Department store chain Bloomingdale's is expanding to Texas its Bloomie's concept, a curated small-format store featuring apparel, food, drinks and experiences.
The New York City-based retailer completed a deal to open a Bloomie's in Frisco, Texas, a fast-growing suburb about 27 miles north of downtown Dallas, in late 2027. The store is the fifth Bloomie's to be publicly announced after the first one opened in 2021 in Virginia.
The size of the Dallas-area Bloomie's was not disclosed. It is joining the roster of tenants at Fields West, a mixed-use hub under development within Fields, a $10 billion, 2,500-acre project surrounding the PGA of America headquarters and Omni PGA Frisco hotel and golf resort.
"We are excited about this monumental launch for our Bloomie's brand at Fields West," said Rachel Abeles, senior vice president at Bloomingdale's, in a statement. "With this expansion into the North Texas market, we look forward to building connections and creating a unique, localized and highly curated shopping experience for the customers in this region.”
Rise of small format
Bloomie's stores typically range between 20,000 and 50,000 square feet — a fraction of a typical Bloomingdale's that runs upward of 150,000 to 200,000 square feet.
Retailers have been leaning into opening small-format stores to cater to changing consumers that shop online but still want to experience goods in a brick-and-mortar store, said A. David Zoller, an executive vice president at Weitzman, a Dallas-based retail brokerage.
"Retailers have been able to accomplish more with less overhead, including less risk and less build out, as they have been able to reinforce the stores they have with an online presence or with flagship stores," Zoller, who is not affiliated with Bloomie's, told CoStar News, speaking generally about what he's seeing from retailers in North Texas.
"Anecdotally, retailers are tracking online sales and using that general area to create a hub-and-spoke model where they can put smaller stores, generating more sales per square foot," Zoller added. "Retailers are understanding that it costs more to build out a store, as well as pay utilities, store inventory and hire employees, but it's not necessary to have a giant store."
Rather than carry a wide selection at a big-box store, he said, customers might have a limited number of options to help them find the right fit or feel the fabric of a piece of clothing. To peruse a bigger selection, Zoller said, consumers would be directed to the retailer's online store.
"This is the continued evolution of brick-and-mortar stores," he added. "Soft goods retailers across the spectrum are finding they don't need as much square footage as they previously thought."
Strong interest
Bloomie's is expected to be one of the anchor stores at the Fields West project that is seeing strong retail interest. Fehmi Karahan, CEO of The Karahan Cos., is leading Fields West as its master developer and said in a statement the company is committed to adding top-quality retailers to the mixed-use development.
Other tenants include Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Kendra Scott, Sephora and Mastro's Steakhouse. The other eateries committed to the project include Sixty Vines, Beverley's, Green Point, Mexican Sugar and Tommy Bahama's Marlin Bar.
At completion, Fields West is designed to span 4 million square feet of office space, about 2,800 apartments and 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space.
The Dallas-Fort Worth region has hit its stride, with the area leading the nation in the second half of 2024 by total net absorption — the difference between move-ins and move-outs — for retail space, according to CoStar's Director of Market Analytics Cody Gibbs in his latest market report.
"Retail users have taken on 3.1 million square feet of space in the last 12 months, a rate nearly double other major non-Texan markets like Chicago or New York City," Gibbs said in the report.
"This has been made possible by the robust construction pipeline in the region, which also leads the country in terms of annual deliveries and current construction activity," he added. "This new stock gives retailers the space needed to enter and expand into the market without drastically impacting vacancies, as over 65% of these spaces are pre-leased before delivery."