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Developers confident as Dallas’ tale of two new centers unfolds

By Edmund Mander

Taubman has chosen Neiman Marcus as an anchor for The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano, Texas.

What do you get when two new malls open about four miles apart from one another?

Plenty of shoppers at both, according to what developers and others are saying about a pair of malls planned in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs. General Growth Properties’ Stonebriar Mall at the Bridges in Frisco, and Taubman Centers’ The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano, will be only a few minutes drive from one another when they open in August 2000 and August 2001, respectively.

But the market is growing so fast, it can handle the additional malls, observers say.

“I don’t see an issue of too many malls in that market,” said Bob Ginsburg, a vice president at CB Richard Ellis in Texas. “You have phenomenal residential growth in these communities.”

With the arrival or expansion of several major employers, including nine Fortune 500 company headquarters, the Dallas area has grown faster in the past 20 years than any other metropolitan area except Los Angeles, according to Taubman. Major employers include Texas Instruments, Baylor Health Care System, EDS Corp., JC Penney Corp. and GTE Corp., to name a few.

Metro Dallas has added 500,000 jobs since 1990, more than any other U.S. metropolitan area, and employs a total of 2.2 million people. As for Plano, the future home of Willow Bend, it is the fastest growing city in Texas, and the fifth fastest in the United States as a whole.

“It’s a very big market,” stressed Harry Murphy, senior vice president of development at Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Taubman. “The market’s just exploding.”

Taubman officials say they believe the area will have no problem supporting the high-end stores, which will draw from a trade area with a population of 1.02 million, with 402,785 households. The average income is $75,744, and is projected to rise to $92,791 in 2003.

Larry Howard, General Growth’s senior development director, made similar observations.

“We’re on the cutting edge of the growth area and we’ve got all the future growth to the north of us that we’ll capture,” he said. “So we feel very very confident about Stonebriar.”

Market size aside, the two malls will serve very different market niches. Willow Bend, which will be 1.6 million square feet, is to offer an upscale shopping environment, anchored by Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, as well as Foley’s, Dillard’s, and Lord & Taylor.

“What we’re trying to do is be different from any other center there by going in the upscale direction,” Murphy said.

The 1.3 million-square-foot Stonebriar will play host to less highbrow anchors, including Sears, JC Penney, Macy’s and Foley’s. The only exception to this pattern will be its inclusion of Nordstrom.

That’s not to say the two centers will be completely unaffected by one another, Howard said.

“When they open will it impact us?” Howard asked rhetorically. “Most certainly. How much? We don’t think it will affect us too much.”

General Growth chose Sears and JC Penney as anchors for Stonebriar Mall.

Chicago-based General Growth also plans to use entertainment as a big draw for Stonebriar, and will include a National Hockey League-size ice skating arena, a 24-screen AMC theater and a carousel.

As a high-end mall, Willow Bend is more likely to compete with the upscale Dallas Galleria, according to Ginsburg. The Galleria plays host to Nordstrom, a brand new Saks Fifth Avenue, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Cartier, Tiffany & Co., and Gianni Versace.

But even that doesn’t faze Murphy. Or, if it does, he isn’t letting on.

“There’s several centers in the area,” he said. “There’s room for us, that’s the important thing.”

Edmund Mander is a former SCT editor.