May 31
The Aspen Dental building in North Park Plaza serves as an “appetizer” for the plaza’s upcoming revamp.
The upgrades come several months after anchor tenant Target finished its own revamp. While Target owns its store in the shopping center, the business worked with the Plaza’s owners on the exterior color scheme to create a cohesive design, according to Ben Brown, Plaza owner Baker Katz’s lead on the project.
Now, it’s time for the rest of the Plaza, which sits at the intersection of Dowlen Road and Eastex Freeway, to get its own revamp.
“When we bought the asset in ’19, we were rolling up our sleeves… and then COVID hit. COVID derailed a lot of things in our business. But the good news is retail was pretty resilient through COVID. The fundamentals of this real estate has not changed,” Brown said, adding that the Plaza’s owners also delayed their plans to allow Target to invest in its own property first.
Baker Katz is now within a month of starting work on the shopping center.
The revamp will include a substantial retrofit to the building’s exterior, cleaning up some of the popup signage on the building itself and adding two more enhanced popups to give the shopping center additional exposure. The shopping center also will be repainted, matching Target’s exterior colors; the multi-tenant pylon signs will be updated; and new LED lights will be installed in the parking lot, among other upgrades.
In fact, shoppers can look at the newly-renovated Aspen Dental in the shopping center’s parking lot, a design scheme Brown referred to as an “appetizer” for the revamp, to get an idea of the new center’s new feeling.
“The goal is for this to be a ‘North Park 2.0″ — a clean and welcoming environment,” he said.
The work is expected to be completed by early fall.
While technically part of North Park Plaza, the section of the shopping center across Dowlen to the west will not be part of this initiative. However, Brown said the company has made plans to retrofit the former Al’s Formal Wear building to be able to accommodate a drive-thru and is in talks with potential tenants in the donut or coffee business.
The company also renewed Popeyes’ tenancy for a “fairly significant term,” and the former Tony’s BBQ and Steakhouse pad site next to Aspen Dental could be “activated” after the facelift project is complete.
“The roots of this shopping center are extremely strong,” Brown said. “We’re excited to introduce North Park 2.0.”