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The Dallas Galleria opened in 1982 at the conjunction of a tollway and an interstate, a textbook definition of a 100 percent location. For 20 years it was a money machine for developer Gerald Hines--an instant satellite city containing a hotel, office towers, movie theaters, and a glass-vaulted shopping mall with a skating rink, food court, jogging track, and other trendy amenities. It was more coherent and architecturally sophisticated than its Houston prototype, which Hines opened in 1970. (Both malls were inspired by the 19th-century Galleria in Milan, Italy.) It also happened to be the luxury mall closest to Dallas's affluent northern suburbs.
But with the emergence of new retail concepts such as power centers and lifestyle centers, and major upgrades to competing malls, including the premiere NorthPark Center, the Galleria lost its cachet. Sales slumped, name retailers left, and the entire project suddenly looked passé. USB Realty eventually bought it from Hines, in 2002, and embarked on a $70 million renovation to get it back in the regional retail game.
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"When we compared it to newer malls in Dallas, it looked so tired," recalls Cathy Simon of SMWM, who collaborated with Hargreaves Associates and Omniplan of Dallas on the turnaround. "It had old ficus trees, lots of boring pink and brown granite, and no sense of place."
Tired doesn't begin to describe the situation. Circulation was poor, the mix of stores perplexing (boutiques and kids' stores side by side), and there were no public spaces where...