Developers who built the 20-year-old European Crossroads retail center near Dallas hoped to re-create the Old World.
But Texas shoppers didn’t buy it. After years of poor performance, the 11.5-acre specialty shopping center may soon be demolished.
Beeson Highley Real Estate Inc. has contracted to purchase European Crossroads and plans to tear down the 189,000-square-foot complex near Love Field to make way for a new development.
“European Crossroads needs to go, and we feel like it will be a great redevelopment site, said developer Jerry Beeson.
His company is buying European Crossroads from CleveTrust Realty Investors, a Cleveland-based real estate investment trust.
European Crossroads was designed in the early 1970s by the same architects who planned Disney World in Florida. Buildings mimicked historic structures in England, France, Italy, Spain and Germany. The project was complete with cobblestone streets, fountains, bell towers and statuary.
All that was missing were customers. At most, only about 60 percent of European Crossroads’ retail space was ever leased.
In later years, European Crossroads shifted its focus to providing rental space for nightclubs, restaurants and office tenants.
