609 replies to this topic

[TexasVeteran]

FYI: WestElm didn't "fail" at West7th. They were forced out. They were doing very well actually, and are actively looking for another FW location. PMG Group (a locally based Marketing firm) had office space in the West 7th office building. When Lucky Strike left the second floor next to Movie Tavern, they also snapped up that space and turned it into offices. Then they wanted to either expand and bring offices down tot he street level, or move. The developer decided a long term lease at office rates was better for them, and wpuld bring more daily users to area for eating/services as well. Y'all would all be surprised just how much office space PMG actually has at "Artisan Circle" (or whatever they are calling it now) because so much of it is "hidden" in former retail & shell space above.

Ironically, Dean & Deluca and a relocated WestElm would be PERFECT for this spot now. Sometimes renderings are a bit ahead of the times! I could also see Pottery Barn moving over and expanding the PB Baby + Kids/PB Teen, & PB Dorm brands.

Also, they have a great newer concept called "Rejuvenation", although I could see that going into the former Bob Gold/Mitchell Williams space at Clearfork or off of Camp Bowie somewhere (maybe the former Domain space at Museum Place?).

Lastly, we don't have an RH Restoration Hardware here. The RH Outlet in far North Fort Worth does BIG numbers and that could be a lead in to them coming to Tarrant County.

[bclaridge]

 

Throwing out some other ideas for consideration:

 

• Wasn't at one time Ikea planning a small format "Planning Studio" concept?  I haven't kept up with it but had read these spaces are 8,000 - 10,000 SQFT.  With all the new apartments, plus TCU dorms and off-campus housing nearby, it would be nice to have some of their basic housewares on-hand for purchase. https://www.modernre...nt-is-changing/

• What about an Amazon Go Market with the cashless walk-out shopping experience.  Is this still a thing?  I think it would be interesting to try it here.

https://www.usatoday...ed/73261433007/

https://www.amazon.c...ode=16008589011

 

• I've often wondered why Amazon doesn't have some type of storefront where you can by common Amazon Basics home furnishings and other necessities and sundries as well as take care of online returns like you do at Whole Foods.  There appears to be a decent loading dock space on the south side of this building which would help with all the drop off and pick-up deliveries.

 

I'm not sure if this is the same "Planning Studio" concept you're referring to, but I do know that IKEA has a Plan and Order Point in Southlake. I could see something like that being a fit for the area; although the IKEA Plan and Order Point is not in Southlake Town Square itself (it's in the Park Village shopping center SW of the Town Square), I usually look towards Southlake to determine what might be good fits for the UPV/WestBend area, as the retail mix is similar. Legacy West and NorthPark, when excluding the high-end luxury tenants (Louis Vuitton, Gucci, etc.), also offer good ideas of what could locate in the UPV/WestBend area. Figuring out which of those retailers are not at UPV/WestBend, and also excluding what is already at Clearfork (and other nearby shopping centers), describes exactly how I compile my list of potential candidates.

This is how I identified Aritzia, Vineyard Vines, and Vuori as potential candidates for fashion retailers, for instance. I think these three are highly likely to open physical locations in Fort Worth in the next few years; I'll also add Reformation (rumored to be looking at Clearfork) as well. To be clear, they are potential candidates for both UPV/WestBend and Clearfork, with the caveat that it is highly doubtful that a candidate retailer would locate in both areas. I should also add TravisMathew and Allen Edmonds to my candidate list too, but I see these as less likely than the first three. Potential beauty/cosmetics retailers to add to my list would include LUSH Cosmetics and L'Occitane en Provence. For home products, I've already identified Nespresso and West Elm as potential candidates, as well as the aforementioned IKEA Plan and Order Point.
 

 

We went for a late lunch today at Shake Shack.  Parking, and the craziness of the parking lot, were a nightmare.  I hope they can find a reasonable solution to parking in their version 2.0.  It was weird because there were not big crowds at Shake Shack or Tyler's, which we visited afterward.  I wondered where all the people who parked in the packed parking lot were going.

Usually the parking garage has been a safe bet in my experience, but getting a ground-level parking spot is usually quite a hassle.

[FortWorthian]

I miss Zoes Kitchen but I dont miss navigating that parking lot.

[Jeriat]

I miss Zoes Kitchen but I dont miss navigating that parking lot.

I just used the garage. 

[bclaridge]

FYI: WestElm didn't "fail" at West7th. They were forced out. They were doing very well actually, and are actively looking for another FW location. PMG Group (a locally based Marketing firm) had office space in the West 7th office building. When Lucky Strike left the second floor next to Movie Tavern, they also snapped up that space and turned it into offices. Then they wanted to either expand and bring offices down tot he street level, or move. The developer decided a long term lease at office rates was better for them, and wpuld bring more daily users to area for eating/services as well. Y'all would all be surprised just how much office space PMG actually has at "Artisan Circle" (or whatever they are calling it now) because so much of it is "hidden" in former retail & shell space above.

Ironically, Dean & Deluca and a relocated WestElm would be PERFECT for this spot now. Sometimes renderings are a bit ahead of the times! I could also see Pottery Barn moving over and expanding the PB Baby + Kids/PB Teen, & PB Dorm brands.

Also, they have a great newer concept called "Rejuvenation", although I could see that going into the former Bob Gold/Mitchell Williams space at Clearfork or off of Camp Bowie somewhere (maybe the former Domain space at Museum Place?).

Lastly, we don't have an RH Restoration Hardware here. The RH Outlet in far North Fort Worth does BIG numbers and that could be a lead in to them coming to Tarrant County.

I'm glad to know West Elm was forced out due to PMG expanding (and the landlord's preference for PMG's lease), instead of failing in that location. They would be a great candidate for part of the Macy's space.

Dean & DeLuca seems to have disappeared; they had a bankruptcy in 2019-2020 and emerged from bankruptcy in 2021, but I'm having trouble finding anything about them now. Dean & DeLuca was considering Legacy West at one point (paywalled article), but backed out in 2017 as they began to contract their store count. Their last physical location in NYC's SoHo district, at 560 Broadway, closed, pre-pandemic, in late 2019. That space is now the Aritzia SoHo flagship.

I do think that Rejuvenation would be a great concept for the old Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams space at Clearfork, if they want to keep that part of the shopping center dedicated to home goods.

I had earmarked the former MG+BW space as being a likely candidate for an Aritzia boutique back in October, particularly after I heard a rumor over on the Dallas Metropolis forum that Aritzia and Reformation were in the process of signing leases at Clearfork back in October. At 9,700 SF, the MG+BW space was the only viable space at Clearfork large enough to accommodate an Aritzia boutique. Then I heard the rumor from an employee at Aritzia Southlake that Aritzia got outbid at Clearfork; I suspect that the space will be split between multiple tenants or go to a high-end luxury retailer (it would probably be hard for a single tenant to outbid Aritzia, unless they were a luxury retailer), but because this is all based on rumors, I still see a possibility that Aritzia could have got the space. With the end of the West Fork Garden Market pop-up this Wednesday (January 15), I suspect we will find out what will actually happen very soon. I do still think Aritzia is likely for Clearfork, albeit most likely now in the C2 building; that said, if my tip about WestBend reaches decision-makers at Aritzia, I do suspect that they would at least consider WestBend, as they could get a boutique in the TCU area much sooner than with the Clearfork C2 building. C2 won't be finished until mid-2026, and that might just be the retail shell (although I suspect tenants could start construction on their spaces once construction on the C2 building advances far enough), so it would be potentially as late as late 2026 or early 2027 before Aritzia could open there. By comparison, I could see the potential for Aritzia to open a boutique by late 2025 at WestBend, potentially even as soon as the start of the fall 2025 semester at TCU, if they act fast.

I think RH would be a candidate for the currently-empty lawn between Ozona Boulevard and Edwards Ranch Road, or perhaps Clearfork Phase 2 on the other side of Edwards Ranch Road. Proquest20 over on the Dallas Metropolis forum has done a pretty good job of identifying potential candidate retailers for multiple upscale shopping centers across DFW, including Clearfork; RH was one of their identified candidates.

[Austin55]

I just park at Trinity Park and bike 

[Doohickie]

Unfortunately, the Market by Macy's at WestBend is on the list of Macy's stores set to close this year.

This is a huge loss for WestBend, as their largest retailer will be closing. With Macy's departure, 25,000 square feet of retail space will become vacant; hopefully they won't have too much trouble finding retailers to occupy the space. I think this retail space (especially if divided/split), alongside what is likely to be a similar amount of retail space coming soon to The Shops at Clearfork (the C2 building), will be among the most desirable spaces for retail leases in Fort Worth.

My wife is a big Macy's fan and does a lot of her clothes shopping at the Hulen store.  We stopped into the Riverbend location several times and she never found anything she liked, and the store always seemed deserted; no life at all.

[Doohickie]

I'm not sure which Grocer would even attempt to go their if TWO separate concepts didn't work. Maybe with the additional multi-family/hotel?

I think you answered your own question.  With the arrival of the multifamily, it could tip the scales in favor of a grocer getting enough support.  It makes me think of Harris Teeter in the Crystal City area of Arlington, VA.  It's on the ground floor of an apartment building. 

[JBB]

I just used the garage.

Came to say the same thing. The garage is underutilized and the elevator drops off about a hundred yards from the Shake Shack entrance. Even closer to everything else.

[bclaridge]

 

I'm not sure which Grocer would even attempt to go their if TWO separate concepts didn't work. Maybe with the additional multi-family/hotel?

I think you answered your own question.  With the arrival of the multifamily, it could tip the scales in favor of a grocer getting enough support.  It makes me think of Harris Teeter in the Crystal City area of Arlington, VA.  It's on the ground floor of an apartment building. 

 

 
I could definitely see the multifamily addition helping push the scales in favor of a grocery store, especially if more multifamily developments take place north of WestBend. I still have my doubts though; until the new Phase 2 multifamily gets built and occupied, I struggle to see a grocery store willing to take a chance on the area, but by then it would be far too late. At this time, the composition of the area remains similar to how it was when The Fresh Market and Tom Thumb had grocery stores there. It could take over 2 years for the new multifamily to get occupied if construction were to start right now (the City of Fort Worth is giving a completion deadline of July 31, 2028 at the latest for grant eligibility), and I don't think either previous grocer lasted 2 years in that space. If they take until the City's deadline, a grocer would need to survive as long as 3 years in that space without the new multifamily, if one were to move in later this year. There's a decent chance that the "Good Faith Effort" to get a grocer might fail; Trademark knows this and was able to convince CFW to not require a grocer there as a result (only that they try). I honestly think a grocery store would be great, but until the new multifamily comes along and people are living there, I struggle to see a grocer wanting to come here.

There are plenty of retailers that might want to come to the area, due to the demand at University Park Village (which should only increase with the Apple Store relocation), but UPV lacks space for them. This is what I see as the more viable, and sustainable, use of the Macy's space; Trademark can capitalize on demand for the area that Simon cannot fulfill at UPV.