{"id":276945,"date":"2025-10-31T11:06:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/276945\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T11:06:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T11:06:25","slug":"what-to-know-about-planos-shops-at-willow-bend-dallas-stars-potential-new-arena-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/276945\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about Plano\u2019s Shops at Willow Bend, Dallas Stars\u2019 potential new arena site"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Dallas Stars and Mavericks feud<\/a> over the American Airlines Center<\/a>, the Stars have eyed the suburbs for a new hockey arena. The frontrunner for the NHL franchise\u2019s potential new stadium is the site of an aging, bygone suburban shopping mall<\/a> in Plano.<\/p>\n

The 107-acre property, at 6121 W. Park Blvd., has emerged as the team\u2019s favorite after discussions with other cities including Frisco, The Colony, Arlington and Fort Worth should the team leave the American Airlines Center<\/a> when its lease expires in 2031, two people with knowledge of the team\u2019s efforts told The Dallas Morning News.<\/p>\n

Here are five things to know about the possible future home of the Dallas Stars arena: <\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An exterior view of The Shops at Willow Bend mall at W Park Blvd and the North Dallas Tollway in Plano, Texas, October 28, 2025.<\/p>\n

Tom Fox \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

Breaking News<\/p>\n

Get the latest breaking news from North Texas and beyond.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

The mall\u2019s history of struggle <\/p>\n

The 1.4-million-square-foot mall<\/a>, the last enclosed mall built in Texas, opened in 2001. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent by previous owners, the mall has struggled to attract sufficient shoppers and stores.<\/p>\n

The Shops at Willow Bend has been under redevelopment<\/a> efforts for years, with the most recent plans calling for a mixed-used development with less retail space. The Neiman Marcus department store<\/a> at The Shops at Willow Bend is set to close by the beginning of 2027. Another anchor, Macy\u2019s, backed out<\/a> of the mall earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The mall property is 107 acres. Brad Alberts, president of the Dallas Stars, previously told The News the Stars were looking for at least 75 acres of land to build an arena and surrounding area.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"DallasTransportation options in question <\/p>\n

The Shops at Willow Bend<\/a> is accessible off the Dallas North Tollway and West Park Boulevard, and the shopping center is on a Dallas Area Rapid Transit bus route. <\/p>\n

Plano is one of Dallas Area Rapid Transit\u2019s 13 member cities, but the city council could soon decide if it will hold an election next May to withdraw from the regional transit<\/a> agency. <\/p>\n

DART\u2019s Silver Line<\/a> opened this month and connects seven cities north of Dallas to DFW International Airport. <\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"TheThe property ownership <\/p>\n

Key owners include Dallas-based Cawley Partners, Dallas-based Centennial and New York-based Waterfall Asset Management. None of the companies responded to emails, text messages and phone calls from The News about the potential arena project. The trio acquired the property in a 2022 deal<\/a>. Earlier ownership included Starwood Capital Group in Miami.<\/p>\n

A suburban community <\/p>\n

Plano is about 20 miles north of Dallas and is home to corporate and regional headquarters for companies such as JPMorgan Chase, Capital One, Toyota and PepsiCo. AT&T is eyeing<\/a> a move from downtown Dallas to the Collin County<\/a> city as well.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Nadine<\/p>\n

The city has a population of about 300,000 and an average household income of about $148,000, according to the city, higher than the average in both Dallas-Fort Worth and Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlano is known to be attractive to national and international corporations<\/a>, and we are home to numerous iconic brands,\u201d Plano spokesperson Amanda McNew said in a statement. \u201dDue to the strong interest in Plano and competition within the region, we do not publicly comment on speculation or economic development projects until they are brought to Council for formal adoption.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mall houses the North Texas Performing Arts, a nonprofit arts organization that\u2019s been headquartered at Willow Bend for eight years. Darrell Rodenbaugh, CEO of the group, said he and other tenants face an uncertain future at the mall. He thinks it could be a challenge for developers to address parking and traffic needs to support a stadium in the area. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A view of The Shops at Willow Bend mall sign at W Park Blvd and the North Dallas Tollway in Plano, Texas, October 28, 2025.<\/p>\n

Tom Fox \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that this is going to be overwhelmingly embraced,\u201d said Rodenbaugh, who also lives near the mall. \u201cI think it\u2019s unusual to see this kind of development in the midst of an upscale residential environment and it\u2019ll be interesting to see the reaction from the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

When could the Stars move?<\/p>\n

If the Stars chose to leave Dallas<\/a>, Alberts said they\u2019d need to decide on a new site in the next six to eight months and begin construction in 2028 or 2029 to be ready for the 2031-32 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Dallas Stars and Mavericks feud over the American Airlines Center, the Stars have eyed the suburbs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5117],"tags":[33248,196,147,5278,5,41065,40,4,36593,4088,3129,197],"class_list":{"0":"post-276945","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-stars","8":"tag-collin-county","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-stars","11":"tag-dallasstars","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-malls","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-plano","17":"tag-real-estate","18":"tag-retail","19":"tag-stars"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115468463281918431","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}