Fashion District Dallas to Launch New Trade Show
New apparel market Fashion District Dallas has announced it will debut womenswear trade show Encore! Encore! Oct. 23–27 during the Women’s & Children’s Apparel & Accessories Market in Dallas.
A group of Dallas-based developers, led by Paul Stell and Luke Crosland, is redeveloping the Mercantile Bank tower across from Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas to house Fashion District Dallas. The project rivals the development initiated by the managers of the Dallas Market Center (DMC), who are closing the Dallas Apparel Mart in January 2004 and moving tenants into the nearby World Trade Center.
The Stell-led group said Encore! Encore! will be the first of at least five additional shows for the women’s industry that it has scheduled for 2004. Organizers have yet to confirm the show’s location but are considering staging it at the Bryan Tower in downtown Dallas. Developers are also thinking of using the Bryan Tower as a temporary home for new Mercantile tenants until that building goes online in late 2004.
The show will be leased and managed by the recently appointed team of Marsha Timson and Pam Roberts. Both are former executives of the CaliforniaMart (now called the California Market Center), and Timson had also headed leasing and marketing at the Dallas Apparel Mart. Timson and Roberts said Encore! Encore! will be geared toward designers and manufacturers’ representatives who do not currently have a residency in the Dallas apparel community. The two said the show will also be used to stimulate the growth of the Dallas fashion industry and to market permanent space in Fashion District Dallas.
So far, Fashion District Dallas reportedly has about 50 tenants seriously interested in leasing space, but many of these potential customers are waiting for some anchor tenants to sign on the dotted line. Among the heavy hitters considering the Mercantile building are Liz Claiborne and Laundry.
But DMC Chief Executive Officer Bill Winsor said the majority of apparel tenants in the Dallas Apparel Mart plan to move into the World Trade Center project, which will be called Fashion Center Dallas.
“During our successful March market, I was pleased to announce that more than 75 percent of the existing [600] exhibitors have signed up for 90 percent of the custom showroom space in Fashion Center Dallas,” Winsor said in a statement. “This progressive thinking and forward-designed marketplace will set a new benchmark for wholesale apparel markets.”
Winsor also said the DMC is planning a number of shows for permanent and temporary exhibitors.
Several California Market Center showrooms that have space in Dallas support the DMC project.
“Dallas [buyers and wholesalers] are not receptive to change,” said Lynne Andresevic, principal of Crayola Sisters. “It will be hard to pull off putting up a new building. My customers are going to the World Trade Center anyway because of the gift market there.”
“The developers of the Mercantile building have good credentials, but I’m very pleased with how the WTC is looking,” wholesaler Fred Postal added. “There will be crossover opportunities there, and it looks like the showrooms will be much more luxurious than what we have.” —Robert McAllister
