Grapevine Mills mall hopes Lego bricks will build traffic
The Dallas Morning News - March 24, 2011 - by Karen Robinson-Jacobs
GRAPEVINE — When the economic downturn turned out the lights on shopping center tenants across the country, mall operators scrambled to fill the breach with everything from dentists to nail salons.
Many of these non-traditional tenants were seen as more short-term fixes than long-term traffic boosters.
Thanks to an expansion-minded theme park company, however, Grapevine Mills will fill some of its recession-emptied space with two kid-friendly attractions that experts say are likely to swell the ranks of mall customers and spur tourism-related development in Grapevine.
Legoland Discovery Center Dallas/Fort Worth, an indoor Lego-themed attraction, is being unveiled to the media Thursday, about a week ahead of its scheduled March 30 opening. In July comes the debut of Sea Life Grapevine, a two-story aquatic allure.
It will be only the second Legoland Discovery Center in the U.S., the third Sea Life built in the U.S., and the first pairing of the two. Both are operated by London-based Merlin Entertainments Group, which also operates the Legoland theme park near San Diego.
Together, Legoland Discovery Center and Sea Life represent "a real ‘value add' to the tenant mix for the longer term," said Jesse Tron, a spokesman for the New York-based International Council of Shopping Centers.
"Bringing something like that into your center really adds ... crossover exposure. [The attractions] may be a draw to certain people to bring them in, and they may stay and do some shopping," he said.
"It's critical for centers to be more than just a simple outlet or distribution [point] for goods," Tron added. "They're really striving to create this sense of place."
Broader appeal
Opened in 1997, Grapevine Mills bills itself as the largest "outlet and value retail shopping destination in North Texas," with about 1.5 million square feet of retail space and 180 stores. Even without the two new attractions, it's a leading North Texas tourist draw and entertainment destination, with busloads of visitors a common sight.
With the new Legoland center and Sea Life, the mall broadens not only its appeal to local families but also to visitors. The two combined are expected to draw up to 1.1 million visitors annually, according to Barry Lewis, director of marketing for the Grapevine Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Though most of the mall's shoppers come from within 50 miles, "tourism is definitely a focus for us," said Kerri Bear, the mall's director of marketing and business development.
"Grapevine Mills is very much interested in continuing to bring more to our loyal shoppers who live within the D-FW area, as well as tourists," she said.
Legoland and Sea Life "definitely bring so much to Grapevine Mills because you don't find them everywhere," she said.
North Texas' "large population of families and high volume of vacationers" helped make Grapevine a "great fit for our new attractions," said Janine DiGioachinno, Merlin Entertainments' divisional director for the U.S.
Lain Scouller, general manager of the local Legoland Discovery Center, said he expects visitors to come from up to four hours away.
"The Lego brand is very popular, and people will tend to travel a bit further for that," he said.
With more than 2 million Lego bricks under one roof, the newest Legoland Discovery Center is a $12 million, 35,000-square-foot toy box. The company would not allow any photos before media day, but it did display a Lego Cowboys Stadium that is part of the center's reproductions of local landmarks.
Like its smaller predecessor in suburban Chicago, D-FW's Legoland outlet includes hands-on play areas, a few kid-friendly rides and a cinema with 3D movies and special effects such as splashing water and falling snow.
At 45,000 square feet and a cost of $15 million, Sea Life was the more complex of the two attractions to build and will feature about 5,000 sea creatures, including sharks, jellyfish, piranhas and poison-arrow frogs.
Sea Life replaces a 32,000-square-foot GameWorks that closed last summer, a victim of the recession, according to a GameWorks spokesman.
The Grapevine GameWorks attracted mostly local teens and was losing money, according to Cory Haynes, president and chief operating officer of GameWorks. It closed after the operator was unable to find a buyer.
The Legoland Discovery Center replaces a 42,400-square-foot skate park that also closed last year. Such parks also generally attract local teens.
Consultant's doubts
Chicago-based shopping center consultant Kenneth Leonard cautioned that research he's seen shows that consumers looking for an entertainment outing typically don't combine that with a shopping trip and vice versa.
"It's a different shopper on a different trip," he said.
He questioned the new attractions' ability to help Grapevine Mills retailers beyond an initial bump in traffic when the sites open.
But Lewis of the Grapevine CVB feels the additions will give "people more reasons to come and spend a longer amount of time here."
If shoppers hit the expected attendance levels, "that's a $40 million direct economic impact to Grapevine," Lewis said.
And the attractions have the potential to spur more development, he said.
"Merlin Entertainments is the second largest amusements operator in the world ... second only to Disney," said Lewis. "They don't go into a market completely blind.
"What we're anticipating is that once they are here and once they are established, we see other amusements and attractions being [inclined] to look at Grapevine," he said.
Without offering specifics, he said "several conversations" are under way whose results will be announced within a few months.
Tourism is the "No. 1 industry in Grapevine," bringing in an estimated 19 million visitors last year, Lewis said. "And it's an industry we continue to grow." Recent additions include the 2007 opening of Great Wolf Lodge and the 2004 debut of the Gaylord Texan, which is the perennial revenue leader among D-FW hotels.
"And we're not completely built out yet," Lewis said. "This is that catalyst that we think is going to help us fill the few remaining holes we have here in Grapevine."
