The Shops at Willow Bend Mall visited April 2025

The Shops at Willow Bend is a different mall from the type we usually cover here on the blog. The mall is very upscale, new, and large. The issue with this 2001 mall is that the property is rapidly dying. Macy's closed shortly before our visit, Dillard's closed in January 2026, and the final anchor Neiman Marcus is marked for closure in January 2027. Two other anchor stores closed and were demolished years before our visit. The Shops at Willow Bend were built at the wrong time and in the wrong place. The rapid growth of Plano and nearby suburbs passed this property right by, leaving this mall outside of the prime retail districts. This will be a massive post of photos as this mall is truly remarkable. The owners of the mall want to demolish the mall sometime in early 2027, so if you want to visit here, time is running out.

The mall opened on August 3rd, 2001, with 1.5 million square feet of retail space. Original anchors were Foley's on the South end, Dillard's on the North end, Lord and Taylor on the SE side near Foley's, and Neiman Marcus on the East side center court. Saks Fifth Avenue opened as an addition to the mall in 2004 on the NE side near Dillard's. Lord and Taylor closed in 2003 and was demolished. Crate and Barrel later opened a store outside of the mall in that space. Saks didn't last very long and closed in late 2010. That space was demolished and an outdoor wing was built in its place. Two anchor stores opened, closed, and demolished within ten years is something that I don't think we have seen yet on this blog. Multiple attempts to revitalize the property either haven't panned out or were stalled and not completed. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on this property for it to fail time and time again.

Just a short drive North and West of the property is where Nebraska Furniture Mart, Scheel's, and the massive The Colony development is located. Directly North is an Ikea store, the Ford Center mixed-use district, and several office towers. A direct high-end competitor opened nearby in 2017 called Legacy West as well and poached some of the tenants. Along the 121 Tollway there are several big box centers in addition to the other retail destinations I mentioned. The mall never really stood a chance with all of this competition.  

 Over the years multiple plans to redevelop the mall have materialized, but none have panned out so far. The current plan is to demolish most of the property and replace the mall with a potential Dallas Stars arena along with several mixed-use buildings. The outdoor additions to the mall along with Crate and Barrel will remain under this latest plan. There are several parking garages that lead to the mall that will stay as well. 

As of this post; only the Neiman Marcus (until January 2027), and a handful of tenants remain inside of the mall. We will see if Crate and Barrel ultimately sticks around for the redevelopment. The new development will be called The Bend. Maybe it's just me, but that name doesn't exactly stand out. 

Hopefully the redevelopment will work out unlike the mall. 

This project reminds me of the Collin Creek Mall redevelopment. I need to follow up on that redevelopment the next time I am down in the DFW area. It sounds like that project has been slow to progress, much like the Valley View Mall redevelopment. Enough of the sidetracking, here is the Shops at Willow Bend.

Dillard's closed in January 2026.

The food court entrance to the mall on the West side.

The once highly anticipated Cinepolis 10 screen movie theater that was not completed. The theater would have connected to the food court. 

The Crayola experience closed in March 2026.

Macy's closed in March 2025 just before my visit. 

Crate and Barrel to the right with the redevelopment that was placed on the Lord and Taylor site. 

Now we will enter the mall at the entrance just outside of the former Macy's/Foley's. 

First impressions are good. This is a very clean and modern looking mall. 

One of the busiest attractions at the mall. The Crayola experience. It closed in March of 2026 unfortunately.

The Macy's corridor was fairly empty on the first floor of the mall.

Despite the lack of stores, the mall is well maintained. The decorative lights were still fully functioning. 

A few stores are popping up on the corridor close to the former Lord and Taylor mall entrance. The mall still had a mix of chain and local businesses. 

A look at the former Lord and Taylor mall entrance. The store was demolished for an outdoor wing featuring Crate and Barrel. We will climb the stairs to the second floor for a look around upstairs.

A few more scattered shops here and there.

The children's play area is also located here.

Neiman Marcus, the only full-sized anchor standing as of this post. It will also leave in January of 2027 to clear the way for the mall structure to be demolished.

One of the many art galleries that are located within the mall. For those of you who have been with the blog for a while, these art galleries were a last-ditch attempt to bring more traffic to the nearby dying Valley View Mall in its final years.

The mall directory just doesn't do the property justice. This mall is huge.

The center court area is very fancy. The skylights really make this area bright and lively despite a lack of shoppers. The fixtures and designs are really nice; this is not your typical bland 2000's mall design.

The former Saks Fifth Avenue anchor court. Saks was also demolished in favor of an outdoor addition to the mall. 

There are a handful of shops as we head towards Dillard's.

The Dillard's court of the mall was the busiest and had the highest percentage of nearby stores still open. 

Looking into the mall from the Dillard's entrance.

The Dillard's first floor court has carpeted floors. We will see a few more areas of the mall with carpets as we continue the tour. 

This is the corridor from Dillard's to the former Saks Fifth Avenue mall court that leads to the District.

We are back to the former Saks mall entrance that now leads to the outdoor area called The District at Willow Bend.

Knife Burger is actually Knife Steakhouse, one of the few remaining restaurants on the property. They are still open as of this post.

The outdoor area called the District at Willowbend.

This mall entrance is really nice. 

The outdoor area was pretty much empty and only had one tenant in operation Whistle Britches, they are still open as of this blog post. 

Just like most of the ideas to bring people into the mall, this did not work out. It looks like some spaces have never been used. This part of the mall will remain standing under the current redevelopment plan. The water fountains run throughout this open area. 

On a Saturday around lunchtime, there were no families and barely anyone walking around this area. Such a waste of a really nice space. 

Back into the mall we go.

I always laugh at these signs. Nothing like trying to scare the few customers the mall still has by locking them in the mall after hours. 

There is this abandoned cafe space in the mall just outside of the Knife Steakhouse.

So many chairs and nobody to use them but me.

An optimistic advertisement for the dying mall.

We will head back to the center of the mall and the food cafes.

Now let's check out the best part of the mall, the food court. You can call it Cafes, Food Hall, or whatever, it is a damn food court!

Not a single store was left on the way to the Cafes.

There was only one food outlet left here in the entire Cafe area. A small Patissery Croissant place. This is such a massive area to practically be empty. The walled off area was supposed to be the Cinepolis Mall entrance that was never opened.

The arena style ceiling inside of this food court is massive. 

A sad, empty water fountain. 

We will come back to the Cafes in a bit. 

Neiman Marcus and the center court of the mall.

The Cafe entrance from a slightly different angle than before.

We are heading back towards the Crate and Barrel/Macy's side of the mall.

Wetzel's Pretzels and Milk and Tea. It was surprising to see these eateries still left in this mall. 

More carpets at the Crate and Barrel mall entrance.

Now for the second outdoor portion of the mall property. This was the former site of the Lord and Taylor that was demolished. Sears was once rumored to replace the Lord and Taylor before the building was demolished. If that would have happened, the mall would have really 

The Equinox is a fancy gym that will remain as part of the current redevelopment plan.

This was the one space, I could not figure out what it used to be. Was it residences or a store?

This is such an odd, abandoned space. If anyone knows what it was, please let me know.

Crate and Barrel, this will be the only retailer left as part of the current redevelopment plan of the mall.

Coincidentally The Bend is what the redevelopment of the mall will be called. 

We are back up to the second floor of the mall to see the last portion of the mall we haven't been to yet. There were a few stores still up here.  

As tempting as it was to take a selfie here, I didn't do it.

Lens Crafters is one of those businesses that seems to stick around malls through thick and thin.

The freshly closed Macy's had only been closed for about a month when we visited the mall.

I had to check out this odd area next to the mall entrance. 

Payphones were probably here at some point. 

Water fountains and a random vending machine were back here. I was guessing the wall in the center was put up to close off restrooms. The older mall directories show restrooms here.

I visited the Farmer's Market later on. You will see a photo of the event as we close out this post. 

More carpets in front of the former Macy's. Lots of comfortable seating here as well.

Only 2 of those businesses were still open on my visit.

A really cool sports memorabilia store that was on the verge of leaving the mall. They were relocating and in the middle of a moving sale. They are now located at the Allen Premium Outlets.

The Macy's/Foley's mall entrance here is nothing special. A lot of the newer or renovated Foley's stores had this look. 

Another selfie photo OP I didn't use.

The Crayola Experience was a relative newcomer to the mall, opening in March of 2018. They permanently closed on March 8, 2026. 

Nothing like fake storefronts in a dead mall. 

Now we will jump back to the food cafe area for a more in-depth look at the empty restaurant spaces. I am not sure what restaurants these were. They did a really good job of clearing signage and menus from these empty restaurant stalls.

This was the one place that was still open that I mentioned earlier. Patissery, a croissant eatery. They had a bell to ring for service.  

The entrance to the never opened Cinepolis. Cinepolis has a few theaters in the DFW Metroplex and one in The Woodlands.

An obvious former Lids location in the middle of the hallway to the food cafes.

Even though this is a relatively new Neiman Marcus, they still have the older looking signage. The Neiman Marcus company that also owns Saks Fifth Avenue recently went through bankruptcy and many locations were closed. This one was already scheduled for closure prior to the bankruptcy.  

The center court water fountains were still operational. I was surprised to see a lot of water fountains in this post 2000 mall. Fountains were beginning to disappear at malls in the 1990's.  

More photos from around the mall.

Another photo of the fake storefront. 

Another fake storefront. 

The California Pizza Kitchen was surprisingly still in operation. This location closed not too long after my visit. There are only 2 locations left in Texas. Memorial City Mall and the DFW Airport. I was surprised to see that so many locations closed in Texas. They had several locations in malls across the state. 

Here is a shot of the Farmer's Market in the parking lot. They had probably 20 businesses setup that afternoon.

Crate and Barrel from the parking lot.

Another view of the Equinox gym.

Neiman Marcus really stands out. The building has a mix of classic and modern designs mixed together. 

A couple more views of the District outdoor area. 

That is all for this extensive tour of The Shops at Willow Bend. As for my next post, it is a toss-up between one of my older archives or a revisit to the Ridgmar Mall from the same 2025 trip. Ridgmar is another DFW mall that has fallen on hard times.