PLANO — On streets tucked behind brick walls and wooden fences near The Shops at Willow Bend, the last traditional mall built in Texas, big boxy homes fill the mazelike streets in neighborhoods with names like Wyndham Hill and Glen Meadows.
Neat yards boast signs for homeowner associations and high schools. There’s a golf course nearby, a megachurch and The Home Depot. And, of course, the sprawling mall, which never quite became the bustling retail hub it was intended to be when it went up in 2001.
Now the emptying shopping center could be where the Dallas Stars hockey team find their new home, and some nearby residents have greeted the idea with both glee and gloom.
Some local hockey fans are thrilled at the prospect of welcoming the region’s NHL team just down the road. The team’s officials have cited a suburban customer base in their search for a potential new home north of Dallas.
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Others, like Plano resident Julia Horne, worry it would be “a disaster” for local neighborhoods. She said her area in West Plano “is incompatible” with an entertainment district. Still, most neighbors agree an update at the troubled mall’s property is long overdue.
The divided views highlight deeper questions about how the site should be redeveloped and whether an arena fits.
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“They need to do something else with the site, because it’s obviously not working as it currently is,” said Steve Triolet of Texas-based Partners Real Estate. “Now there’s a huge debate of … does an arena make the most sense for that location?”
‘Earnest discussions’
For the past year, city officials say they’ve been in “earnest discussions” with the NHL team regarding a potential arena district at The Shops at Willow Bend site, part of an effort to lure the Stars out of Dallas.
While the city says it has not made a formal offer — and the Stars remain noncommittal about a potential move — the mall’s tenants are seeing changes.
North Texas Performing Arts is making plans to move out of the mall and Crayola Experience has closed. Dillard’s, the last big retail anchor in the mall, said it was closing late last year.
City officials will not comment further until a proposal is ready for formal consideration by the City Council, Plano spokesperson Amanda McNew said.
If the Stars do move north, they will join a litany of sports teams exiting more urban and downtown areas for the suburbs — like the Atlanta Braves leaving the city for Cobb County in 2017, the San Francisco 49ers moving to Santa Clara in 2014 and at home, the Dallas Cowboys relocating to Arlington in 2009.
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‘Complete gridlock’
The possibility has residents near the mall pondering a future just blocks away from a major sports venue.
The area of West Plano is largely made up of affluent residential neighborhoods near Parker Road and the Dallas North Tollway. The mall itself sits at the intersection of the tollway and West Park Boulevard.
A chief concern of the mall’s neighbors is what a stadium could mean for traffic.
Michelle Reynolds, 71, has lived in Carrollton for decades. Her house is just a few miles from the mall, but she already avoids the shopping center these days because of the traffic. She doesn’t see how the area’s roads could accommodate an arena.
“Unless they change the roadways somehow and do something different, which will also be a mess because it would be under construction, I just don’t know how … people [will get] in and out of there without a complete gridlock,” she said.
An aerial view of The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano, Monday, May 2, 2022.
Brandon Wade / Special Contributor
Triolet said traffic is a valid concern in the area, which is already congested. Dallas Area Rapid Transit operates a couple of bus routes near the mall, but no train line passes through.
“That’s bad from an attendance standpoint,” Triolet said. “You don’t have mass transit as an option.”
Plano nearly put its membership in DART to a vote this year, but decided to stay in the public transit system in exchange for some sales tax back from the agency for its own transportation needs. The city is adding on-demand microtransit service from Via, the same company Arlington uses to provide rideshare-style service.
Residents have voiced concern over construction on the potential arena project, which could take years. If the Stars chose to leave Dallas, they’d likely begin construction on an arena in the next two or three years to be ready for the 2031-32 season, when their lease at American Airlines Center is up.
The 1.4 million-square-foot mall is already the subject of redevelopment plans.
An exterior view of The Shops at Willow Bend mall at West Park Boulevard and the Dallas North Tollway in Plano, Oct. 28, 2025.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
In 2024, Plano’s City Council approved a multiyear redevelopment project for the mall to replace empty retail space with apartments, offices and a hotel to help support a smaller shopping center. Several residents spoke in opposition to the plan at the time, and said they want to see a mall remain without the non-shopping uses added.
Horne, 68, moved into a brand new house in the Willow Bend area less than a year ago. She liked the neighborhood because it was quiet and established.
She would never have bought the lot or built the house had she known it might soon neighbor a noisy and high-trafficked sports arena.
“I’m worried about not only our investment value, but also just quality of life,” she said. “Our quality of life could just be ruined by this.”
‘Unbelievable for Plano’
Brad Alberts, president and CEO of the Dallas Stars, has said the region’s growth northward contributed to the team’s search for a new home in the suburbs, which cater to more of the team’s fan base.
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Billy Embody moved to Plano four years ago and said if the Stars make the move, he’d buy season tickets as soon as he could.
He only makes the — at times hour-long — drive down to Dallas for a game every now and then, despite loving to play and watch hockey. He’d love for the team to move to the mall’s site.
“It would be unbelievable for Plano,” he said. “There’s a lot of people up here that would love to go to a Stars game if it were within 15 minutes.”
He said an arena at the site of the beleaguered shopping mall could be a “shot in the arm” for the city.
A new development could include a variety of features such as restaurants, hotels and housing, with ample parking to help reduce traffic congestion, he said.
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“If the Stars are going to do this, I think they’re going to do it right,” he said. “All sorts of different pockets of Plano … would benefit from this.”
Securing the team could help put Plano “on the map,” he said, more than it already is. Tax revenue from the project could go to improving the city’s schools, public safety and infrastructure.
If the city loses the Stars, “it could be a black eye for Dallas,” Triolet said.
Reynolds, the Carrollton resident, said, “It’s a shame that everyone’s leaving Dallas when they’re Dallas teams. They are represented by their city. They should be in their city.”
Triolet said sports franchises will likely play cities off each other to get the best deal.
“The city of Plano is going to bend over backwards and try and entice [the Stars],” he said. “On the flip side, the city of Dallas is going to try and keep them.”
Email tips on all things Collin County to lilly.kersh@dallasnews.com.