Collin Creek

Two floors. Five anchors. (1 open, 4 vacant.) In 1981 Collin Creek opened boasting a “River Walk”, or maze of fountains interconnected by an indoor creek. Today, the tiles shine in between the caged storefronts and roving gangs of mall-walkers. The one surviving restaurant in the food court is a bustling place to be thirty minutes before opening. The menu? Coffee. The demographic? On social security. Collin Creek is not dead. Collin Creek is on life support and fading fast.

After zoning approval, the developer will begin their “revitalization” of the area. In true Dallas suburb fashion, the current plan includes five hundred townhouses, three thousand apartments and over four hundred thousand square feet of retail space. In most cyclical fashion, the center-most core of the project will be a nine acre park dominated by a river walk.

Bush Architects Rendering

Valley View

When I was young, the mall bore a symbiotic relationship with coming of age. A young ladies first piercing, the angsty boys first cigarette in that dimly lit corner by the movie theatre, the first kiss at the food court, and beyond. The jury is still out on whether millennials killed the indoor department store experience but it is fact that Valley View Center is working on borrowed time.

The mall was slated for demolition by December 2016 to make way for a fortress of luxury concrete (exactly what Dallas is in dire need of) but the city terminated its agreement with Beck Ventures for tax incentives to assist in covering the $500 million price tag. A labyrinth of finger pointing later, the developer and City of Dallas will meet each other in arbitration before the husk falls.