Photo courtesy: Williams-Sonoma/Facebook
The amount of brick and mortar stores selling high-end cookware in Dallas is going to decline in the months ahead. Teresa Gubbins over at CultureMap reports that two Dallas branches of Williams-Sonoma stores, located in Galleria Dallas and Highland Park Village, are slated to close in January.
The good news? The Williams-Sonoma that’s located in NorthPark Center — the one closest to Preston Hollow — isn’t going anywhere.
Stephen Summers, co-owner and leasing director at the Highland Park Village Williams-Sonoma, tells the Dallas Morning News that “space is a premium at HPV… as leases come up some stores may be asked to leave if the retailer already has locations that are convenient to Highland Park residents.”
The CultureMap article tells a different story, however, hinting that the closures may have more to do with rental rates and lease negotiations.
“Williams-Sonoma’s lease was coming up, and we offered to extend it,” Ray Washburne, Highland Park Village president tells Gubbins.
“We love them as a tenant and wanted them to stay. But they they couldn’t make it work. Their lease goes until the end of January, and we have a temporary pop-up store that will go in there when they leave,” Washburne says.
A manager at the Galleria location, which will close Jan. 19, says “we’re closing because the rent is too high.”
Regardless of what is prompting the closures, one thing is for certain: come February, the NorthPark Center store could get pretty crowded, as it will be the last remaining Williams-Sonoma storefront in Dallas proper.
