Update In Store for NorthPark
First part of $170 million expansion set to open in '05

09:54 AM CST on Monday, December 6, 2004
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

Shoppers at Dallas ' landmark NorthPark Center will find something new for the holidays.

The addition of Nordstrom, a 15-screen movie theater and dozens of new shops will turn the mall's 'U' shape into a square.

Oh, the pecan-covered reindeer decorations are still there, along with the puppet theater and pet adoption booth.

But this year, two sections of the retail center are closed for construction. And your favorite parking space may be behind a construction barricade. A two-year, $170 million expansion at NorthPark will double the number of shops. And at 2 million square feet - slightly larger than the Galleria - the overhaul will make NorthPark the biggest mall in the Dallas area.

The first phase - including a Nordstrom department store - will be ready in time for the shopping mall's 40th anniversary next year.

The rest will open in spring 2006, said Nancy Nasher, who spent 10 years planning the addition to her family's project with her husband, David Haemisegger.

Ms. Nasher and Mr. Haemisegger sat down with The Dallas Morning News this week to detail the expansion plans for the first time. The renovation was delayed after the 9-11 attacks, and preconstruction began quietly in the spring.

"It had to absolutely be a continuation of the existing architecture and design and classic elegance at NorthPark," Ms. Nasher said. "We love what's here - it's been very successful."

That's an understatement. In the decades NorthPark has been open, it's become the grande dame of Dallas retailing.

More than 20 million people a year visit the mall, shopping at Neiman Marcus, Dillard's, Foley's and more than 100 other shops and restaurants.

But in a business where more is better, larger malls are springing up in the suburbs, and shoppers' tastes are changing.

"Our customers want more dining and want to go to theaters and want more retailers" under one roof, Mr. Haemisegger said. "At the same time, they don't want us to ruin what we have here.

"We are very conscious of that."

A two-level addition will link the new Nordstrom store with the existing Foley's and turn NorthPark's "U" shape into a square.

On top of two new stories of shops, a 15-screen AMC movie theater will occupy a third level facing Park Lane .

The mall's new north side will get a grand entrance and a food court with inside and outside dining.

"It's going to be the nicest food court you've ever seen - not just a sea of tables," Mr. Haemisegger said.

Parking galore
Two mammoth parking garages - one along North Central Expressway and the other on Boedeker Drive - will provide spaces for more than 4,000 cars and be tied into the mall with pedestrian bridges. Half of the garage that faces Central has already opened, which may help alleviate traffic congestion.

Shoppers can also ride a free DART shuttle between the Park Lane DART station and the mall. It runs every 15 minutes Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

And while most regional shopping centers try to keep shoppers focused on the inside of the mall, NorthPark's renovation will include a 1.3-acre central garden. That space, which could have been used to generate millions of dollars in additional sales, will have trees, landscaping and art.

"It's never been done before," Ms. Nasher said. "We are still in the process of planning it, but we think it will be a wonderful place for people to enjoy."

Redos are standard operating procedure for most shopping centers. The Galleria and Valley View Center in North Dallas have been remodeled, and Town East Mall in Mesquite is about to undergo its second major renovation since 1986.

NorthPark looks much the same as when it opened in 1965.

"NorthPark's best accolade is that it isn't a trendy center," said Lance Josal, who heads the Dallas office of international architect RTKL Associates Inc. "It isn't bending to each passing whim of retail design.

"NorthPark has a cachet, and it is renowned throughout the retail industry," he said. "It's not as much about what they did but what they chose not to do."

The mall had to earn that reputation.

When developer Raymond Nasher leased a cotton field on Northwest Highway from the Caruth family, the property was at the edge of town. He had to strong-arm some retailers to go into Dallas ' first "climate-controlled" shopping center.

The merchants weren't all convinced that a "mall" could lure tenants away from street-side shopping and downtown stores.

The doubters were left in the dust, and NorthPark became one of the top shopping centers in the country in sales volume. NorthPark still generates about $550 per square foot in annual sales and is expected to be one of the top five retail centers in the country when the expansion is complete.

The average regional mall or urban shopping center generates about $300 to $325 per square foot in annual rents, said Mickey Ashmore, president of retail real estate broker United Commercial Realty.

"The expansion is going to make NorthPark the premier mall in Texas ," said Mr. Ashmore. "The only one that will rival it at all will be the Galleria in Houston ."

Traditional look
Don't look for the trendy architecture or the splashy high-tech signs that characterize other shopping center renovations.

NorthPark's addition will have the white brick walls, concrete floors and clear glass windows used 39 years ago, Ms. Nasher said. "We are maintaining the integrity of the design."

That's been a bit tricky, since the brick company that made NorthPark's white masonry went out of business eight years ago.

"We were fortunate to get Acme Brick to work with us to match our brick," Mr. Haemisegger said. "We use a lot of it and are going to be buying more."

The expansion was crafted by Dallas architect Omniplan, which also designed NorthPark. The planners have stayed away from atriums, ice rinks and reflective glass.

"There is a simple architecture throughout the entire complex," said Steve Winslow, an Omniplan principal who also worked on the mall's 1974 expansion. "NorthPark was one of the first large-scale malls to have unity of materials and a controlled program of graphics."

Of course, what really grabs people's attention at a shopping mall are the shops. "In the last year, we've added 15 stores, and we are talking with many more," Ms. Nasher said.

Kate Spade, Stuart Weitzman, Billy Reid, Ralph Lauren and Silk Trading Co. have joined the lineup recently. Some of those stores will move when the new wing opens, Mr. Haemisegger said.

"We are going to cluster certain types of tenants in certain areas - that's a key to this whole project," he said.

"Here every space is very important to us because we have just one" shopping center, Mr. Haemisegger said.

It's up to the Nashers
Until this year, NorthPark was one of the only shopping malls in the country owned by a single family.

In May, California-based Macerich Co. - one of the country's largest shopping mall owners - bought a 50 percent interest in the center from the Nasher family. Macerich gave the Nashers $75 million in cash and assumed about $85 million in existing debt.

The Nashers will continue to operate the mall and are responsible for the expansion.

Chris Morris / DMN

And when the current redevelopment is finished, NorthPark's owners will still have enough land to eventually add a hotel and office buildings.

The Nashers are also working on plans for the vacant 125,000-square-foot Lord & Taylor store between Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom. The two-level, 30-year-old store may be turned into space for several new tenants or knocked down to make way for more construction.

"We have enough room so that nothing is being sandwiched in here," Mr. Haemisegger said. "Many times when centers are expanded, they jam the department store wherever they can get it in, and it never quite works.

"The goal here is for everything to be consistent so there is no new space and old space."

E-mail stevebrown@dallasnews.com

EVOLUTION OF A MALL
1965: NorthPark Center, developed by Raymond Nasher, opens at North Central Expressway and Park Lane (hence the NorthPark name) with Neiman Marcus, J.C. Penney and Titche-Goettinger department stores.

1974: The mall expands with the addition of Lord & Taylor (now closed) and a new wing on the northwest side.

2001: Foley's opens on the site of a demolished J.C. Penney store.

2004: The Nasher family sells a half interest in NorthPark to Macerich Co. of California for $75 million in cash and $85 million in assumed debt. Work begins in the summer on a $170 million expansion.

2006: Construction will be completed by spring on the addition of more than 100 shops and restaurants, a three-level, 200,000-square-foot Nordstrom department store, a food court, a 15-screen AMC theater and more than 4,000 parking garage spaces. Existing shopping center corridors will also be remodeled. When completed, the shopping center will increase to more than 2 million square feet.

DID YOU KNOW?
NorthPark still has three of its original tenants: Neiman Marcus, Zales and Richard Eiseman jewelers.

All the Christmas trees in the center are planted after the holidays. "We hand pick the trees from Michigan," says Nancy Nasher. She is the daughter of NorthPark founder Ray Nasher and owns a 50 percent interest in the mall with her husband, David Haemisegger.

The herd of pecan-covered reindeer in the Christmas displays dates from NorthPark's first Christmas. "That was my mother's idea," Ms. Nasher said. "We have to be really careful when we store them."

More than 60,000 visitors come to the annual model train display set up for the holidays.

Last year, more than 360 dogs and cats found homes through at NorthPark's pet adoption booth.

More than 70 works of original art - sculpture, paintings, etc. - owned by Mr. Nasher are displayed in the mall.

On the south side of the mall, sharp-eyed shoppers may notice a row of handprints and footprints in the concrete floor. "That was made on June 25, 1965," Ms. Nasher said. "This is my mom and my two sisters and me. This is a special spot in the mall for me."

SOURCES: Dallas Morning News research; NorthPark Center

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