This is a news article from 1999, not too long after Forum 303 Mall (briefly Forum Discount Mall, apparently) became "Festival Marketplace Mall", an interesting flea market-bazaar-mall idea. It didn't last too long due to market oversaturation, and was gone by the end of 2005.
Arlington mall goes `bazaar'
Dallas Business Journal by Ronni Sayewitz, Staff Writer
Date: Sunday, February 21, 1999, 11:00pm CST
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Ronni Sayewitz
Staff Writer
ARLINGTON -- It got off to a rocky start. But the owner of Arlington's Festival Marketplace Mall hopes that a new management team, a wider variety of tenants and a million-dollar marketing push will re-establish the long-struggling retail center as a top shopping destination.
"We've been going through some growing pains," said Bob Yari, a Los Angeles-based real estate investor and president and owner of the Festival Marketplace. "This is a brand-new concept for the area, and it's going to take a year or two to get it on its feet."
Yari says the effort will be easier now that the property's top executives are in place.
The Marketplace completed a lengthy search for a general manager last month with the addition of Robert Cesare, longtime general manager of the Six Flags Mall in Arlington. Cesare replaced Bea Nave, who temporarily ran the Marketplace after its founding manager, Willard Hart, was shifted to the operations department.
Marcia Minnies, former marketing specialist for the city of North Richland Hills parks and recreation department and NRH20 Family Water Park, rounded out the mall's management team on Feb. 15 as the new director of marketing. She replaced Cindy Thompson, who left the Marketplace to pursue other opportunities.
"In hiring Bob we're showing a lot of confidence in him, because this is a very, very tough job," Yari said. "It's not a typical manager position where you come into a predetermined situation."
Yari, who owns 50 office and retail developments in Texas, bought the ailing Forum 303 Mall in 1994 for an undisclosed price after it was foreclosed on by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The 28-year-old shopping center had lost its market position due to the decline of the surrounding area, as well as the arrival of sleek new competitors like The Parks at Arlington. Most of Forum 303's national tenants gradually abandoned the shopping center, except for a handful of stores like Montgomery Ward and Dillard's Clearance Center.
Yari first tried to resurrect the nearly 800,000-square-foot property as an outlet mall, and then as a discount outlet center. Later, he became intrigued with a unique bargain hunters' paradise in Pompano Beach, Fla.: the Festival Flea Market Mall.
That one-of-a-kind, 400,000-square-foot concept lures over 4 million shoppers a year by merging the festival atmosphere of a bazaar with the more upscale look and product mix of an outlet mall.
Last May, Yari introduced the concept to Texas by re-launching Forum 303 as the Festival Marketplace Mall.
The struggle to find alternative uses for dying malls is a trend at shopping centers nationwide, as a growing number of traditional tenants opt for the easier access and destination appeal of freestanding locations. The rise of Internet retailing and Main Street shopping areas have also contributed to the decline of malls, said Peter Carlsen, a partner in real estate consulting at Ernst & Young L.L.P. in Dallas.
"Regional malls in general have been hit hard in the last three to five years," he said. "The great locations like the Galleria will continue to serve as malls, but we've seen a lot of others retrofitted into other retail concepts, office uses, warehouses or call centers."
The Festival Marketplace concept is still evolving, Yari said. So far, he's plunked down $5 million to gut the interior of the building, make visual improvements, enlarge entryways and hire more security staff.
Yari also replaced the mall's traditional storefronts and walls with some 500 vendor booths and aisles. He recently purchased the mall's empty Service Merchandise store to make room for a second phase of expansion that could double the number of booths, Cesare said.
Today, the once-dreary shopping center lures new patrons with freshly painted walls, a bright red, yellow, blue and green decor and a massive children's play area completed in December.
Tourists and locals bargain in true-bazaar style for new, brand-name or handmade items at nearly 250 shops, including jewelry, electronics, apparel, home furnishings, ethnic novelties and toy outlets. There's also a variety of other uses, including a video arcade, a food court, sit-down restaurants, an AMC movie theater and a farmers' market.
"It's been a struggle, but things are starting to look up," said Deborah Whittington, who opened an art-and-crafts store at the Marketplace in December. "This is my very first business, and we already have bookings through August."
Owners of the Festival Flea Market in Florida acted as consultants for the Arlington project, although they don't have a financial stake in the property, Yari said. But if the Texas property is profitable, Yari said the two companies will use it as a prototype for a jointly launched chain of festival malls nationwide.
The mall owners are considering three cities to open their first joint venture within six months -- including Houston, where Yari already owns two enclosed shopping centers.
"If you go to the mall today, you know in advance every store it will have," Yari said. "The key to our success will be having a wide variety of tenants that encourages people to come here for things they can't find anywhere else."
The Festival Marketplace also fills a need in the market by offering small retailers a place to compete against large national chains, Yari added.
"It's a great place for people to get their feet wet for such a little amount of time and money," Cesare said. "You can rent a booth for $100 for a weekend, or get a kiosk on (a main hallway) for $1,000 a month."
Even so, analysts say the Marketplace may face a long uphill battle, considering its location in a neighborhood not regarded as a retail destination.
"Festival marketplaces have done very well in areas with significant office space, pedestrian traffic and tourist appeal," Carlsen said. "They're going to have to make up for the fact that there's not a big concentration of (those requirements) in the area."
