As we chip away at the backlog of the blog, we will stick to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
The Dallas Galleria is listed as having 1.4 million square feet of retail space. The mall opened on October 30, 1982. The mall has had several anchor changes over the years. The South anchor was originally Saks Fifth Avenue that moved to the NW anchor pad in 1999. The NW anchor pad was originally a Marshall Field's store that was sold to Saks Fifth Avenue. The newer Saks location closed in 2013 and was replaced by Belk that closed in March 2020. Now this anchor pad is filled by the Netflix House on 2 of the 3 levels. The third anchor was Gump's, that closed in 1991. The Gump's anchor space was absorbed into the mall. Macy's was added to the East side of the mall in 1985 and has remained at the mall since then. Nordstrom opened on the North side of the mall in March 1996 and closed on May 16, 2026. The mall was built by the same developer that built the Houston Galleria and shares many architectural similarities.
Despite being one of the strongest malls in the region, Nordstrom closed on May 16, 2026, leaving a three-story anchor space vacant. Plans for the vacant anchor space have yet to be revealed. The nearby Northpark Center continues to outperform the Galleria and Nordstrom will still have a full-sized store there. Nordstrom Rack will remain open in a nearby shopping center as well.
We will start the tour at the South end of the mall, where the former Saks Fifth Avenue has been subdivided into three stores. One on each floor of the anchor.
Banana Republic on the first floor, GAP on the second floor, and Old Navy on the top floor.
Just like the Houston Galleria, the Dallas Galleria is packed into a relatively tight space, maximizing the use of the land. There are several multi-story parking garages surrounding the property.
The newer Saks Fifth Avenue anchor space that was later Belk. It has since reopened as Netflix House, an entertainment destination.
Here is the retro Macy's anchor. This old school Macy's store is one of the few remaining Macy's stores that was built as a Macy's still left in Texas. The majority of Macy's stores in Texas were rebranded Foley's stores.
The entrances of the 1980's Macy's stores were much more extravagant than anything they built later on. It was an era where Macy's still catered to the upper-to-upper middle-class shopper.
We will now pop in for our interior tour. We are starting on the third level of the mall outside of Old Navy.
The skylights are a huge feature of the mall corridors. It is a very similar look to the main corridors of the Houston Galleria.
Here is the centerpiece of the mall, the four-level center court with an ice-skating rink on the lower level.
Macy's still has the original 1980's era signage.
Here is the mall directory. The Dallas Galleria is pretty much an end-to-end mall with a few curves to break up the monotony.
Here are a few photos of the retro 1985 Macy's store.
Some black and white photos of downtown Dallas Skyscrapers, I have seen a few Macy's stores in different regions with skyline photos like these.
The interior of the store has been modernized, but there are still some retro designs left throughout the store.
The skylight and escalators are still original. This is yet another example of the 1980's style that we rarely see in 2026. It is hard to believe this store was 40 years old when I visited.
I am not sure if these lights are original or later additions to the store.
That is all for the short tour of the Macy's.
Back out into the mall we go.
The Rolex store is one of the high-end options available at the Dallas Galleria. This mall really caters to shoppers of all income brackets. It is one of the biggest differences that the Galleria has over the nearby Northpark Center. Most of the stores there are fairly expensive, where at the Galleria, there is a variety for every budget.
The skylights really stand out here.
The former Belk space was recently reopened as a Netflix House. It is one of two locations in the United States with a third under construction in Las Vegas.
The corridor leading to Nordstrom hides the skylights for a bit, but it opens up again.
The first-floor entrance to Nordstrom.
Forever 21 store closure. This store was located on two-floors.
Second floor with the Netflix House entrance.
A third level view from the front of the former Norstrom entrance.
The third level of Nordstrom closed to the public back in November 2022. It was a sign of things to come.
Forever 21 on the third level.
Pop Mart with a line of people waiting for Labubu's.
The lower level on the South side had a lot of vacancies on my visit. That has since changed as of early 2026. A lot of new stores have opened or are under construction down here.
The lower level with the ice-skating rink has a few restaurants. The main food court of the mall is on the third level between the center court and Nordstrom.
The Westin Galleria connects to the mall. The Houston Galleria also has a Westin hotel that connects to the mall.
Here are a few more photos from around the mall.
This three-level redevelopment of the former Saks shows what can be done with vacant anchors at multi-level malls. It also helps that each store has an exterior entrance to the parking garage.
As for my final opinions on the Galleria Dallas, the mall is still doing quite well. Mall management will have a major challenge to overcome with the Nordstrom vacancy. Maybe Von Maur will make their Texas debut in that space or Dillard's will take up that space. The Belk vacancy did take a few years to fill, so we will see what happens. The area surrounding the mall is very busy and the mall still has a great future ahead. We did revisit this mall in the Spring of 2026 after the Nordstrom closing announcement, and a lot of new stores had opened including a replacement for the massive Forever 21 space. The Norstrom closure did not have a blow-out sale like we see at other retailers, they just were selling out the merchandise that was on the sales floor at regular price. They had some signs around about the store closing on May 16.
One more bonus photo of the nearby Valley View Mall site. The rest of the mall was finally demolished for the long-awaited redevelopment project.
Coming up next The Shops at Willowbend, a massive upscale rapidly dying mall.
Dallas likes to claim that they are the hub of luxury retail in Texas. In many ways, it is hard to argue that they aren't that, but certainly Houston's The Galleria has the Galleria Dallas beat by far. This isn't to say that the Galleria Dallas isn't successful, but it has had to move downmarket to achieve that success and it is still struggling to maintain that at times given Belk's departure some years ago. Of course, people in Dallas shouldn't feel too bad, the Galleria Dallas did far better than Houston's attempts at alternative luxury malls which opened around the same time as Galleria Dallas did, West Oaks Mall and Town & Country Mall. Those are well-known failures around here, though the Houston economy suffered more in the 1980s than the Dallas one did.
ReplyDeleteWhen one thinks of Dallas and thinks of luxury, high-end retail, Neiman Marcus is the name which comes to mind and I'm sure that's a big reason why NorthPark Center has a big edge over the Galleria Dallas. It is hard to claim to be a luxury destination in Dallas without having a Neiman Marcus, and to some degree the same is true in Houston and The Galleria here has a Neiman Marcus. Unfortunately for the Galleria Dallas, they don't have a Neiman Marcus, and so they were probably doomed to second-tier status.
Still, the mall has a lot going for it. It'll be interesting to see if the mall can keep things together if Macy's ever closes. It may not be as dependent on Macy's sticking around as some other malls, though it'll be a big hit to the mall's traditional retail offerings given the recent loss of Nordstrom and Belk. It is neat to see an original Macy's here in Texas. The situation at The Galleria was quite strange when the Macy's on Sage was co-existing with the Foley's Macy's. Those original Macy's stores were quite impressive, and Dillard's still kind of keeps that going at Willowbrook and Deerbrook Malls, but I know Willowbrook had to get some emergency structural repairs on the third floor recently which might have changed that mostly Macy's leftover floor.
Given this mall's history of anchor failure and given the general state of department stores, I wonder if non-traditional retail might be the future at this mall. Maybe something like a furniture store like the Living Spaces at Baybrook Mall. Maybe Nebraska Furniture Mart would be interested, though they already have that massive store in the DFW suburbs.
The next mall on tap is one you will really enjoy. The Shops at Willowbend. It is just a few miles down the road on the Dallas North Tollway. They went all in on luxury shops and it failed pretty much from the start. Neiman Marcus, Lord and Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue were all anchors at one point.
DeleteI think the Macy's store here is the last one in Texas from the 1980's expansion that was not rebranded as a Dillard's or closed. I really like the older signage on the store. The sad part about this Macy's is that they have a huge section of the store dedicated to their Backstage concept and it looks pretty trashed. The rest of the store looks really nice though as you can see from the photos. Bloomingdales also has an outlet location in Dallas, but not a full-sized store. The store doesn't seem to have a lot of traffic in comparison to the rest of the mall so we will see if they keep it going.
The Galleria Dallas is in a transition period from what I can tell. We will have to see if the nearby Valley View site transformation takes away any businesses from the Galleria. Northpark has cemented their status as the top mall in the city. A lot of urban growth is still happening near Northpark with new residential and mixed-use towers so the mall will continue to remain strong. On our one trip to Northpark on a Sunday afternoon, the mall was so busy with tons of security that I didn't want to document the place. I would have to revisit on an early weekday. It is a cool property that still retains its classic look and feel to a certain extent.
The Dallas North Tollway starting at the I-635 interchange is where a lot of corporate office towers are located. As you continue to head North there are several high-rises up and down the road so if the Galleria fails, there will be plenty of options to redevelop the site as it is prime real estate. It will be very interesting to see how things pan out in the next decade or so. The DFW metroplex still has a few too many malls, and I think we will see a few more fade out.