{"id":598505,"date":"2026-06-14T09:27:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T09:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/598505\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T09:27:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T09:27:46","slug":"plano-officials-greenlight-dallas-stars-arena-at-willow-bend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/598505\/","title":{"rendered":"Plano officials greenlight Dallas Stars arena at Willow Bend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Willow Bend Mall is set to make way for the Dallas Stars<\/a> new arena, and a larger sports entertainment center, following approval from Plano City Council.<\/p>\n

Council approved a non-binding letter of intent from the Dallas Stars and a $15 million economic incentive with Centennial, the owners of Willow Bend Mall, at a June 8 meeting.<\/p>\n

The details<\/p>\n

According to the letter of intent from Dallas Sports & Entertainment LP, the parent company of the Stars, the arena to be constructed at The Shops at Willow Bend will host the Stars home games along with team practices, camps and \u201cother professional hockey activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arena may be used for other indoor sports, entertainment, cultural and civic events, per previous reporting<\/a>. The city and DSE are also collaborating to add new public transportation options for the venue and to add future initiatives for youth sports education, small business engagement and other community-focused efforts in Plano.<\/p>\n

The incentive agreement with Centennial will help cover costs of demolition of the \u201cinline space of the mall, theater, Dillard\u2019s and The Crayola Experience,\u201d according to city documents. It will also help develop a new 6,500-square-foot visitor\u2019s center.<\/p>\n

The demolition is expected to cost $25.3 million, with Equinox, Crate & Barrel, the Neiman Marcus building, the mall\u2019s 65,000-square-foot restaurant district and parking structures to remain, Plano Economic Director Michael Talley said.<\/p>\n

Demolition of the mall is expected to begin in early 2027, Talley said.<\/p>\n

What they\u2019re saying<\/p>\n

Of 12 Plano residents that spoke at the June 8 meeting, 10 opposed the Dallas Stars arena at Willow Bend Mall.<\/p>\n

Several speakers cited concerns with traffic, noise, safety and the potential that the Dallas Stars could leave following a 30-year lease.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have concerns that in the future we\u2019ll have a dead stadium, instead of the vibrant retail area we\u2019ve already approved,\u201d Plano resident Gary Carey said. \u201cI have concerns of the effect of the new stadium on the surrounding area. On game and event nights we\u2019ll have increased traffic on the tollway that\u2019s already overburdened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council member Bob Kehr said this decision gives the city an opening to make future decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we say no to this, [the Stars stadium] may end up in a city that\u2019s on our border, which is going to affect our traffic and all the things we\u2019ve been hearing about tonight,\u201d Kehr said. \u201cIf we say no to this [letter of intent], we\u2019re saying no forever and we don\u2019t have an opportunity to make this better.”<\/p>\n

Dig deeper<\/p>\n

Council also approved a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, or TIRZ, encompassing more than 900 acres around The Shops at Willow Bend.<\/p>\n

A TIRZ assigns a portion of city property taxes to finance an economic project, according to city documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The district] is all the commercial properties along the tollway from George Bush all the way to Windhaven,\u201d Director of Special Projects Peter Braster said.<\/p>\n

Learn more<\/p>\n

Residents can learn more at one of two in-person open houses at The Shops at Willow Bend on July 8 and 14, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and 6-8 p.m., respectively.<\/p>\n

A self-guided virtual community open house will be available on the city\u2019s website from July 8-22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Willow Bend Mall is set to make way for the Dallas Stars new arena, and a larger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5117],"tags":[57349,196,147,5278,5,4,36593,60557,66504,197,41206,66503,66502,66501],"class_list":["post-598505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas-stars","tag-city-of-plano","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-stars","tag-dallasstars","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-plano","tag-plano-city-council","tag-plano-tirz-6","tag-stars","tag-the-shops-at-willow-bend","tag-tirz-plano","tag-willow-bend-mall","tag-willowbend"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116747753467230075","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598505","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=598505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}