Richardson Square Mall: Richardson, Texas on DeadMalls.com

RICHARDSON SQUARE MALL: RICHARDSON, TX

Stephen Moreland's Commentary

Posted February 13, 2008 (user submitted)

Richardson Square, a shopping center mall, located at the intersection of Plano and Belt Line Roads in Richardson, TX closed in the spring of 2007.Ross Dress for Less, Sears and Super Target remain open. I can�t say it�s a surprise, though. Upon my visit to Richardson Square in October 2006, there were only 41 merchants that remained open. This was a 45% decrease from my prior visit in April, 2006.

During my October visit, there might have been 75-100 visitors in the entire mall, on a Saturday no less. And most of these were just walking around � not very many people were actually in the stores. There were very few national chains that remained open. Tenants were mostly local or regional stores and lightly visited. And considering what lease space costs at malls these days, I�m only guessing that the remaining tenants weren�t even making enough money to pay the rent.

What are the ultimate reasons for Richardson Square�s demise? I think they were basically these:

No Curb Appeal. Richardson Square opened in 1977 and only once in 20 years did they attempt a facelift at all, in 1998. And this was basically paint and new tile on the inside � nothing on the outside to draw visitors. It�s like placing your house on the market � it better have curb appeal or no one is going to come inside to see your newly remodeled kitchen.

I just visited Richardson Square again on Saturday, 5/19/07, kind of checking it out one last time. The doors were locked. Besides the mall proper, the perimeter stores are lacking in curb appeal, as well. Some of the buildings look almost deserted, even though they were open for business.

Location, Location, Location. Traffic in Dallas-Fort Worth almost dictates that a shopping center or mall be relatively easy to reach. Unless you lived fairly close to Richardson Square, you more than likely will be coming from I-635. Richardson Square is about five miles and several traffic lights from I-635.

Age Demographics. The age demographics of an area could be an influence as well. If the neighborhoods close to the mall have a lot of teenagers, 20-, 30-, and 40-somethings, there will probably be good mall traffic. If the surrounding communities have a lot of retirees, or close-to-it�s, then the mall traffic is less. Richardson Square was in a well-established neighborhood.

Failure To Keep Up With Shoppers� Trends. Malls must constantly re-invent themselves to entice current customers to come back, and to attract new visitors. Richardson Square did not do this. For years, malls could rely just on their novelty to attract crowds. Remember when it was an adventure just to �go to the mall?� You�d go to just gawk at the phenomenon. Now there had better be a lot more than just shopping! Malls have carousels, play areas, food courts, and ice rinks to draw families. On any weekend, there might be a car show, a fashion show, contests, celebrity appearances and tons of other events to draw visitors. Regular recipients of my newsletter may have noticed that Richardson Square was never in my list of events.

What is to become of Richardson Square? According an article in the July 21, 2006 Dallas Business Journal, a major portion of the mall will be demolished to make room for a Lowe�s Home Improvement Center. The demolition is now pretty much complete as of December, 2007.

Kevin McNerney’s Commentary:

User submitted Aug 2008

Stephen Moreland laid out the reasons for Richardson Square's demise pretty well, but he left out one important factor: The mall was owned by Simon, and that corporation opened Firewheel Town Center in neighboring Garland, just seven miles away. When Firewheel opened in October, 2005, the Dillard's, Barnes & Noble and Old Navy stores (and maybe a few others) moved there and closed their Richardson Square locations.

The loss of these large tenants to Firewheel--a brand-new, open-air, New Urbanist "lifestyle center"--certainly contributed to the end of Richardson Square, and I'm sure that the malls' common owner, Simon, wanted to concentrate its energy in the new location (which sits at the intersection of a busy state highway and a major regional toll road that is about to be expanded).

The new Lowe's on the former Richardson Square site (in between the existing Sears and Super Target, which survived the mall's closing) held its grand opening on June 26, 2008.

(Andrew Laska of the Richardson Echo posted memories of Richardson Square here.)

Joanne Jones’s Commentary:

User submitted Apr 2007

Management company's website -
http://www.simon.com/mall/mall_info.aspx?ID=221
Website of pictures someone else took (perhaps you can ask permission for use - otherwise I can go and take pictures - I live 2 roads away) -
http://web.mac.com/aarond12/iWeb/Site/Richardson%20Square%20Mall.html

I don't know a lot about this mall before we moved into the area in September 2005. It sounds like it was on the decline and had just experienced a mini-renaissance, but then Simon opened a brand new mall (Firewheel Town Center) 20 minutes away in October 2005. It didn't take long for the exodus to begin - stores either moved to Firewheel or closed for good as customers stopped coming for the major stores.

We were barely here a couple of weeks when Barnes & Noble, Dillards and Old Navy left for new locations at Firewheel. They were quickly followed by Cyberzone (arcade) and Lane Bryant. Stores that left gradually: Bath and Body Works, CATO, Claire's Boutique, EB Games, Famous Footwear, Finish Line, Fredericks of Hollywood, GNC, Mastercuts, Pearle Vision Express, Radio Shack, Regis Salon, Vitamin World, Zales Jewelers, and several independently run stores and kiosks.

One of the last areas to die was the Food Court - Subway and the Great American Cookie Company were the first. The rest left en masse sometime in the fall/winter of 2006 - Italia Express, Manchu Wok, Primrose Grill, Smoothies Paradise and Wendy's.

The only stores currently open (last verified January 2007) are Sears (anchor) and Ross Dress for Less (anchor). There is a large Super Target adjoining the mall (replaced the Montgomery Ward anchor some years back), but does not have an entrance directly into the mall.

Per this November, 2006 article, current plans are to demolish the mall and replace it with a Lowe's and 2 other retail stores. Other stores along the roads (perhaps a strip mall) would also be built. Super Target and Sears would remain in their current locations, no word on any other periphery stores.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/richardson/stories/DN-richmall_26met.ART.North.Edition1.3e9ba7f.html

Aaron Gleason’s Commentary:

User submitted Mar 2007

I've gone ahead and photo-documented the Richardson Square Mall in Richardson, Texas for you. While technically not a dead mall, it's nearly there. Two anchors are still in place, but all the rest of the anchors and stores are gone.

Rumor has it that RSM will be razed and re-built as a strip-style mall. This has yet to be seen as many of the stores have been gone since late 2006. The security guard, who worked at the mall for 30 years, did not know what would happen with the mall either.

The link to the site is:
http://web.mac.com/aarond12/iWeb/Site/Richardson%20Square%20Mall.html

I really enjoy your site and am kicking myself for not photo-documenting Prestonwood Mall before it got razed several years ago.

Mary silla’s Commentary:

User submitted Feb 2007

Richardson Square Mall, is small one story small in Richardson Texas. I believe it opened in 1971, at the time it had no nearby competition. Within ten years a much larger mall, Colin Creek opened a few miles away in Plano. By the mid-eighties the mall day dying with only a few scattered tennants left. Several times the mall was revitlaized, most recently in late 90's. The interior was spruced up, and new stores came, but quickly left. In fall 2005 Firewheel Town Center opened up nearby, many of RSM's remaining stores relocated to this new mall. Within a year of firewheel opening all of the remaining stores has closed except for Sears, and a SuperTarget which was added in the most recent rennovation. There are plans to demolish the mall and build a Lowes Hardware Store. &nb
sp;Part of the malls fate was due it not being near a major highway.

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Linda Ashton’s Commentary:

User submitted in 2020

As of mid-2019, Richardson Square Mall is a row of retailers, with Super Target at the south end and Lowe's at the north. There's a Ross and a shoe store between them and all four stores are busy. A separate, stand-alone Sears next to Lowe's went out of business in 2018.