Jake V's Commentary:

Valley View Mall is located less than a mile from the upscale Galleria Dallas and just a few miles from the ultra upscale and behemoth Northpark Mall, near Highland Park. This mall was built from out from an existing Sears store in the early 1970’s and initially included anchor tenets Bloomingdales, Sanger Harris, Joske’s (or maybe Dillard’s, i’m not certain) and Sears, of course.

In recent years, it anchors have included JCPenny, Dillards, Sears, and Foley’s (converted to Macy’s in 2006), along with an AMC cinema. However, over the past year, the mall has fallen on especially hard times. This past March, Macy’s shut its doors for good since it has a very successful location at the Galleria almost next door. Then, on July 2, Dillard’s announced that it would be closing its store by the end of August, leaving JCPenny, Sears, and the theaters as the only anchors.

This mall is located in a particularly upscale part of Dallas surrounded by large office towers and other similar developments. The land which the mall sits on is extremely valuable in itself. For this reason, a complete redevelopment is highly likely considering the wave of development occuring in the area. If you are interested in seeing this mall before it is gone for good, I would recommend visiting soon since its real estate is so valuable.

Although the mall tends to attract a lower-end clientele due to its anchors, crime does not seem to be a factor here since the mall is located in a highly upscale portion of Dallas. In my opinion, the biggest factor in this mall’s decline has been intense competition, In Dallas, the high-end dollar primarily flows to Northpark Center and the Galleria Dallas, which are both located within close proximity to the mall. In addition, Stonebriar Centre, a new mega mall in nearby Frisco has pulled significant foot traffic away from other malls in northern Dallas and nearby suburbs Plano and Frisco with its mid to high end shops and large variety of restaurants. As a result, this overmalling has created intense competition for other nearby malls such as Valley View and Collin Creek Mall in Plano.

Dallas is one of the most overmalled cities in the United States, with several malls dead or dying (and several more recently torn down). Therefore, Valley View will most likely just become another casuality added to a lengthy list.

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