Southwest Center Mall owner Peter Brodsky declined to comment on Macy's closing. He said he plans to update area residents on redevelopment plans at a meeting he and Mayor Mike Rawlings are sponsoring Saturday at the mall.
Looks like Sears has spared the Southwest Center mall location for now but for how long. I went in there about a decade ago for a water filter and even then it was a ghost town.
Southwest Center Mall is losing its Macy's soon, but the owner of the long-troubled shopping center on Saturday revealed redevelopment plans in the works, including a Marriott Courtyard, tech incubator, new office and green space and upscale apartments.
And when major changes start to happen, Southwest Center Mall will take back an identity it had in 1975 when it opened as Red Bird, the only mall in the southern half of Dallas.
Glad they plan to keep the exterior of the Macy's with the mosaic! With a new park in front it will make a great entrance. I expect good work from Omniplan.
Does this look like the mosaic they are tearing down at Valley View?
Pretty much, though they are custom. There is also one at Collin Creek Mall. These are one of those things I don't really get beyond nostalgia - they scream cheap lazy tiling pattern that looks vaguely Native American (or perhaps an 8-bit video game baddie) with no context to the rest of the building's decoration or design.
And by 'lazy and cheap', I mean cheaper than windows to take advantage of a covered 2 story facade. From that angle it looks like the front door is a shirtless Homer Simpson's belt buckle. Keeps getting worse....
Does this look like the mosaic they are tearing down at Valley View?
Pretty much, though they are custom. There is also one at Collin Creek Mall. These are one of those things I don't really get beyond nostalgia - they scream cheap lazy tiling pattern that looks vaguely Native American (or perhaps an 8-bit video game baddie) with no context to the rest of the building's decoration or design.
And by 'lazy and cheap', I mean cheaper than windows to take advantage of a covered 2 story facade. From that angle it looks like the front door is a shirtless Homer Simpson's belt buckle. Keeps getting worse....
Well, it was a simplified version of the downtown store. The downtown store was the one that had the expensive glass tiles, and it was the first one to lose its mural via DART.
After Sanger-Harris completed its flagship store in 1965, the chain turned to Harold A. Berry and Associates to express the company’s vision within the rapidly growing suburban mall culture. Stubel worked on the first of three Sanger-Harris rollouts in the region, at Six Flags Mall in Arlington. Designed in partnership with RYA, that store took on the Greek-influenced colonnade characteristic of the flagship location. But the mural presented a problem. Using the same Italian glass tiles and pattern language as the downtown store proved too costly, so the architects cut it from the store’s designs. But Sanger-Harris pushed back. So, to cut costs, they imported mosaic tile from Mexico and asked the youngest kid in the office to design the pattern. That was Stubel.
She took inspiration from the Spanish-influenced design of Six Flags Mall. “The pattern focused on blocks of color in broad strokes,” she says. “We were dealing with freeway recognition, and colors would catch the eye as well as define the entry. Indian and Mexican cultural influences were part of the language. Music would play a role in defining the rhythm of the pattern.”
She took inspiration from the Spanish-influenced design of Six Flags Mall.
She should have gotten a job designing houses. Spanish inspired designs on a Greek-influenced colonade would have made her an innovator. She could have invented the first mcmansion.
It may be another generation before mainstream retail store evolution can restock the climate control shopping malls in the middle of the retail segment.
Maybe the redevelopment of Red Bird Mall can come a little closer to the initial concept of an enclosed mall with education, government services and residential forming as anchor tenants around which a wide variety of retail stores gather.
DCCCD takes over one of the department stores, USPS takes a large suite, etm
Starbucks has selected Dallas' Red Bird Mall (formerly Southwest Center Mall) for one of 15 stores it's opening in low- to medium-income neighborhoods across the U.S.
It's a project that's part of what the Seattle-based coffee giant has called its social impact investments. While the stores are part of efforts to rejuvenate business districts, the locations still have to be profitable, the company said. And city officials stressed that the business has to be successful.
Tivo_Kenevil wrote:Honestly efforts to revitalize malls should be one of the last things we should be doing. They're dying.
It's a part of the larger effort to tear down the old mall and rebuild more of an urban infill project I see no reason this project shouldn't move forward.
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell”
Tivo_Kenevil wrote:Honestly efforts to revitalize malls should be one of the last things we should be doing. They're dying.
It's a part of the larger effort to tear down the old mall and rebuild more of an urban infill project I see no reason this project shouldn't move forward.
Great news! When I first read about their Ferguson store and this initiative by Starbucks, I actually wrote to someone at the company asking them to consider Oak Cliff. I'm happy they finally did, but was hoping for something along I-35 near the zoo or maybe Wynnewood. We'll see how this does.
Per the article, "The problem now is that the fund’s managers are struggling to find qualified projects to invest in," I'm just not sure what the qualifications are. I can think of several investable projects for this fund that are much safer bets than Red Bird Mall:
-Redevelopment of Wynnewood Village into a combination of townhomes, green space and neighborhood retail
-New apartments facing the future Oak Cliff Deck Park
-Elmwood commercial district on Edgefield near Illinois Ave
The only difference between these projects and Red Bird is that they don't have a well-connected backer like Peter Brodsky.
I know the initial theme seemed to be about Valley View but they did post some renderings I have not yet seen before of the planned reuse of some of RedBird Malls existing department store buildings.
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“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell”
^You can see from the second rendering that they intend on keeping one of the two existing Sanger-Harris murals. Not sure if the one that's being removed is the large one or the small one there currently.
Starbucks takes big step in bringing Dallas' Southwest Center Mall back to life
Among the planned developments at Red Bird: a new street grid, a campus of Jarvis Christian College (a long-time HBCU college in Hawkins, north-northeast of Tyler), and a Marriott-brand hotel (the exact kind isn't specified).
The Starbucks in the article is dubbed a "community" location; the freestanding building will open Friday.
It’s a sad but telling story of the southern half of our city: Since Starbucks opened its only stand-alone location in Oak Cliff a few days ago, the prevailing reaction of customers is shock — they can’t believe the store is so very, very nice.
The generations of residents south of Interstate 30 who have too often been ignored — or outright discriminated against — are accustomed to the sorry fact that most anything that comes their way will be, at best, second rate.
Drove around this mall this week, can't say I can see much going on. It still looks about the same way it did last summer except for the Store Closing sign on Sears.
Construction should pick up on Tuesday, hearing that Brodsky has changed some of the plans and will cut up the old mall into even more pieces basically gutting the mall. This will no longer be a mall at all and will be a series of office buildings with some retail scattered about in between the office, residential and Courtyard hotel. Some Fortune 500 companies are being scouted for possible call center locations inside the new office space. Hopefully that will happen, Red Bird as a mixed use job center would be a welcome change.
Tnexster wrote:Construction should pick up on Tuesday, hearing that Brodsky has changed some of the plans and will cut up the old mall into even more pieces basically gutting the mall. This will no longer be a mall at all and will be a series of office buildings with some retail scattered about in between the office, residential and Courtyard hotel. Some Fortune 500 companies are being scouted for possible call center locations inside the new office space. Hopefully that will happen, Red Bird as a mixed use job center would be a welcome change.
That's actually a pretty smart idea to bring call center jobs directly into this area! As many residents in this area already partake in such jobs downtown and farther off. I really hope this is successful and able to jumpstart improvement to this end of Dallas. It's sad were letting Arlington and other far off areas pull the steam away.
More than a few North Texas multi-national corporations will benefit from a bilingual workforce which understands the voice of the Western Hemisphere customer.
Tnexster wrote:Construction should pick up on Tuesday, hearing that Brodsky has changed some of the plans and will cut up the old mall into even more pieces basically gutting the mall. This will no longer be a mall at all and will be a series of office buildings with some retail scattered about in between the office, residential and Courtyard hotel. Some Fortune 500 companies are being scouted for possible call center locations inside the new office space. Hopefully that will happen, Red Bird as a mixed use job center would be a welcome change.
That's actually a pretty smart idea to bring call center jobs directly into this area! As many residents in this area already partake in such jobs downtown and farther off. I really hope this is successful and able to jumpstart improvement to this end of Dallas. It's sad were letting Arlington and other far off areas pull the steam away.
True, imagine if you are one of those that lives in south Dallas and drives north, even far north for a job. Get a job closer to home, save time and money.
Cooley wrote:Lot of white collar workers live in the area as well that drive far north. Not just call center employees
Yes, myself included. A successful office development here proves it works and could lead to more. This has tremendous potential if it works out as planned.
Drove by last weekend as saw lots of equipment tearing up the parking lot. Need to go by again and get a closer look. The Foot Locker store will be unique to Texas with all of the Foot Locker brands under one roof, I believe the closest store like this is on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, at least that is what I have heard. If true it will be a major draw to the area.
Reimagine RedBird and Palladium USA will announce the development of Palladium RedBird Apartments, luxury residences with modern, upscale amenities, to the Oak Cliff community.
"Luxury residences" and RedBird in the same sentence. My brain needs to Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
Reimagine RedBird and Palladium USA will announce the development of Palladium RedBird Apartments, luxury residences with modern, upscale amenities, to the Oak Cliff community.
"Luxury residences" and RedBird in the same sentence. My brain needs to Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
Reimagine RedBird and Palladium USA will announce the development of Palladium RedBird Apartments, luxury residences with modern, upscale amenities, to the Oak Cliff community.
"Luxury residences" and RedBird in the same sentence. My brain needs to Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
Hahahaha...my thoughts exactly. Maybe they know something that we don’t...
Chimes Solutions, an Atlanta-based, African-American-owned company, is expanding its business process outsourcing center to Red Bird Mall, where contractors are hard at work revitalizing the southern Dallas landmark. Shelly Wilson, the company’s COO, and Lauren Wilson, the chief of staff, made a presentation to City Council about the public-private partnership.
"We felt that we can make an economic impact in that area," Wilson said. “That's part of our mission.”
Chimes Solutions is planning to bring 500 jobs to its Red Bird location when it opens in the fall. The executives of the family-run business say starting wages will be $14 per hour.
Several council members boasted about how the living wage could significantly improve quality of life options for residents across the Red Bird area.
Chimes Solutions says it has done its research on the Red Bird area, and the executives plan to train and add an additional 500 workers in its second year at its new southern Oak Cliff location.
Reimagine RedBird and Palladium USA will announce the development of Palladium RedBird Apartments, luxury residences with modern, upscale amenities, to the Oak Cliff community.
"Luxury residences" and RedBird in the same sentence. My brain needs to Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
Hahahaha...my thoughts exactly. Maybe they know something that we don’t...
It may be that they realize that there are people that grew up in the area that work in other areas of the metro (downtown, Arlington, Uptown) but would like to live where or near where they grew up. However, I do think anytime luxury product is introduced into traditionally non-luxury markets management of such properties has to be A-1 and sustained at that level.
Anything in that area that's brand new I would call luxury. It's a term the industry uses too fluidly but I think compared to what else in this area makes sense.
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell”
More construction underway, this time the parking lot on the far west side closest to Westmoreland is being torn out, this should be the location of the two new apartment buildings.
I am sure a lot of developers will be coming to see what happens to RedBird from other parts of the country there is a lot of dead malls in this country and while some make sense for teardowns and starting from scratch the goal of MidTown...for some it makes more sense to match redevelopment of existing retail space with office jobs like they seem to be doing here along with residential and a hotel.
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell”
At Red Bird, the company will take over a 50,000-square-foot space that's a combination of 10 storefronts formerly occupied by retailers. It's part of a bigger $160 million plan to turn the former mall into a 78-acre mixed-use project that'll bring more amenities to southern Dallas.
