The five-year-old Americana at Brand mall in Glendale is undergoing $60 million in improvements as it prepares for the opening of a Nordstrom department store in September. The renovations by owner Caruso Affiliated include major streetscape improvements on the Brand Boulevard side of the mall, as well as the construction of a new entranceway on the boulevard for the three-level, 135,000-square-foot Nordstrom. “This whole area is just transforming,” said Rick Caruso, principal of Caruso Affiliated. “This trade area is so dense and huge, and we want the best of the best.” In conjunction with the improvements, Caruso announced that two new upscale eateries for the mall: Taiwanese dumpling house Din Tai Fung will open this fall, and Bourbon Steak, a restaurant from celebrity chef Michael Mina, will open early next year. The Nordstrom is moving from its current space in the nearby Glendale Galleria, an indoor mall owned by General Growth Properties Inc. of Chicago. As part of the deal, Caruso bought Nordstrom’s existing space in the Galleria, which he is shopping around to large retailers. The Galleria, meanwhile, is undergoing its own improvements. A Bloomingdale’s is scheduled to open in the mall in November in a space formerly occupied by Mervyn’s.