Dallas Fashion Incubator?

[GarrettCarey]

Just saw something on wfaa news 8 about a woman from Southlake who is working with the Downtown Partnership and the city of Dallas to create a fashion incubator in downtown Dallas. They hope to to attract both aspiring and established fashion designers together. The goal: bring more retail, more people, more designers to downtown.......and ultimately a fashion design district. They are looking to bring "international flair for fashion" to Dallas.

- The city is pledging administrative guidance and support
- Have prospective office space downtown offering cheaper than avergae rates
- Hopes to move into the office in the next 4 months

Hopefully we'll get to hear more about it soon.

Did anyone see this?

[metrosteve]

This is great news Garrett!

[jammin]

I missed it but will look for it at 10. Great for the image of the city, and a good way to fill up some office space downtown.

[GarrettCarey]

Yes, it is truly great news for downtown. Perhaps Nieman Marcus can use some of its power to help bring in buyers, sellers, designers, etc. I think that would certainly help ensure it's success.

If the broadcast is not replayed on the news at 10, I would say check TXCN.com, wfaa.com, or DMN website. They are all related and therefore share news.

[bloodandpopcorn]

Hmm, can't find anything online on this online. Anyone have any additional info? I think this would be amazing, and really great for downtown! If this happens, and more artists move in, downtown would be inadvertantly finding itself a cure!

[KelleyUSA]

I think that is great news. It's nice to see people outside of the Downtown Partnership coming up with ideas etc.... Same can be said with the new restaurants- these are not a result of the DT Partnership- rather individuals taking a chance on DT...

[gc]

Designing in Dallas
Fashion incubator focuses on developing local talent, resources
Cynthia D. Webb - Staff Writer
http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2003/12/01/story5.html?page=1

In the shadow of retail legend Neiman Marcus' flagship store, the Dallas Fashion Incubator is planning to open its doors during the second quarter of 2004.

The nonprofit Dallas Fashion Incubator received $10,000 from the Art Institute of Dallas toward the $50,000 needed to launch its downtown Dallas retail space.

Plans call for a 1,200-square-foot retail space on Main Street to house five to nine designers during the first 12 to 24 months of the program. Loosely based on Toronto and New York City's fashion incubators, DFI also will offer classes and internships to benefit the estimated 100 to 200 fashion students who graduate annually from Dallas area fashion design programs.

The DFI's $100,000 annual budget will be funded by private donations and events, said Korntny Penn, assistant director of Downtown Partnership Inc. and a DFI board member. In the spring, DFI will apply for a $160,000 community block grant from the city of Dallas.

Designer Leslie Carpenter founded DFI after launching Tussah, a line of high-end cocktail and formal wear in October 2001.

Carpenter wanted to manufacture her line in Dallas, but found it easier to go to manufacturers in India and China than track down apparel manufacturing resources in Dallas.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 36,000 apparel manufacturing jobs have been lost in Texas during the last decade.

"It was costing me a lot of time and money to develop the line," said Carpenter, vice chairwoman of the nonprofit. "What about a young designer who doesn't have a family income to back up the label?"

In 2002, she approached the Downtown Partnership, a nonprofit coalition of property owners in downtown's Main Street District, a 10-block area within Dallas' central business district. The partnership is assisting DFI with administrative needs, leasing space and identifying funding sources.

The DFI is one of the latest efforts to establish a foothold for the fashion industry in downtown Dallas.

Supporters of a downtown fashion district proposed the Mercantile complex for an apparel mart after it was announced that the Dallas International Apparel Mart would be closing and consolidating fashion showrooms into the World Trade Center. The Mercantile effort failed when, according to the trade magazine Women's Wear Daily, Liz Claiborne pulled out of the project. A group of former apparel mart tenants, however, are seeking to open a smaller mart, the Fashion Industry Galleries, in downtown's Southwestern Plaza office building at 1807 Ross Ave.

During its first phase, DFI will provide retail space for up to nine designers, who will be chosen based on their portfolios. A percentage of each designer's sales will subsidize the DFI program. Designers will staff the store, which is expected to operate from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week, Penn said.

DFI also will develop a database of pattern makers, manufacturers, textile sources, cutters and other technical resources, which Penn said may be online by the end of 2004.

As part of DFI's education program, fashion industry professionals will be partnered with interns to give them a well-rounded beginning in fashion retail, wholesale and manufacturing. A lecture series open to the public featuring prominent designers will launch by the first of the year, Penn said.

Gavin Smith, a board member who is director of downtown's Fashion Industry Galleries, said fashion is more than putting the garment together. "New designers," said Smith, "need business, marketing and merchandising plans."

Contact DBJ writer Cynthia D. Webb at cwebb@bizjournals.com or (214) 706-7156.

[evdallas]

wow, that is really a great idea, glad to see its going to happen.

[dallastophoenix]

A smarter mart: Tenants of a breakaway wholesale fashion venue believe smaller may be better

By Heather Landy
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

DALLAS - As the Texas sales representative for more than a dozen contemporary designers, Stacie Fox made an unusual decision when it came time to court buyers from clothing boutiques across the Southwest.

Instead of leasing a showroom at the Dallas Market Center, the campus of immense buildings where $7.5 billion in wholesale transactions are conducted each year, she displayed her wares in a rented suite at the nearby Hotel ZaZa.

Findings, the Los Angeles firm through which Fox represents high-fashion labels such as LoyandFord and Rozae Nichols, was not the only wholesaler looking for a fresh idea.

Last year, a small group of unsatisfied Dallas Market Center tenants decided to break away from the 40-year-old mart on Stemmons Freeway and form a smaller fashion center in the city's arts district. They say the new space, owned by the same real estate firm that developed Dallas's popular Magnolia Theatre, has a sharp focus on upscale labels and a provides a hip setting befitting the urban image of the contemporary collections they sell.

Their efforts will be realized this week with the grand opening of Fashion Industry Gallery, which will bring wholesale buyers to its showrooms for the five annual women's apparel markets that draw retailers to Dallas. Among the initial 35 tenants: Findings, which decided that the new mart could easily replicate the plush surroundings and quiet atmosphere at the Hotel ZaZa.

The new venue may cause confusion for those accustomed to the one-stop-shopping experience of the Dallas Market Center, which also holds large wholesale shows for gifts, accessories and furnishings. But supporters of Fashion Industry Gallery say the boutique-style mart should help Dallas regain some of the cachet lost in recent years to fashion marts in New York, Los Angeles and even regional venues such as Atlanta.

More than a dozen agents and designers who had not been participating in the Dallas apparel shows have signed leases with Fashion Industry Gallery, which is housed in the Southwestern Plaza building at 1807 Ross Ave, near the Nasher Sculpture Center and the Dallas Museum of Art. The arrival of different brands means that consumers soon may find a broader array of designer clothing at shops that buy wholesale in Dallas.

"New and upcoming lines have been very difficult for me as a buyer to find at Dallas markets," said Fort Worth merchant Amy Hooper, who scours New York for most of the items she sells at her A. Hooper & Co. boutique in the Chapel Hill shopping center. "I'm excited just to have more of a selection of contemporary clothes now" with the opening of the new Dallas mart, she said.

Popular designers represented at Fashion Industry Gallery include Garfield & Marks, Jack Spade, Nanette Lepore, Paul Frank, Tracy Reese and Trina Turk.

The second phase is under construction. It is expected to hold between 80 and 100 showrooms, plus space for new designers to hold temporary exhibits showcasing their products.

The Dallas Market Center still plans to house more than 12,000 apparel lines, including Dana Buchman and Oscar by Oscar de la Renta. But it, too, is making changes. After the January apparel show, the campus's 1.8 million-square-foot International Apparel Mart will close, and tenants will move to a revamped portion of the World Trade Center, another building on the property.

Critics of the Dallas Market Center say the huge Apparel Mart stopped resonating with contemporary clothing buyers over the past five to 10 years as boutique-style marts in Los Angeles and New York gained more appeal.

Suzanne Collier, a Dallas Market Center leaseholder for 11 years, said she could not accept the growing number of vacancies and declining reputation of the Apparel Mart and did not think management could reverse the trends by moving tenants to the World Trade Center, which is known for its gift markets. After spending several years pressing for change, she decided to leave.

"I really feel like the gift business had been a more lucrative business for them during that period, and the wholesalers in the clothing business became basically stepchildren," Collier said. "I thought [the World Trade Center relocation] was an answer to empty floors in a gift market."

Dallas Market Center managers do not deny that recent retail trends have made it difficult to keep the Apparel Mart full and vibrant.

Between the consolidation of retail chains, a move toward centralized purchasing systems and a growing emphasis on private-label brands, many traditional sources of the wholesale clothing business have dried up.

"Obviously we saw the need to make changes and reinvent the apparel industry in Dallas," said Cindy Morris, chief operating officer of the Dallas Market Center. The Apparel Mart building had become "much larger than what was needed to serve the industry," she said.

For buyers attending both venues, Fashion Industry Gallery will provide transportation for the short ride to the Dallas Market Center. But Morris warned that the splintering in Dallas still may be troublesome for clients.

Buyers "don't want to have to drive around and source product out -- they want to go to one venue," she said. "What we see the retailers wanting and what Fashion Industry Gallery maybe sees the retailer wanting are two different things."

John Sughrue, who heads the real estate firm developing Fashion Industry Gallery, recognizes that the multiple-venue scenario will not be as simple as it is in Los Angeles, which has four marts directly across the street from one another. But he said he suspects that buyers will still appreciate having an alternative to the big venues and large-scale hotels along Stemmons Freeway.

"Those are big boxes, big hotels -- everything is big," he said. "Then came the boutique hotels, the boutique airlines, the boutique art house theaters. And now we've got a boutique fashion merchandise mart."

Sughrue's firm, Dallas-based Brook Partners, initially redeveloped Southwestern Plaza as a hub for technology firms. But after the tech bust, Sughrue needed a new tenant base for the former insurance company building, which was erected in the 1960s.

Last May, he was approached by Collier and other Apparel Mart tenants who thought that the property might be a good site for a new mart. Soon after, Brook Partners committed $6 million to redesign a portion of the 5-story building as a fashion center, and former Apparel Mart tenant Gavin Smith was hired as director.

The new showrooms have the feel of a loft, with sliding mesh-steel doors and artistic touches. For example, mosaic tile panels that decorated the building for decades hang in the tenant lounge. The project will also include a courtyard park and a cafe open to tenants and the public.

"My space will be a little bit SoHo-looking," said new tenant Greg Mider, a former Apparel Mart leaseholder. "My entire wall is red brick, and I have a big window that overlooks the park, so I have all the natural light."

The boutique atmosphere should go far with buyers of contemporary apparel.

"Clothing markets are all about asthetics," said Drea Ranek, co-owner of Lusso, a clothing and furnishings boutique in the St. Louis area. Lusso has not yet sent buyers to Dallas -- most of its merchandise is purchased in New York and Los Angeles -- but Ranek said the opening of Fashion Industry Gallery has piqued her interest in coming to Texas for a wholesale show.

Monica Zionce, a buyer for the Barbara Jean fashion boutique in Little Rock, Ark., has made reservations for the January show in Dallas.

"I'm only coming for the day, and I'm going to have to start out at the gallery and make my way over to the Dallas Market Center," she said. For the March show, which is larger than the January show, Zionce may have to extend her trip by a day to cover all the bases.

But Zionce has few concerns about the inconvenience of visiting two sites, saying that the extra time would be well worth the opportunity to find new lines that might otherwise never have come to Dallas.

If Fashion Industry Gallery flourishes, buyers eventually may have more than just two venues to stroll though during the Dallas wholesale shows.

"There are now four buildings in Los Angeles," Sughrue said. "So there's a precedent to think that if we're wildly successful, which we think we will be, then other boutique marts will open" in Dallas with niches that go beyond contemporary apparel.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heather Landy, (817) 390-7725 hlandy@star-telegram.com

[gc]

Did I read that a phase II is under construction? Is it within the exisitng building or next door or what?

[bloodandpopcorn]

I wonder if there will ever be enough demand to add additional floors or slightly change the exterior of this building... Both would be excellent, IMO, as far off or unlikely as they may be.

[TexasStar]

Boy, you just hate Southwestern Plaza, don't you?
Is it really that bad?

[Columbus Civil]

I think that building looks pretty cool.

[Foucault]

Found this on the DFI website. I wonder who the 'up and coming designers' are.
Fashion students, perhaps? Good news, anyway.

http://www.dallasfi.org/events.html

In March 2004, a special team of fashion industry professionals, visual display experts and Main Street District property and business owners will join forces to create Window Dressings Dallas, a project of Dallas Fashion Incubator. The hottest fashions by up and coming designers, paired with those who are well established in the Dallas area community, will be featured in the vacant storefront windows in the heart of downtown Dallas. Window Dressings Dallas will launch with a street-leve high fashion runway show and progressive bash down Main Street.

[dallastophoenix]

That is an incredible idea!!!

[CTroyMathis]

Wow. That's is a cool idea.

[Columbus Civil]

gay

[freewaytincan]

Originally posted by Columbus Civil
gay

HA HA HA HA HA HA! RIGHT ON!

[gc]

What is gay CC?

[Columbus Civil]

What is gay CC?

The Main Street fashion show/parade.

I'm not sure why Urban Landscape thinks it's funny. I think it's a great idea.

[tamtagon]

Hopefully local designers will get a lot of attention, and hopefully Dallas will get the attention of Fashion Houses. For Dallas to become anything beyond the provincial bulk shopping market outside of New York, Chicago and LA, the "daily fashion scene" must include a slideshow of new ideas.

Fashion Incubator - I hope that doesnt mean a condensed and consolidated presentation of what is happening in the fasion capitols. It would include some new twists, but a business friendly handshake between fashion Design Houses and the city of Dallas could happen. The city has the opportunity to exploit an industry segment not generally available to preditory suburban cities. The first step, though, is making Dallas urban areas a good place for new ideas to be tested. The West Village is great with Tommy Bahama, The Gap, Banana Republic and the like, but maybe the Fashion Incubator will enable Main St. (from the CBD to Deep Ellum) to become the place to buy the style/design before it's flooding the marketplace.

[dallastophoenix]

how cool would it be for the city to shut down main street to vehicular traffic, have the Fashion Incubator "style" all of the vacant storefronts, work w/ surrounding clubs/restaurants/bars to create excitement (bring people down there), and have a huge runway down the middle of main street w/ cool lighting on the buildings... invite the nat'l media, and we'll get some recognition...

[chiboi]

It does not bother me to let you know that that the word gay is thrown out there in a degogatory way. I venture to say without the influence of gay designers, architects, etc Dallas would be much drabber. Just rude and incredibly shallow and thoughtless.

[crescentboi]

chiboi, i second that!

[freewaytincan]

Originally posted by chiboi
It does not bother me to let you know that that the word gay is thrown out there in a degogatory way. I venture to say without the influence of gay designers, architects, etc Dallas would be much drabber. Just rude and incredibly shallow and thoughtless.

Well, then there's white, white, and white, as well as faith and faith. Also take ino account to, to, too, and two, and we musn't neglect bitch and bitch. So there.

[dallastophoenix]

don't worry, cc's a fluffer for ch. 8... he can throw around the word if he wishes... lol..

[Foucault]

I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean, but...you have to realise that for many, Dallas's main attraction is shopping. I'm not sure what's so gay about replacing boarded storefronts with women's dresses, and even if the suburbians consider it such, it'll help other businesses downtown too. Put it this way: would you rather walk down MLK Blvd. or Swiss Ave? It all has to do with ambience, and if it eventually attracts designers to put stores down Main St, that would be great too. Perhaps up there with Fifth and Madison will be Main Street, Dallas.

[Columbus Civil]

chiboi, I'm sorry the word "gay" has such negative connotations to you. I didn't throw it out in a derogatory manner; that's just your interpretation.

[gc]

There are many many interpretations of that word....BUT let's be easy again here guys, please.

[Foucault]

Good news for the Dallas fashion market - might attract students to the Dallas Fashion Incubator...

FashionCenterDallas hopes to wow buyers

12:43 PM CST on Saturday, March 20, 2004



By MARIA HALKIAS / The Dallas Morning News

Thousands of merchandise decision-makers and some of the world's hottest designers, from Richard Tyler and Kay Unger to Yansi Fugel and David Meister, will descend on Dallas this week.

And it isn't for a Neiman Marcus anniversary extravaganza.

Fashion's top guns are coming from New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and beyond to check out the industry's newest wholesale market.

Also Online

Market Center's ripple felt
FashionCenterDallas opens Thursday on the campus of Dallas Market Center with hopes of redefining Big D as a one-stop destination for buyers ready to stock the nation's stores with the latest looks.

Dallas Market Center, owned by Dallas-based Crow Holdings, spent $21 million on the new mall for merchants, which replaces the 40-year-old International Apparel Mart.

Located inside the 15-story World Trade Center, out of the public's reach, FashionCenterDallas houses 550 permanent showrooms and more than 650 temporary exhibitors in 1 million square feet of space devoted to men's, women's and children's apparel. Under the same atrium roof is an additional 2 million square feet of showrooms for gifts, jewelry, home accessories, table-top items, furniture, lighting and toys.

More information

FASHIONCENTERDALLAS
Description: Apparel and accessories market
Location: World Trade Center, 2100 Stemmons Freeway
Construction cost: $21 million
Opening date: Thursday through March 29
Size: 3 million square feet on 15 floors, including 1 million square feet of apparel space. Six floors house 550 permanent and 650 temporary showrooms of men's, women's and children's apparel representing 12,000 clothing and accessories lines.
Categories on other floors: Jewelry, gifts, home accessories and textiles, furniture, lighting and toys
Registered buyers: Annual attendance is more than 200,000, representing all 50 states and 35 countries.

DALLAS MARKET CENTER
Description: A wholesale merchandise resource
Owner: Dallas-based Crow Holdings
Chief executive officer: Bill Winsor
Location: Four buildings along Stemmons Freeway north of the Dallas skyline – the International Floral & Gift Center (opened in 1957), Trade Mart (1959), Market Hall (1960) and World Trade Center (1974). The International Apparel Mart (1964) is now vacant.
Size: 5.2 million square feet, housing 2,000 permanent showrooms and 500,000 square feet of temporary showroom space
Categories: Apparel, gifts, gourmet foods, home accessories, jewelry, toys, furniture, lighting and garden. Includes the largest permanent floral and holiday trim market and only permanent India Pavilion in the United States.
Registered buyers: Annual attendance is 400,000 from all 50 states and 84 countries.
Annual markets: Five major apparel markets, four major gift and home markets, and 40 smaller markets
Economic impact: Generates $300 million in annual economic activity, including 750,000 hotel nights a year

SOURCE: Dallas Market Center
"It's all about the buyers," said Bill Winsor, chief executive officer of Market Center, who has seen some of the apparel industry's longtime customers go out of business and competitive retail prices squeeze the margins of others. "It's a daunting, emotional, high-energy experience. There's a lot of tension involved in making product decisions, and buyers have less time today than they've ever had.

"We're trying to make it easier for them."

"I'm thrilled about this," said Joseph Salazar, owner of Just Joe, which sells contemporary women's fashions from showrooms in Dallas and Atlanta. "My buyers are totally digging it. About a dozen of my customers in the Southeast are coming here next week instead of later in Atlanta."

New York is in a class by itself as a wholesale center, but there's nothing else like Dallas now, he said.

"I think this is going to put Dallas back on the map. It's going to be as exciting as the 1980s."

The newly configured and remodeled World Trade Center is tightly organized by category for ease of shopping, which is expected to give Dallas an advantage over other regional marts in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago.

Regional wholesale markets, including Dallas, struggled through the 1990s as the industry they serve radically changed after a booming expansion in the 1970s and 1980s.

Twenty to 30 years ago, when thousands of people moved to here weekly, Dallas Market Center was part of the glamour that made Dallas a top Sun Belt city.

It was a fashion destination for shops that were popping up in strip centers and malls as fast as suburban sprawl surrounded them. This happened not only in Dallas but in Houston, Midland, Tulsa, Okla., and Shreveport, La., and cities in between. It was repeated in Georgia, Florida, California and Arizona.



Shop till you drop

A growing number of women in the workforce needed more career apparel and leisure sportswear. Good economic times, double incomes and delayed childbearing made shop till you drop a mantra for the weekends.

"There would be buyers lined up waiting to get into showrooms during market," remembered Scott Harner, a Flower Mound-based manufacturer's representative who has a showroom at Market Center. "Business has changed a lot in the last 10 to 15 years. There are fewer retailers, and it seems like more manufacturers. Competition is fierce."

Casual dress trends, the expansion of national chain stores with their own clothes – from the Gap and Banana Republic to Abercrombie & Fitch and Chico's – have changed the wholesale market.

Baby boomers and their offspring abandoned the store loyalty of prior generations and adopted cheap chic from Target. At the same time, department stores such as Macy's and J.C. Penney did a better job of sourcing fashion under their own labels.

All the big regional market centers have had financial difficulties and have struggled to find new roles and niches.

Lawton Hall, senior vice president of sales and leasing at AmericasMart in Atlanta, said the mart started positioning itself 10 years ago to serve the fashion side of the business. It tried to find more unique sources of goods to make it a more attractive destination.

"We needed to draw from a national audience of buyers, not just a regional group," Mr. Hall said.

Marts in Los Angeles now focus on younger, edgy fashions but still hold gift shows. Atlanta has evolved into a more important market for categories such as rugs and furniture but is trying to expand its apparel business.

Dallas' draw has been apparel, and it has developed leading specialties categories such as lighting, floral and holiday decorative products. Educational programs and seminars have become standard features at shows.

"Now Dallas dances with a lot more people. I can serve a little lady with a store in Mississippi and Neiman Marcus," said Brad Hughes, one of FashionCenterDallas' largest tenants and a rep for designers.



More cross-shopping

Through retail and wholesale's downturns and evolutions, there are survivors. Mr. Hughes expects these retailers will now see Dallas as a more practical place to shop.

More of Mr. Hughes' buyer customers are doing cross-category shopping – that is, an apparel buyer may also want to stock picture frames. Apparel used to be in a building by itself at the old International Apparel Mart. With apparel now an escalator ride away from frames, retailers will find FashionCenterDallas hard to resist., he said.


The final analysis of Dallas' new environment will come from retail buyers and their advisers. And there will be plenty of observers. According to Market Center, hotel room bookings were three times what they were last year two weeks before the March apparel show.

"This is going to be huge," said Mr. Harner, whose contemporary lines are for women in their mid-20s to 50s who are fit and fashion-savvy. "This is going to be one of the best shows in many, many years. Stores that haven't attended market here in a while are coming to Dallas to see the new place."

So are some of the most influential people in the apparel business.

"I'm going to be there. I'm coming to see what direction, what point of view they have created," said Tom Burns, senior vice president of the Doneger Group, a New York-based fashion merchandising and retail consulting company.

"Bottom line: Wal-Mart hasn't taken over the world," he said. "And retailers are always looking for new resources."

Fashion retailers divide the calendar into five seasons and can't cover it all in one show. "Regional markets are another opportunity for buyers to cover a couple more categories with core vendors," Mr. Burns said.

Even New York in recent years has turned to events such as Coterie and Intermezzo, put on by ENK International, where vendors occupy temporary space to make it easier for buyers who otherwise go from cab to elevator to cab, up and down 7th Avenue and Broadway, to select next season's offerings.

Dallas lost some of its appeal as a regional market as the 1.8 million-square-foot International Apparel Mart grew obsolete, tenants said.

The building served the industry well for 40 years, but it was no longer functional or convenient, said Mr. Harner, the Flower Mound manufacturer's rep.

Mr. Winsor, Market Center's CEO, said the company hasn't decided yet what to do with the Apparel Mart, which he said was out of step with the industry.

Over the years, as tenants left or moved into smaller or larger spaces, the place became fragmented with empty showrooms. Buyers shopping a certain category "would be going up two floors for the next appointment on the other side of the building and then back down three floors. Buyers who'd been coming here 20 years would get lost."

It's all organized now.

Patty Echols, Dallas Market Center's vice president of design and construction for the last 12 years, got to create FashionCenterDallas from scratch with a $21 million budget.



Mimicking retail

Ms. Echols developed a shopping environment mimicking a retail center, with floor-to-ceiling windows, attractive lighting and inviting common areas.

She used contemporary materials such as concrete polished floors and repeating-image mirrors. Geometric niches make corridors anything but long and boring. Painted panels display the latest color palettes from top European trendsetters.

"I've been able to incorporate everything I wanted to do," she said. "This building had great bones that were perfect for what I was doing."

E-mail mhalkias@dallasnews.com


Market Center's ripple felt
11:49 AM CST on Saturday, March 20, 2004


By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News



While it's hard to gauge the impact that Dallas Market Center has on the Stemmons Freeway corridor, real estate developers and market analysts say the big wholesale mart contributes to property demand.

"It certainly does help, and we are happy that it's there," said apartment builder Prentice Gary, whose firm just opened the 5225 Maple Avenue apartments just east of Stemmons.

The loft-style rental building has about 225 units and depends on the Dallas Market Center and other employers in the area for tenants.

Also Online

FashionCenterDallas hopes to wow buyers
"The primary driver was the medical center, but the Market Center does contribute to demand," Mr. Gary said. "The airport at Love Field is also important for us.

"Our leasing is going very well," he said.

Dallas Market Center officials estimate their full-time employment is about 300 people. Although they can't provide details of how many employees work for their tenants, "if we added showroom help, the number would be in the thousands," said Cole Daugherty, senior director of public relations.

The wholesale mart's biggest property sector impact is in the hotel market.

The Dallas Market Center estimates that about 400,000 people a year attend its trade shows. Many of those people are merchandise buyers and sales representatives from out of town.

"It can be a significant contributor to the Dallas hotels when they hold those markets," said John Keeling, a hospitality industry analyst with PKF Consulting. "During those times, they are major room demand generators for all the hotels on Stemmons and nearby."

But, like the rest of the North Texas hotel market, hotels in the Stemmons corridor are operating well below peaks seen in the 1990s.

In 2003, the average hotel occupancy around the Dallas Market Center was 55 percent – down 1.4 percentage points from the year earlier, according to PKF Consulting. Average room revenues were down about 6 percent.

"Over time, the size and frequency of the shows have declined," Mr. Keeling said. "They are not anywhere near the impact today that they were 15 or 20 years ago."

Ultimately, unused building space at the Dallas Market Center could create job opportunities for the area. Former high-tech space in the Infomart at Stemmons and Oak Lawn, for example, has been successfully leased to office tenants. (The Infomart is no longer owned by the market center but was originally part of it.)

And the nearby Children's Medical Center has expanded into the former Menswear Mart at Motor Street and Stemmons. The $30 million reconstruction created a surgical center and office complex for the hospital.

Although Dallas Market Center officials have yet to announce their plans for reusing the just-vacated Apparel Mart, they say they are studying alternate uses for the property.

E-mail stevebrown@dallasnews.com

[drumguy8800]

did this never happen? (the window dressing thing).. and the parade..

[gc]

I have no idea drummy.

[gc]

New Dallas Fashion Incubator office opens
http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2004/07/12/newscolumn4.html

The nonprofit Dallas Fashion Incubator has officially opened its office doors in a glossy loft space on the fourth floor at the South Side on Lamar building near downtown Dallas. According to DFI co-chairwoman and fashion designer Leslie Carpenter, the organization still has plans to open a retail space on Main Street in downtown, but is taking advantage of the subsidized loft space as a way to get the nonprofit off the ground.

Along with lifting the city's image as a fashion center, the goal of the incubator is to become a resource for designers, retail buyers and industry professionals. In addition, it has plans to select five to nine up-and-coming fashion and accessory designers to promote and train. Meanwhile, DFI has launched a database dubbed "The Link" that lists fashion-related services and products.

"We have major national retailers located in Dallas, such as J.C. Penney. I believe they would be glad to (source products and services here) if they knew where to find the needed resources. The Link will certainly be a clearinghouse of information and also an economic tool in helping to keep jobs in Dallas," said Jamie Baker, development coordinator of the Link program.

[tamtagon]

The nonprofit Dallas Fashion Incubator has officially opened its office doors in a glossy loft space on the fourth floor at the South Side on Lamar building near downtown Dallas

Isn't KNON's new studio in the same building.

[dallastophoenix]

that building is incredible! i'm glad that the management is continuing w/ the "artistic" theme.

[tamtagon]

New Dallas Fashion Incubator office opens
http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2004/07/12/newscolumn4.html

The nonprofit Dallas Fashion Incubator has officially opened its office doors in a glossy loft space on the fourth floor at the South Side on Lamar building near downtown Dallas. According to DFI co-chairwoman and fashion designer Leslie Carpenter, the organization still has plans to open a retail space on Main Street in downtown, but is taking advantage of the subsidized loft space as a way to get the nonprofit off the ground.

Along with lifting the city's image as a fashion center, the goal of the incubator is to become a resource for designers, retail buyers and industry professionals. In addition, it has plans to select five to nine up-and-coming fashion and accessory designers to promote and train. Meanwhile, DFI has launched a database dubbed "The Link" that lists fashion-related services and products.

"We have major national retailers located in Dallas, such as J.C. Penney. I believe they would be glad to (source products and services here) if they knew where to find the needed resources. The Link will certainly be a clearinghouse of information and also an economic tool in helping to keep jobs in Dallas," said Jamie Baker, development coordinator of the Link program.

I wonder how these guys are doing.

[jsoto3]

The space on Main St. is almost done. It's just west of Porta di Roma, next to the garage entrance for the Wilson. It's all white and glossy and should have a nice (although very small) presence on the street.

[Jack Flack]

I saw that store the other day and it looks really good. Its nice to see retail like that on Main Street.