NorthPark Center, Galleria Dallas and Highland Park Village closed early Saturday, following a night where peaceful protests turned destructive to storefronts in downtown Dallas and Deep Ellum.
The malls plan to remain closed on Sunday.
NorthPark’s decision to close the upscale, enclosed mall was made “out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of the Dallas Police Department,” said spokeswoman Kristen Gibbins.
The mall was reacting to the possibility of planned protests spreading Saturday to the area north of downtown. Gibbins said additional security staff had been hired to work with Dallas police to secure the mall.
Social media was rampant with threats to loot shopping centers Saturday. Galleria general manager Angie Freed said the North Dallas mall closed Saturday and will remain closed on Sunday. Highland Park Village closed early Saturday.
Friday’s racial justice protest attracted thousands to downtown Dallas. They were united in their anger over the recent deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. As crowds dispersed after nightfall, that’s when the damage started.
Target, which had several stores damaged and looted in Minneapolis where it’s headquartered, temporarily closed several local stores: Cityplace location just northeast of downtown, Love Field, Preston Center, North Dallas on Montfort Drive, Northeast Dallas at Skillman and Abrams and Medallion Center.
In addition to temporarily closing 34 stores in Minnesota, Target on Saturday also closed stores in Texas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New York, Oregon and Pennsylvania. Two Target stores in Austin are closed until further notice on the University of Texas campus and in Saltillo, according to Target’s website.
Downtown’s Main Street appeared to be hardest hit overnight with large display windows broken at Neiman Marcus and across the street at retailer Forty Five Ten. Neiman Marcus said it’s still assessing damage, but windows were broken on all three sides of the luxury retailer’s flagship store.
The historic downtown department store will be closed for the short term, said Neiman Marcus spokeswoman Amber Seikaly.
“The entire storefront is glass, so we’ve had extensive damage," she said. The store’s beauty department on the Commerce Street side got the worst of it.
Forty Five Ten hadn’t yet reopened from the pandemic-induced closure of retail businesses to slow the spread of COVID-19.
CVS, 1411 Main St., was open and protesters entered the store around 1 a.m. but no employees were hurt, said CVS spokeswoman Amy Thibault. The store was closed temporarily Saturday for cleaning and to repair damage, she said.
“Looters were only in the store for a couple of minutes before Dallas police arrived, so very few items were taken and damage was minimal,” Thibault said.
Downtown on Elm Street, Campisi’s, which was looted overnight, was attracting a group of people gazing at the restaurant’s three shattered windows. The Empanada CookHouse, a new restaurant that opened earlier this year downtown on Ross Ave., was severely damaged.
Jeny Bania, spokeswoman for Headington Cos., which owns several businesses on Main Street, said Forty Five Ten, Traffic and Queso Beso restaurant “were hit with significant property damage and theft.” Queso Beso, which had been temporarily closed, had three boarded-up windows.
The Joule and The Drakestone were untouched, Bania said, and the Commissary and CBC Provisions restaurants were open.
Rocks or bricks shattered the front windows of Iron Cactus, a Mexican restaurant and margarita bar that’s now permanently closed, as well as Chop House Burger and Dallas Fish Market. Ye Olde Scarlet Pumpernickel Tavern was boarding up all of its front windows. Also on Main, upscale pizzeria Partenope Ristorante had its windows smashed.
At Cafe Izmir on North Ervay Street, employees were cleaning up the glass of two shattered windows. Owner Beau Nazary said he showed up just after midnight and guarded his business with a gun until 4 a.m. Liquor had been stolen and empty cash registers were vandalized.
Katherine Clapner, owner of Dude, Sweet Chocolate on Main Street, said her storefront has double-pane glass windows, and only one was broken.
“I got lucky because they only got through one pane. I didn’t get breached,” she said.
Still, she was scrambling since before dawn to save her chocolates, worried about Saturday’s planned protests. Clapner said she had just reopened the store from the coronavirus pandemic three days ago.
Deep Ellum was mostly hit on Main Street.
At Brazilian popsicle shop Picole Pops, employees were sweeping up the glass of two shattered windows Saturday morning and had been watching the shop since midnight. Upstairs Circus, a cocktail bar down the street, had boarded up a shattered front window, and a table inside was covered with broken glass.
High and Tight, a barbershop with a speakeasy bar and venue in the back, also had its windows smashed. But by Saturday morning, the windows were replaced with boards, and customers inside were getting haircuts.
Twitter: @MariaHalkias
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