The Dallas Stars offered the first sneak peek at their planned $3 billion arena and entertainment complex in Plano.
The first public rendering shows a high-level view of the development at the Willow Bend mall location with the team’s new home getting a prime spot in the plans. The image was shown to the City Council at Monday’s meeting as members unanimously four items tied to the proposed development.
The rendering shows the site from an eagle-eye view with the Dallas North Tollway at the front of the image. The hockey arena is set near the back left portion of the site and illuminated in neon green. The roof is topped by a giant Dallas Stars logo. Open spaces provide walking areas for visitors.
In front of the arena is a large, multilevel parking garage that nearly comes up to the road. Smaller mid-rise buildings that look like apartments sit to the left of the arena. Taller, high-rise buildings like hotels and apartments sit on the right half of the site and border the tollway.
Plano City Council approved the rezoning for the site in 2025. Initial plans called for 800,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space, up to 965 residential units, a high-rise hotel and a mid-rise office building.
Two owners of the Willow Bend site, outgoing Centennial CEO Steven Levin and Bill Cawley of Cawley Partners, told The Dallas Morning News in March that plans at the site are flexible, and a 20,000-seat arena could be built without impeding their proposed development.
Entertainment is expected to now take a larger portion of the development with the arena, and Cawley said up to 2 million square feet of office space could be built at the site depending on market demand.
City officials estimated the value of the arena and the surrounding district at $3 billion. The cost of constructing the arena is estimated at around $1 billion or more, and the city plans to contribute $700 million in funding through bonds backed by revenue from a tax increment reinvestment zone, according to city documents.
Plano officials approved the following four items at Monday’s meeting tied to the arena project:
The rendering, which will likely change as project planning begins, comes after the Stars announced last week they have signed a nonbinding letter of intent to build an arena and entertainment district at The Shops at Willow Bend site.
The letter was submitted to the City Council and placed on the agenda for a vote.
The roughly 90-acre mall property at 6121 W. Park Blvd. emerged as the favorite to land the franchise when the Stars began exploring options outside Dallas last fall.
The mall has been under pressure and seen closures, including anchor Dillard’s shuttering around January of this year after Macy’s shut down.
Levin and Cawley told The News that Willow Bend’s demolition would begin in 2027. Documents filed with the city council show the owners initially plan to demolish the inline space of the mall, the theater as well as the Dillard’s and Crayola buildings.