I just have this question since I want to get into retail professionally ...Why is it that Dallas seems to have more upscale shopping centers, Northpark,Highland Park, Galleria, and Willowbend in Plano all of them tote highend designer labels at these centers.
Houston has the Galleria it seems to just have the monopoly powerhouse of luxe in Houston. Highland Village,Rice Village,Uptown Park all are nice an have boutiques but nonsport major designer labels at their centers.
Disclaimer: I'm not trying to be vain or shallow. Lets keep this clean an dignified I want legit answers/response since Ive seen what happened in the "Is Dallas newer than Houston" thread I hope this goes well
that's a hard one to answer. I don't guess there is one right answer to this. maybe it has to do with Hines early start at luxury shopping in Houston and establishing the benchmark no others could follow. it seems like T&C might have been a designer store emporium but had bad management and no direction. Hines tried to repeat it's success with the Dallas Galleria but apparantly the location of NorthPark was just to good to beat. Galleria Dallas has a great location, but it's not smack in the middle of the best demographics in the Dallas area for high end shopping like NP. so that's caused a disparigment between the high end stores. from what I've read HP Village was just a neighborhood shopping center till the early 80s when it was repositioned as a high end center. this created yet another luxury center. and as for Willow Bend, the market was just chasing the money towards the suburbs. luckily for Houston it's large and sprawling enough to envelop it's most affluent areas within it's boundries. and from what I know Neiman Marcus contacted Taubman (Willow Bend's developer) so that they could provide a mall to anchor within that demographic (West Plano). NM chose to sit right in the middle of the demographic than go into the Galleria and be at it's fringes. basically the Dallas Galleria borders Dallas' affluent areas and Collin County's affluent areas as opposed to being right in the middle like Houston's.
up till the point the Houston Galleria was renovated I would have said that Dallas was ahead of the upscale retail scene by a hair. now I think it's even with the management brought in by Simon. they have been able to attract some pretty major names in the last few years that Dallas does not have yet. but NP's expansion in Dallas might just do the same. Galleria Dallas' renovation has brought a boon of new names also. basically you should be comparing NP to the Houston Galleria. Galleria Dallas while still being a top drawer mall will have to play second fiddle in the Dallas arena. I guess I 'll stop rambling about this whole thing and point out some store that each city has or doesn't have. either way, both place are great for designer shopping.
Houston Texas exclusives- Bvlgari, Giorgio Armani, David Yurman, YSL, Fendi, Carolina Herrera, Bally, Feragamo
Dallas Texas exclusives- Faconable, Calvin Klein, Escada (2), Calypso, Anne Fontaine, Porthault, Robert Talbot, Custo Barcelona, Via Spiga, Celine, Hugo Boss,
Tod's (soon) Loro Piano