PRESTONWOOD TOWN CENTER: DALLAS, TX
David Avery's Commentary
Posted December 3, 2005 (user submitted October 26, 2005)
It was a scene that had been repeated many times before in many locations.
What made the death of Prestonwood Town Center in Dallas, Texas different was
the age and demographics of the mall. The location, at the Dallas North
Tollway and Belt Line Road, was one of the wealthiest in Dallas County. The
center was new, modern, well illuminated, and certainly had the drawing power
of any mall around.
When the mall was opened in 1979, the city of Dallas was not nearly as
overmalled as it has become. Valley View Center (which is becoming a dead mall
in its own right) was a short drive down Montfort Drive or the Tollway, and the
Galleria Dallas was not yet open.
The center opened with much fanfare with Neiman Marcus, Lord & Taylor,
JCPenney, Joske's (which became Dillard's in 1987) and an anchor that didn't
fit the center, Montgomery Ward. After Ward's 1985 departure, a manager for
the company commented, "People shopping Prestonwood weren't going to shop us
after shopping Neiman's." The site was replaced by a Mervyn's.
In 1982, Galleria Dallas opened with Macy's, a beautiful Marshall Field's, and
Saks Fifth Avenue. The next year, Bloomingdale's opened at Valley View.
The
expansion and opening soon began to take its toll on what was the prestigious
Prestonwood.
Additionally, by 1994, the mall was a notorious hangout for teens, drawn by the
large food court and the skating rink. It became extremely difficult for
customers and mall managers alike.
A renovation announced in 1996 never materializes, and many stores have the
original interiors of their openings. In September 1997, JCPenney closes its
anchor; Mervyn's closes as well. When a new mall in Plano is announced, Neiman
Marcus and Lord & Taylor announce they will relocate. By 1999, they are the
only two stores left in the center.
The year 2000 brings a new owner to Prestonwood: Goldman Sachs' Archon Group,
for whom I worked while this deal was closed. Despite the bloodbath in the
telecom industry, an ever-confident Archon announces it will make Prestonwood
into a telecom center called Genisus Dallas North. The plans never fully come
to fruition, as half of the center is complete, half is not. By October 2003,
Archon announces that it will no longer pursue Genisus Dallas North and
Prestonwood will be replaced by an open air center that has still yet to be
built.
Neiman's and Lord & Taylor soldiered on-- but the nail in the coffin was the
hit and run death of an elderly woman shopping at Neiman's in 2001. No one
else wanted to go there afterward. By summer 2004, Prestonwood Town Center was
completely gone.
What happened? Well, the usual traffic snarls around one of the deadliest
intersections in Dallas wasn't helping. The teens didn't help. The downsizing
of stores, of which JCPenney was first, was the beginning of the end. It
appears to be a number of things, but it was a sad sight to see.
Anonymous from San Antonio's Commentary
Posted November 20, 2006 (user submitted)
I came across this site and found it incredibly fascinating. I even looked up the mall I practically grew up in (I hung out there from the age of about 13 to 19) and felt inclined to add some tidbits:
Prestonwood was notorious as a hang out spot for teenagers for a wide variety of reasons:
- The side street of Prestonwood road was a transfer hub for buses coming from all over North Dallas. Kids from nearby suburbs in Richardson, Plano, Carrollton, Farmers Branch and Addison could usually get to Prestonwood with only one bus ride. Kids from all over the city could get there with only one transfer. For this reason, it was a popular place to meet new people on a Friday night. It also attracted certain kinds of teens: typically punk rock mallrats in leather jackets and bright green hair.
- All of the dumpsters were hidden from public view behind large walls with potted shrubbery, giving teens a lot of nearly-private spaces to cavort (i.e. do drugs, sell drugs, have sex, etc.). And cavort we did! I know of at least one child conceived in this way.
- The elevators could be stopped without an emergency alarm sounding and could be restarted from inside the elevator. This made it rather easy to have sex in the elevators or do drugs that required lengthy preparation. When a minor epidemic of teenage heroin use spread across North Dallas, it became hip to shoot up in the elevators and squirt your leftover blood on the walls.
- An outdoor stairwell by Mervyn's was elevated close enough to the roof to allow anyone to climb onto it. This was yet another place to do drugs and have sex, even after hours when the mall was closed. In the late 90's after the mall had essentially died, it was a popular place for urban exploration because the building was largely abandoned and anyone could break into it without getting caught.
Justin Lee's Commentary
Posted December 2, 2006 (user submitted)
When the Minnesota North Stars were moved to Dallas in 1993, the Stars did not have their practice facility built yet. There were no ice skating rinks in Dallas at the time except in a couple of malls. It was decided that the Stars would practice at this mall until their new facilities were built. The rink inside Prestonwood didn't have glass above the boards. There was no netting beind the goals. The first and last few practices there mainly consisted of passing and skating drills.
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