Developer to remodel Village on Parkway

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS
By: Steve Brown

Developer Southwest Properties Group has purchased the 33-acre Village on the Parkway shopping center on the Dallas North Tollway in Addison and plans a major remodeling of the 14-year old retail complex.

The Dallas real estate firm – which also is a big investor in the downtown area – is spending more than $28 million for the acquisition and renovation.

Built to showcase Sakowitz’s huge Belt Line Road store, the seven building specialty shopping center began to decline when the Houston-based department store closed in 1986. Lenders foreclosed on the shopping center in 1989.

Since then, dozens of potential investors, retailers and developers have negotiated to acquire the high-profile development, which sits across the street from the Prestonwood Town Center shopping mall at one of far North Dallas’ busiest intersections.

“Several other people who were probably more likely candidates than us took a run at buying it in the past,” said Cliff Booth, Southwest Properties Group president. “It was just a question of timing. In 1995, the tenant demand out there, and this project makes sense.”

About one-third of the Village on the Parkway is vacant.

The new owners have hired award-winning planners RTKL Associates to prepare a redevelopment plan that includes construction of new entry towers for the shopping center, remodeled exteriors for the buildings and new landscaping.

“The center needs a new image, and it’s a good thing for us that a lot of key pieces are vacant,” said Raul Toledo, development director for the project. “We plan to build a new entrance on Belt Line Road and redirect the traffic flow through the center.”

Major tenants in the 375,000 square-foot shopping center include Bed Bath & Beyond, which occupies two floors of the former Sakowitz building, the Storehouse and General Cinema.

Southwest Properties hopes to attract additional restaurant tenants, housewares retailers and apparel stores.

“There are tenants in the shopping malls that now consider themselves big draws for shoppers,” Mr. Toledo said. “They don’t need to be next to Dillard’s anymore and are leaving the malls.”

Southwest Properties plans to start marketing space in the shopping center for rent at about $25 per square foot annually.

Several potential buyers looked at tearing down much of the Village on the Parkway and replacing it with discount department stores, movie theaters and offices.

But it was the redevelopment potential that attracted Southwest Properties, said Jeff Swaney of Delphi Group, who helped broker the acquisition.

“These guys are interested in sexy and exciting projects and the retail side really appeals to them,” Mr. Swaney said.

Southwest Properties is already one of the Dallas area’s busiest developers, involved in major retail projects in the Deep Ellum and West End districts, and in housing redevelopments in several downtown buildings.