DFW Malls Thrive as Visits and Values Climb at Top Centers

Visits to Galleria Dallas are up nearly 9% year over year through Sept. 12, part of a broad mall rebound across North Texas’ top shopping centers, according to Bisnow. The strongest DFW malls, including NorthPark Center and Stonebriar Centre in Frisco, are drawing more shoppers from farther away and gaining value.

Reports of the Mall’s Death

The trio’s performance lines up with a September 2026 Green Street report showing U.S. mall values up 13%, outpacing every other commercial real estate sector over the past year. Returning shoppers, and a younger crowd, are driving tenant sales.

Gen Z shoppers visit stores about as often as baby boomers and more often than millennials or Gen X, per ICSC. Retail exclusives at DFW’s top centers have helped pull that group in.

The Details

NorthPark’s visits are up more than 6% this year, and both it and the Galleria are tracking toward five-year highs in visitor growth, according to Placer.ai cellphone data. Stonebriar’s traffic has grown every year since the pandemic and was up nearly 3% through August. Nationally, indoor malls drew 5% more visitors in August than a year earlier, the format’s largest year-over-year gain of 2026.

Shoppers are also traveling farther. More than half of NorthPark’s visitors and nearly 65% of the Galleria’s came from more than 10 miles away, while Stonebriar has held steady at more than 42%.

Values have followed. Stonebriar’s appraised value rose more than 17% from 2022 to $352.4 million in 2026, per the Collin Central Appraisal District, and the Galleria climbed more than 19% to $159.9 million, per the Dallas Central Appraisal District.

Cushman & Wakefield appraised NorthPark at $1.6 billion in 2025 during a $1.2 billion refinancing, compared with a $711.7 million county appraisal in 2022. Its private ownership allows tight tenant curation that keeps the 60-plus-year-old center in a league of its own.

Experiences Fill the Gaps

DFW’s gains have been more measured than the national figures behind the report that mall values jumped, but the local winners share a playbook. Galleria Dallas opened Netflix House in late 2025, and Stonebriar has hosted KidZania, the only location in the U.S., since 2019.

Owner GGP, Brookfield’s retail division, has added more than 90,000 square feet of new stores at Stonebriar in recent years and reports 99% leasing across its 11 Texas centers. Simon Property Group ended the second quarter at 96% occupancy across its malls and premium outlets, and CEO Eli Simon told analysts in August that retail centers are having a cultural moment.

Landlords nationwide are converting vacant anchor boxes into immersive attractions, and market research firm Metatech Insights projects the experiential retail market will grow more than 300% over the next decade.

Why It Matters

Retailers are opening fewer stores and choosing only the best centers, GGP leasing executive Randy Holcombe told Bisnow, which widens the gap between top-tier and struggling malls. For owners, that means reinvestment in tenant mix and attractions is the price of staying relevant.

Weaker centers are finding value in redevelopment instead. The Stars’ planned $3 billion district at The Shops at Willow Bend and the Valley View redevelopment for the Mavericks show how aging DFW malls can become sports-anchored mixed-use sites.

What’s Next

Investors are circling DFW’s Class B malls too, said Weitzman’s Barney McAuley, though he warned that owners who cut security and cleaning to boost net operating income typically see it catch up with them in three to five years. Institutional owners take a different approach.

GGP’s Town East Mall in Mesquite, which draws shoppers from East Texas and South Dallas, has seen visits rise nearly 3% this year, and Holcombe said the company plans to keep reinvesting there.