The eternal question: Where is Nordstrom?

No, Nordstrom still doesn't plan to open a store in Reno.

But, as folks in the commercial real estate business can testify, hope springs eternal.

The question "When will Nordstrom come here?" arises so frequently that most commercial brokers long ago polished their stock answer to a high sheen.

Nordstrom doesn't leave the door cracked even a tiny bit when it's asked about its prospects in Reno.

"We have no current plans to build a store in Reno," spokeswoman Deniz Anders said a few days ago.

As straightforward as that statement might be, consumers in Reno continue to hope that the Seattle-based retailer someday will decide to open a store here.

"It's the number one question I'm asked," said Roxanne Stevenson, vice pres- ident of the retail services group of Grubb & Ellis Nevada Commercial Group.

"I'm asked the question everywhere I go." In fact, Stevenson said, tenants of tiny strip centers sometimes ask why she can't arrange construction of a Nordstrom as a traffic-generating anchor in their small centers.

So what does she tell disappointed residents? Stevenson said she explains that the Reno market doesn't appear to have either the demographics or the population that would draw a Nordstrom store.

Par Tolles, area director for Trammell Crow Co.

in Reno, said the question is a conversational staple among his contacts, too.

His answer? "They know their demographics better than I do." But hope springs eternal among the real estate brokers, too.

Both Tolles and Stevenson believe a Nordstrom Rack store an off-price store carrying clearance merchandise would do well in Reno.

For the record, there's no indication that Nordstrom is interested in that, either.