THE RETURN OF RED BIRD: NAME IS ONE OF MANY CHANGES PLANNED FOR LONE SOUTHERN DALLAS MALL
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.
An architectural drawing from Dallas-based Omniplan shows redevelopment plans for Southwest Center Mall (formerly Red Bird Mall) in Dallas. The mall was purchased in 2015 by Dallas investor Peter Brodsky.
"Everyone calls it Red Bird already. Southwest Center Mall never stuck," said Dallas investor Peter Brodsky, who purchased the common areas of the mall in September 2015. "While we are operating in this current format, we will continue to call it Southwest Center Mall. When the redevelopment begins, we will rechristen it."
Brodsky, Mayor Mike Rawlings and City Council members Erik Wilson and Casey Thomas II updated more than 100 residents who showed up Saturday to hear about the phased redevelopment of the mall. The city of Dallas and Texas Department of Transportation have approved new access roads into the property, which is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 67 and Interstate 20.
"I am committed to a high-quality place where people in southern Dallas County can dine and shop," Brodsky said. The development will happen in phases, with construction starting probably in early 2018.
"You won't see changes tomorrow," he said. "But there's momentum."
Brodsky has bought several other parcels, including the former Dillard's and land where J.C. Penney once stood. He now controls 80 acres, including buildings on Camp Wisdom and Westmoreland Road.
Southwest Center Mall area is on 120 acres. Most of these large 1970s- and 1980s-era malls were developed to have multiple owners. Department stores owned their buildings and parking lots. Outer parcels were sold off for restaurants. To start a meaningful redevelopment, enough contiguous area has to be put together. The green area is owned by Peter Brodsky. Brodsky has the areas in yellow under binding contract.
Brodsky won't say how much of his own money he has spent so far on the original purchase and the additional parcels. He did say the final vision will cost in the "tens of millions of dollars." A tax increment financing district was in place before he purchased the mall. Those funds could pay for street and below ground improvements the project will need. While the cost of those improvements haven't been tallied yet, Brodsky said, the project will require some public funding. The amount of $20 million he brought up at the meeting during a Q&A session was for illustration purposes, he said.
He is also negotiating with Macy's to purchase the two-level building that the department store chain is closing this spring.
Rawlings had a stiff warning for other property owners nearby who don't want to join in the redevelopment plans. "The city will require you to keep up your property," he said. The biggest pieces Brodsky doesn't own are the Sears store and its parking lot. Other businesses and buildings ringing the mall parking have multiple owners.
One of the problems associated with redeveloping these big 1970s and 1980s era malls is that they were developed to have multiple owners. Department stores owned their buildings and parking lots. Outer parcels were sold off for restaurants and other services. To start a meaningful redevelopment, enough contiguous area has to be put together.
Community members gathered to see the future of the mall formally known as Red Bird Mall on Jan. 7, 2017, at Southwest Center Mall in Dallas. Developers plan to update the architecture of the mall while saving the atrium and arches outside of the closing Macy's department store.
TECH INCUBATOR
A building on Westmoreland, which years ago was a Social Security office, will become the Red Bird Entrepreneur Center run by B. Michelle Williams, who is president of the Dallas-Fort Worth Urban League. The Dallas Entrepreneur Center, commonly called Dec, is partnering with the Dallas Regional Chamber, Capital One Bank and the mall on the project.
"There's a lot of talent in this community, and a big need that kept coming up in our research was for high-quality incubator space," Brodsky said.
Brodsky is offering the space for free. The incubator will be in temporary space. That building together with a run-down office building next door will be torn down to make way for upscale apartments.
The mall will have new office space ready for the incubator when that happens, Brodsky said. Jones Lang LaSalle has been hired to market office space on the property. The former Dillard's store is being converted to accommodate a demand in the area for back-office accounting and human resources operations, he said.
"There's a terrific workforce that lives nearby, but they have to drive too far to Frisco or west on I-20 to Grand Prairie and Arlington to work," he said, adding that workforce demographics are similar to LBJ and Central Expressway.
Surprisingly, another big need identified by local residents and businesses was "a good quality hotel," Brodsky said. "There's more business occurring in the area than people give it credit for."
An architectural drawing from Dallas-based Omniplan shows redevelopment plans for Southwest Center Mall (formerly Red Bird Mall) in Dallas. The mall was purchased in 2015 by Dallas investor Peter Brodsky. Brodsky hired Omniplan, the same architecture design firm that worked on Highland Park Village's renovation and NorthPark Center's expansion. "What's good enough for NorthPark is good enough for Red Bird," he said.
The Macy's building will become the mall's main entrance. The plan is to keep the architectural arches outside the building and build a park area in front of it facing Camp Wisdom Road. Macy's will be converted into a corridor with stores on either side leading into the mall's atrium area.
The atrium will stay and be made more conducive for community events, Brodsky said, such as performances, galas and banquets.
Earlier this year Brodsky hired Dallas-based commercial real estate developers Frank Mihalopoulos and Terrence Maiden to help him fix the 40-year-old Dallas shopping center. Maiden, who Brodsky said is involved with the project daily, has longtime personal experience with the mall, having grown up in Oak Cliff. Mihalopoulos and Maiden have developed shopping centers south of I-30, and Mihalopoulos is redeveloping other aging malls in other states.
Southwest Center has been struggling since the early 1990s with multiple owners, foreclosures and bankruptcies. Mayors over the years have tried to usher in change with real estate investors, but Brodsky seems to be more committed than others, residents said.
"I really like the hotel; when you have a family reunion, you have to leave the area," said Henrietta Adams, 69, of Oak Cliff. "We have all been spending our money in Duncanville, DeSoto and Cedar Hill. We'd rather spend our money here."
Benjamin Vann, 30, of South Dallas said he was happy to hear about the incubator and the park. "Dallas needs more areas where people can convene."
The name change drew big applause and Adams explained why: "We have a lot of history here. It's a very settled community," she said.
The mall's name was changed from Red Bird Mall to Southwest Center Mall in 1997 by a new owner from California who thought the change would help attract new stores and restaurants and bring back shoppers.
Investor Peter Brodsky explained what he has planned for the mall formally known as Redbird Mall during a community meeting on Saturday at Southwest Center Mall in Dallas. (Andrew Buckley/Special Contributor)
Today, the mall has 100 tenants that range from national chains Sears, Burlington, Champs, Hibbett and Kid's Foot Locker to local mom and pop businesses that include kiosks and cart vendors. "We want existing tenants to stay and be able to entice new ones," Brodsky said.
By converting the mall to a mixed-use development where people also live and work, Brodsky said, it can be successful. "I'm very excited, and I hope this will be a role-model project for other malls across the U.S."
An estimated 15 percent of about 1,100 enclosed U.S. malls are forecast to close or be repurposed over the next decade, according to a real estate research firm Green Street Advisors.
Macy's announcement on Wednesday that it will close 68 of its 730 stores, including Southwest Center and a second in North Texas at Collin Creek Mall in Plano, will accelerate the need to redevelopment more malls.