Advertisement

businessRetail

Target is building more small campus stores, but SMU may be a tough fit

Vacancies in Snider Plaza are fueling speculation, including a high-profile corner that’s nearest SMU after Peggy Sue BBQ closed last year.

Target is stepping up its campus store development this year, but there’s no word yet on whether multiple campuses in Texas are on the drawing board.

Strong chatter that Target may open a store to serve Southern Methodist University and its 11,000 students — possibly in Snider Plaza — may be just that for now.

The closing last year of longtime restaurant Peggy Sue BBQ on the historic shopping center’s high-profile corner is as near as any new store could get to SMU. That building, which has 2,017 square feet of space, is much smaller than Target would need even for its petite urban stores, but a larger parcel could be put together.

Advertisement

“We are continuously exploring possible locations for future stores, but we have no new stores news to share,” a Target spokeswoman said.

D-FW Retail News

The latest on retail openings, closings and trends in D-FW.

Or with:

University Park spokesman Steve Mace said no proposals from Target have been presented to the city’s zoning office. University Park is about to start water and wastewater line replacements in the alleys east and west of Snider Plaza, which date back to the 1920s. The city has future plans for improvements including paving, landscaping, benches and bike racks.

New development has already happened in the neighborhood. Hilltop Plaza, a five-story office and retail building, opened two years ago at Hillcrest and Daniel avenues facing the Peggy Sue end of Snider Plaza. It is anchored by the Foxtrot convenience store.

Advertisement

Target opened its first campus store in the state in 2017 next to the University of Texas at Austin on Guadalupe Street. Last year, it opened a second small concept store in Austin on East 5th Street in the 10-acre Saltillo mixed-use development that includes Whole Foods Market and 800 apartments.

Both urban Austin stores are just under 25,000 square feet, but Target is also building campus stores that are half that size.

Target opened 30 stores last year, and 29 of them were the new small format concept. The retailer told investors last month that it plans to accelerated store openings with as many as 40 this year for urban centers, college campuses and dense suburban cities.

Advertisement

It appears to be going first to big state schools that have tens of thousands of students. The retailer just announced that it will open a 15,000-square-foot store on a commercial street surrounded by the University of Wisconsin.

A campus Target opening this month at the University of Georgia in Athens and one in the works for the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor are even smaller at about 12,000 square feet.

That’s one-tenth of the size of a regular Target, and more the size of a CVS or Walgreens. Some are two-level to squeeze into neighborhoods where a full-size Target can’t fit.

When speaking to investors, Target notes that it’s going after college students “to form lifelong relationships.”

Twitter: @MariaHalkias

Looking for more retail coverage? Click here to read all retail news and updates. Click here to subscribe to D-FW Retail and more newsletters from The Dallas Morning News.