Editor’s note: This story is part of a special report, “State of Play,” which examines the suitability of key North Texas locations most likely to be considered as a potential home for a new Dallas Mavericks arena complex.
Developer Scott Beck won’t confirm whether representatives of the Dallas Mavericks are scoping out his Valley View Center property for a new NBA arena.
But with 110 acres at the corner of Preston Road and Interstate 635, it is one of the largest undeveloped properties in Dallas with clear potential as the basketball franchise moves on from the aging American Airlines Center downtown.
The Valley View Center site is a sprawling dead zone with plenty of hope but more than a decade of promises for transformation that have not yet materialized. With its location between downtown and the suburbs and its spot within the city’s 450-acre International District planned for housing, retail and a Central Park-like greenspace, real estate hawks see the old mall site as an obvious candidate for the hometown team’s future.
D-FW Real Estate News
“It makes a lot of sense for it to have a stadium there,” said Steve Triolet, senior vice president of research for Partners real estate firm. “It checks all the boxes. It’s as perfect as you can get. It’s just is that where they want to go?”
Dallas Mavericks CEO Rick Welts declined to answer whether the team was considering Valley View but hopes to decide on a new home in early 2026.
“We continue our process of evaluating sites suggested by the City of Dallas,” Welts said.
Old signage for Valley View Mall stands at the former location in North Dallas, on Monday, Jan. 03, 2022.
Ben Torres / Special Contributor
After opening in 1973, Valley View was a shopping hub for decades. Then the mall went into decline and the structures were demolished between 2019 and 2023.
Beck Ventures purchased the mall in 2012 with a plan to redevelop it into what was then called Dallas Midtown, a mixed-use project with boutique shopping, luxury hotels, office towers and restaurants.
In 2013 the city created a 450-acre planned development zone encompassing Valley View and the nearby Galleria Dallas, pitching it as a walkable neighborhood to also attract global businesses. The plan, now called the International District, came with a massive rezoning to accommodate the $4 billion projected development.
Valley View’s redevelopment never materialized, Beck said, in part because of logistical issues with the city not installing sewer lines. The city had pledged a $36 million incentive package that expired with the lack of development. Beck Ventures began marketing the 110 acres for sale earlier this year with two other property owners, Seritage Growth Properties and fitness brand Life Time, at an undisclosed price. That was after the owners completed the $10 million sanitary sewer installation on their own, Beck said.
The city’s 2013 rezoning of the 450-acre International District into a planned development allows for a variety of uses, effectively creating potential for “a satellite downtown” in North Dallas, Beck said.
Valley View Mall through the years
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Nick Starling, a city spokesperson, could not confirm whether the planned development district could accommodate a stadium because it is a form based code, which regulates physical structures unlike dividing land uses into zones.
But even if it does require a zoning change, Triolet, of Partners real estate, doesn’t see that as a stumbling block.
One of the site’s strengths is its location and population density in between the central business district and the suburbs, Triolet said
“It’s one of the busiest areas,” he said.
Valley View is close to the Dallas North Tollway, of one of the main north-south arteries, and sits next to I-635, making accessibility a nonissue. There is also a long-discussed plan for an autonomous transportation system, also called a “people mover,” to connect the Galleria and Valley View, building on the dream for a walkable district that doesn’t depend on cars.
The old mall has 20,000 parking spaces, Beck said, but any new development would likely have its own structured parking.
Even though the original Dallas Midtown project failed to materialize, Beck said the vision for a vibrant blend of entertainment and midtown-living remains the same – what he calls an “eatertainment district.”
The site is built to have a grid with long pedestrian streets with restaurants, retail, apartments and offices on top. But the options of what could go inside are endless, he said.
“Could you then take a part of that and say ‘that’s going to be a stadium?’ Absolutely,” Beck said. “Could you say that’s going to be the new AT&T corporate campus? Absolutely. Could it be some other corporate campus? Absolutely.”
Traffic on Preston passes the former Valley View Mall site on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025, in Dallas.
Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer
Beck said his development group will be announcing a mixed use development on a portion of the site in about a month, but it doesn’t preclude another large user from landing there as well.
“It’s upsetting that it’s taken this long to get started, but it will be a world class development,” Beck said. “It’s an important area to the city, it’s an important area to our family and to our company.”
Although none of the parties would confirm if the site is on the table for the Mavericks, there is a history. Before Mark Cuban sold his majority stake in the team in 2023, someone wanted him to take a look at Valley View.
It didn’t go very far.
“A broker approached me,” Cuban confirmed in an email to The Dallas Morning News. “I asked what the price of VV would be. He told me the market price. I said no thank you.”
Former staff writer Ramzi Abou Ghalioum contributed to this report