The Shops at Willow Bend

The Shops at Willow Bend, sometimes referred to as Willow Bend Mall, is a shopping mall located in Plano, Texas, with 47 stores and two anchor stores. The mall features the retailers Neiman Marcus, and Crate & Barrel, in addition to Equinox. It currently features several additional prominent specialty retailers such as Brooks Brothers, J. Jill, Johnston & Murphy and Allen Edmonds. It is located at the intersection of West Park Boulevard (Farm to Market Road 544) and Dallas North Tollway in West Plano.

The Shops at Willow Bend opened on August 3, 2001, with occupancy near 75% and four anchor stores: Foley's, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, and Dillard's.^[5] An estimated 250,000 visitors showed up to the mall during its opening weekend.^[6] It faced several challenges from the beginning. The mall opened shortly before the September 11 attacks when nationwide retail sales slowed considerably. In addition to Galleria Dallas, located under 10 miles to the south, Stonebriar Centre previously opened less than a year before on August 4, 2000, just a few miles north in nearby Frisco.^[7] Stonebriar was also considerably larger, offered more amenities and entertainment such as a movie theater and ice rink, and offered a wider selection of shops and restaurants with broad appeal. Meanwhile, the Galleria Dallas, seven miles to the south, was already an established high end mall with broad appeal, including high end tenants such as Saks Fifth Avenue. The collapse of the telecom corridor to the east of the centers trade area further hampered the mall’s performance.

The mall was developed and originally managed by Taubman Centers, which was highly selective in accepting tenants. Despite being designed as a regional shopping center with over 1,500,000 square feet (140,000 m²) of space, management originally planned to limit the focus of Willow Bend shoppers to upscale stores which would appeal to an affluent clientele. The four original anchor stores were Dillard's, Foley's, Lord & Taylor, and Neiman Marcus. The Lord & Taylor and Neiman Marcus stores were replacements for those at the since-demolished Prestonwood Town Center in north Dallas.

In 2004, Saks Fifth Avenue was added as a fifth anchor.^[5] By 2005, Lord & Taylor shuttered entirely.

In 2006, Foley's became Macy's.

In August 2010, Saks Fifth Avenue announced it would be shuttering entirely as part of a strategy implemented to improve profit margins substantially by electing to shutter nearly thirty five percent of its entire base over the course of several years.^[8] In 2011, a new Crate & Barrel opened in the original Lord & Taylor structure which had been reconstructed.

In 2014, the mall was sold as part of a 7 property package to Starwood Capital Group for approximately $1.4 billion.^[9]

In 2015, it was announced the mall would undergo a $126 million renovation with the original Saks Fifth Avenue structure being reconstructed with internal and external facing restaurants and entertainment venues.^[10]

In March 2018, the 60,000-square-foot Crayola Experience opened between Macy's and the food court.^[11][12]

In March 2019, Apple announced the closure of their locations at The Shops at Willow Bend and Stonebriar Centre due to excessive patent lawsuits in the Eastern district of Texas. Both stores permanently closed on April 12, 2019, and a new store opened a day later at Galleria Dallas as a replacement.

In March 2020, Starwood Retail lost ownership of the mall due to being unable to refinance a $135.7 million loan, and the mall ended up under control of Trigild, a property management company. This led to the redevelopment progress being put to a sudden stop, and the closure of the construction site of a Cinépolis movie theatre, at 85% completion. Plans for other proposed components of the redevelopment, such as an office tower and a boutique hotel, were abandoned, and the movie theatre was never completed.^[13][14]

In April 2021, Louis Vuitton closed their leased boutique inside of Neiman Marcus and relocated to a larger stand-alone boutique in Legacy West, joining tenants such as J. Crew which had also relocated there from Willow Bend.

In April 2022, Anthropologie announced they would be moving from the center, to the nearby Stonebriar Centre.

In May 2022, Dallas-based real estate investment company Centennial and New York-based Waterfall Asset Management purchased the mall, promising to complete the movie theater and continue redeveloping the property. However, the theater site still sits abandoned and the mall continues to decline as they continue to negotiate new plans.^[15]

On January 15, 2023, Vineyard Vines closed their store at the mall.^[16]

In April 2023, it was announced the mall would be updated one more time including transforming the northern section of the mall into an open air shopping center featuring additional retail stores, an 18-story hotel, a 7-story office building and three 5-story buildings with 960 apartments. Construction is expected to take place in 2025.^[17] In addition to these plans, stores like LUSH Handmade Cosmetics, and Brighton Collectibles closed their doors.

On January 9, 2025, it was announced that Macy's would be closing as part of a plan to close 66 stores nationwide. The store closed on March 23, 2025.^[18]

On February 24, 2025, the Plano City Council approved the redevelopment plans.^[19]

Following the closure announcement of Macy’s, developers updated their plans to demolish the southern wing of the mall.

On September 18, 2025, Saks Global announced its plans to close the Neiman Marcus store in January 2027. ^[20]

On November 11, 2025, it was announced that Dillard's would be closing by 2026. Following the closures of Dillard's and Neiman Marcus, Crate & Barrel will be the only remaining anchor left.^[21] The store permanently closed in January 2026.

On February 7, 2026, the Crayola Experience was found temporarily closed due to delinquent rent. The attraction re-opened on February 28th, 2026, but closed permanently on March 8, 2026.^[22]

On February 27, 2026, it was reported that the City of Plano had been in discussions with the Dallas Stars to build a new arena on the mall site as part of the redevelopment.^[23]

On March 5, 2026, North Texas Performing Arts shared an update that they would be required to leave The Shops at Willow Bend by the end of the year to make way for redevelopment.^[24]

Source:^[25]

• Neiman Marcus (153,300 sq ft., opened 2001, but will close in 2027 due to their parent company, Saks Global.)^[26]
• Crate & Barrel (29,000 sq ft., opened 2011, built on pad of former Lord & Taylor)

• Lord & Taylor (140,000 sq ft., opened 2001, closed 2005, demolished 2010)^[5]
• Saks Fifth Avenue (122,900 sq ft., opened 2004, closed 2010, demolished 2016)
• Macy's (200,000 sq ft., opened as Foley's in 2001, renamed Macy's in 2006, closed 2025.)
• Dillard's (249,200 sq ft., opened 2001, closed 2026.)

• List of shopping malls in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
• Galleria Dallas
• Stonebriar Mall

• Official website

33°1′51″N 96°49′57″W / 33.03083°N 96.83250°W / 33.03083; -96.83250