AS THREE NEW TENANTS SIGN ON AT RED BIRD MALL, HERE'S WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT
Red Bird Mall, a once vibrant gathering spot in southern Dallas, is one step closer to becoming the destination developer Peter Brodsky imagined it could be when he first purchased the decaying property in 2015.
Three tenants have signed leases to move into the shopping center’s a major turning point for a long-awaited redevelopment project decades in the making.
Urban Air Trampoline Park, Frost Bank and Foot Locker will be the newest additions to the site, Brodsky said. The announcement comes several months after a stand-alone Starbucks, the first of its kind in Oak Cliff, opened at Red Bird Mall.
Frost Bank will open a location next to the new Starbucks, which Brodsky said is a significant development for the surrounding neighborhood that is vastly under-banked.
The Urban Air Trampoline Park, which will move into a 30,000-square-foot space where Macy’s was once located inside the mall, will cater to the many families that live in the area, he said.
Foot Locker will relocate from its longtime home inside the mall to a new building at a site that will be built on a portion of the many acres of parking lot that surround the shopping center.
“It’s a 20,000-square-foot building and it will have multiple concepts in it like Foot Locker, Foot Action and Kids Foot Locker,†Brodsky said. “The fact that they are willing to invest the type of money that they’re investing in this site shows their understanding of the purchasing power here and their commitment to the community.â€
Brodsky, a private equity investor turned developer, purchased 28 acres of Red Bird Mall, formerly called Southwest Center Mall, four years ago when he realized the potential the property had as a catalyst development for southern Dallas. He said he saw a dilapidated retail center sitting on a prime piece of property in a neighborhood with purchasing power and a need for mixed-use development. So, Brodsky took a risk.
He has since amassed a total of 78 acres through 10 different transactions due to the number of property owners the mall and surrounding land had long been divided among. It’s been a long process to get commercial real estate brokers, investors and businesses to see his vision for the project, he said, but the new companies moving in prove there is money to be made in the area.
The site that Foot Locker is moving into, which is shown in a new rendering of the project, will be anchored by a community lawn and will also include several restaurant spaces. The rendering also shows two new pedestrian-friendly roads that will cut through what Brodsky described as the “sea of asphalt†surrounding the mall as well as walking paths, additional green space and a smaller footprint for the mall’s original building.
Brodsky said the mall’s food court will be demolished to make way for an outdoor entertainment space between the center and an apartment complex that construction will begin on this year.
“We believe that following this groundbreaking, we’re going to have some pretty interesting announcements on employers coming and other sorts of amenities coming that will be great for the development financially but will be other aspects of the community that we’re trying to create.”
Dallas City Councilmember Tennell Atkins, who represents the district the mall is in, said the addition of the new tenants will trigger a domino effect of investment and interest in the property.
He said the most important step in doing so was getting the city to approve a $22 million investment for the mall’s redevelopment in June. With that secured and new tenants moving in, it;s all starting to take shape.
“The ultimate vision I want to see there is that people can work, they can live, they can have quality of life and all the amenities that they’ve deserved for so long. It’s like Bishop Arts. It died and came back. Or Uptown, which died and came back. But the mall, it didn’t die. It was on life support, but its coming back”