resident Gail Zakem said. “What don't we have that they're looking for?”

        Said Faye Smith, a 15-year Deerfield Township resident and president of Citizens for Controlled Growth: “I'm sad about losing Nordstrom, but I'm glad about potentially losing the mall.”

        The Deerfield Township Nordstrom would have anchored a mall proposed by Maryland developer Rouse Co. on land off Montgomery-Mason Road owned by Duke-Weeks Realty. Two other anchors would have been part of the mall, which was in the planning stages.

        Warren Wilson, vice president and director of new business at Rouse, could not predict the proposed mall's future. Market research and discussions with Duke-Weeks must happen before a decision is made.

        “We're surprised by this,” Mr. Wilson said. “At this point, we have to evaluate our options.”

        Rouse is working with Nordstrom on seven other projects.

        Trustees were stunned Monday when they learned that Nordstrom would not be expanding in Deerfield Township. But Trustee Larry Backus said the township should have seen the writing on the wall after the upscale retailer dropped downtown Cincinnati.

        “When they canceled out of Cincinnati, the thought crossed my mind that they might cancel out here, too,” he said. “Now, just like downtown Cincinnati, we have a big hole in the ground that we need to find something to do with.”

        While the news sorely disappointed township officials, anti-sprawl activists cheered the decision. The Sierra Club recently released a national report that said Greater Cincinnati is the fourth most sprawl-threatened area in the country.

        “Nordstrom's decision not to build another sprawl mall in Deerfield is a great victory for the folks in the Mason-Deerfield area, residents of Warren County and the entire region,” said Glen Brand, director of the Sierra Club's Cincinnati chapter.

        While township officials and developers were surprised by Nordstrom's announcement, not all members of Wall Street were. Credit Suisse First Boston Corp. last week said it expected there could be a series of announcements from Nordstrom and that the pullouts could be “part of a larger strategy to reassess its use of capital going forward.”

        Nordstrom has scheduled a meeting with analysts for Wednesday in New York.

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