As Bayshore Town Center tries a reinvention, a Texas project provides some inspiration

As the troubled Bayshore Town Center seeks to reinvent itself by demolishing more than a third of the mall's retail space to make way for new apartments, offices and a hotel, it's drawing inspiration from a Texas project.

The Hill, located in Dallas, is being transformed from an older shopping center into new restaurants, stores and offices targeting nearby apartment residents — a somewhat similar blueprint as Glendale's proposed Bayshore redevelopment. 

The Hill is operated by Dallas-based Cypress Equities, the same firm creating the Bayshore redevelopment plans.

The conceptual plans for Bayshore are to have their initial public hearing at a Thursday board meeting of the Glendale Community Development Authority. The $75 million development could include city financing help.

Adding open space, ice rink 

The preliminary proposal calls for tearing down the older mall portion of Bayshore, which was renovated just over a decade ago, and the former Boston Store, which closed in August.

RELATED:Bayshore Town Center wants housing, offices to replace stores -- with Glendale financing help

The older mall section would be replaced by a medical office building and open space. The former Boston Store and its parking lot would be the site of apartments, a hotel and an office building.

Apartments also would be built on vacant land between North Lydell Avenue and a mall parking structure. 

Meanwhile, apartments for seniors would be developed on the site of the former Sears store, which was demolished last year.

Additional retail space would be built on a smaller parking lot along North Port Washington Road near the former Sears site.

Finally, Bayshore's public square would be revitalized, with a winter ice skating rink and a summer fire pit.

In all, Bayshore's retail space would be reduced by 37 percent, according to the proposal.

The plans don't shed light on such things as the number of apartments that would be built, the hotel's size and brand name, or the amount of office space to be developed.

Those details aren't yet being disclosed because the plans are still fluid, said Glenn Miller, spokesman for Cypress Equities. The firm is representing Bayshore's owner, New York-based global financial services provider American International Group Inc.

Cypress is "seeking input from a number of highly qualified and creative partners to assemble a plan that is unique to the market, drawing inspiration from a variety of successful projects across the U.S., including Cypress developments like The Hill, to create a new Bayshore," Miller told the Journal Sentinel.

'Decidedly un-mall' 

Both The Hill and Bayshore are located along expressways in affluent neighborhoods.

The Hill opened as The Corner Shopping Center in 1977 — the same year that Bayshore Shopping Center was enclosed and converted into an indoor mall.

Bayshore Mall was later redeveloped as Bayshore Town Center, which opened in 2006. 

That project created several new store and restaurant buildings on a street grid, with the old mall space remodeled. Also, a new office building, apartments and parking structures were constructed.

But Bayshore has faced challenges in recent years during a time in which malls are losing sales to Amazon.com Inc. and other online retailers.

Along with the Sears and Boston Store closings, several other Bayshore businesses have been shuttered in recent years. It has about 35 vacancies.

Meanwhile, The Corner Shopping Center was showing its age before Cypress bought the property in 2014.

The Corner had lost a major tenant, Dave & Buster's, which led other businesses to leave. And it still had a '70s appearance. 

"It really needed new life," said Andy Somers, chief operating officer at Hat Creek Burger Co., which opened a restaurant at The Hill in May.

The shopping center's transformation into The Hill includes the creation of a central courtyard with natural landscaping and new plaza spaces for outdoor dining.

Also, Cypress hired five local artists to paint more than 25 murals on the buildings' exteriors.

The idea, according to Cypress, was to create "a unique sense of place" with "a decidedly 'un-mall' feel."

Charging stations, salon for men

The Hill, which staged a launch party in October, also features eco-friendly touches, including solar power for some of its businesses and Tesla charging stations.

Those changes have "brought a lot more life to the area," said Jennifer Gates, a Dallas City Council member whose district includes The Hill.

"It's been well-received in the community," Gates said.

Marketing efforts to draw new tenants have emphasized The Hill's location near several new apartment buildings — which include a growing number of millennials among their residents.

Businesses that have opened at The Hill since late 2017 include several Texas-based food and beverage operations, such as Houndstooth Coffee, Tacodeli and Hat Creek Burger.

"We've loved it so far," said Somers.

The Hill also landed Treehouse, a locally based business that sells sustainable home improvement items.

Boardroom Salon for Men, a barbershop and spa, opened in February.

It was attracted by The Hill's location in a densely populated neighborhood with strong incomes, said Jason Madden, vice president of operations.

He also cited the advantage of being near The Hill's other high-quality tenants.

"The business has performed almost exactly per our expectations," Madden said, "and continues to grow well, as we see more of the build-out of the center become complete."

Chad and Nellie Montgomery opened their combination coffee shop/craft beer bar, Civil Pour, at The Hill just over two months ago.

The couple was attracted by the strong neighborhood demographics, including the growing number of young people who live in nearby new apartment buildings.

"It was a good fit for us," Nellie Montgomery said.

The redevelopment plans for Bayshore are heavy on adding more apartments — which would add to the natural customer base for the town center's stores, restaurants and other businesses.

Cypress' proposal also has a strong focus on revitalizing the town center's public square— copying the approach used at The Hill.

But the preliminary lineup of 44 tenants at the redeveloped Bayshore features just nine food- and beverage-focused businesses. That's a much lower proportion compared with The Hill.

Tom Daykin can be emailed at tdaykin@jrn.com and followed on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.