Steve Levin, Centennial founder and CEO, and Brad Alberts, Stars president and CEO, speak with The News in Dallas, June 5, 2026.
Azul Sordo/The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Stars say they never wanted to leave American Airlines Center.
But after more than a year of discussions with Dallas about staying, it couldn’t solve the problem that mattered most to the Stars. Instead, the hockey franchise found in Plano what it could not secure in Dallas: a partner with 90 acres of controllable real estate and a city that moved quickly.
“They got it done in an unbelievably quick fashion, coordinated communication between the developer and us. Fantastic governmental process,” Stars CEO Brad Alberts told The Dallas Morning News.
Now, the Dallas Stars are looking to move to the Shops at Willow Bend mall site in Plano, marking the end of a decades-long relationship in Dallas.
Their potential new home will be only a couple miles away from telecom giant AT&T’s campus, another high-profile departure that has sharpened concerns Dallas is losing ground to suburban rivals for businesses, investment and attractions.
As Plano moved toward approving agreements tied to the Stars arena project, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson and City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said they hadn’t given up and were in regular contact with the team to try to keep them.
Alberts saw it differently. Johnson “can say whatever he wants,” the Stars CEO said. But “we’re engaged” to Plano, he said. “Our intention is to get married.”
Yet Alberts insists the Stars did not set out to part ways with Dallas. The team had been mulling ways to stay in the AAC in Victory Park, first in a continued partnership with the Mavericks, and when that didn’t work, as a hockey-only facility.
“The Stars never wanted to leave AAC,” he said. “Our plan, our ownership’s plan, always was to stay there.”
Alberts also said the Stars’ preference was to remain at AAC alongside the Mavericks. “We wanted to stay together with the Mavs,” he said. “They didn’t.”
Dallas spent more than a year in talks trying to keep the Stars. Alberts said the city never found an answer at the center of those discussions: how to give the franchise room to grow beyond the AAC.
When the negotiations were not progressing, the Mavericks flagged that the Stars had breached their 1998 contract by building their offices in Frisco. The city later affirmed the breach of contract and appeared to have sided with the basketball team ahead of a potential legal fight. That was in October 2024.
The turning point
In November, Alberts said got help from a friend, Mark Masinter, chairman of global retail for real estate firm Newmark.
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Alberts told him the Stars might need to find a new home. Masinter said he suggested the Willow Bend property.
Because a growing portion of the team’s fan base lives in the northern subrubs, Masinter told Alberts that Plano would be “a remarkable location for a new arena.”
He connected Alberts with Steven Levin, CEO of Dallas-based Centennial Real Estate.
Levin, at the time, had purchased Plano’s Shops at Willow Bend to create a mixed-use mecca, but a conversation gave Levin a better idea: turning the mall site into a sports and entertainment district project.
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A rendering for the proposed new development for the planned Dallas Stars arena and entertainment complex.
Courtesy of Centennial
Alberts said he hadn’t considered Willow Bend as a potential arena location. But the prospect offered a fix to a problem the Stars said had complicated their future at AAC. The team wanted greater control of surrounding real estate and more opportunities to generate revenue beyond game nights.
The sports business has changed. Teams increasingly rely on year-round entertainment districts and attractions that generate revenue well beyond game nights.
Luxury seating, premium suites and new amenities designed to keep fans engaged and spending money are among the industry’s biggest priorities.
For that to work in Dallas, Alberts said they needed to purchase properties for expansion beyond the AAC footprint.
“First of all, you have to have someone that wants to sell it to us,” he said. The team owners also would have to come up with enough capital to even purchase what’s available. “It’s an enormous price tag,” he said. “We don’t control any of the real estate down there.”
Alberts said the challenge dates to the creation of Victory Park, when the arena and surrounding real estate ended up under separate ownership. “The issue was created 25 years ago when the separation occurred,” he said. “Victory was separated from the arena.”
He said the arrangement complicated efforts to create the kind of entertainment district the Stars wanted around AAC. “This has been kind of the centerpiece of the discussions with Dallas,” he said.
Plano’s pitch
The Crate & Barrel store with the closed Macy’s department story are seen in an aerial view of The Shops at Willow Bend on Feb. 5, 2026, in Plano.
Smiley N. Pool/Staff Photographer
While Dallas tried to resolve those issues, Plano got to work.
From the time he first met Plano officials in November 2024, Alberts said the city moved quickly. By the following June, Plano had put together a public financing proposal worth about $700 million.
“That’s unbelievable,” he said.
Plano came back to the Stars within six months with funding strategies.
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“It’s seamless to me. It’s how it should be,” Alberts said. “I mean, just professional, timely. Everyone, council, staff all united behind it, communication crystal clear.”
“What they said when they said they were interested, they said what they would get done. They got it done,” he said.
Asked whether Dallas had shown the same level of communication, Alberts declined to answer.
“No comment,” he said. “You guys can figure it out.”
Even as the Plano proposal advanced, the Stars continued hearing from people who wanted the team to stay and reviewing other sites.
“There’s been a lot of overtures for over a year,” Alberts said. “There’s been a lot of discussion.”
But moving to Willow Bend, clustered along the growing Dallas North Tollway corridor, places the proposed arena closer to many of the companies and fans who support the Stars.
“In a lot of ways, what happened was an unbelievable gift to us in the franchise,” Alberts said.
Staff writer Nick Wooten contributed to this report.