The Dallas Mavericks Are Leaving Downtown. Here's What That Means for DFW Real Estate.

#MarketUpdate#RealEstateNews#CommunityDevelopment#HousingTrends#NewDevelopment#HousingMarket
Written By Emilio Cinelli

Key Takeaways

  • The Mavs left downtown for the first time in franchise history.

  • 104 acres at LBJ and Preston Road. That is not just an arena.

  • One day later, the Stars chose Plano's Willow Bend.

  • Downtown Dallas loses both AAC anchor tenants by 2031.

  • Arena effects on property values are real, and complicated.

In the span of two days this week, downtown Dallas lost both of its major sports anchors.

Not to relocation. To North Texas.

On June 1, 2026, the Dallas Mavericks announced they had signed option agreements for approximately 104 acres at the former Valley View Mall site, near Preston Road and Interstate 635 in Far North Dallas. Less than 24 hours later, the Dallas Stars announced a letter of intent to build a new arena at the Shops at Willow Bend in Plano.

Both teams share the American Airlines Center under leases that expire in 2031. Neither one appears to be renewing.

If you follow DFW real estate at all, this week matters. Not just as sports news. As a signal about where investment, development, and foot traffic are headed in the Metroplex for the next decade.

What the Mavericks Just Announced

The Mavericks entered into option agreements for a 104-acre tract at Interstate 635 and Preston Road, well exceeding the 50-acre minimum CEO Rick Welts identified in March as necessary for the project. An option agreement gives the team the right to purchase the land. Not the obligation. The actual purchase, permits, and groundbreaking come later.

The vision is bigger than a basketball arena. The team envisions hotels, retail, a new practice facility, restaurants, and green space alongside the main arena, plus a separate 5,000-seat concert and events theater. Think less "sports venue" and more "walkable destination that happens to have a basketball court at the center."

Mavericks CEO Rick Welts was brought on in January 2025 specifically to lead the arena search, with experience overseeing the Golden State Warriors' construction of Chase Center in San Francisco. That background matters. Chase Center is regularly cited as the model for a privately funded, mixed-use arena district that actually works. Welts knows what he is building toward.

104 acres. That is roughly 80 football fields of land sitting at one of North Dallas' most prominent intersections. The team is targeting the 2031-32 season as its first in the new facility, timed to coincide with the expiration of their current AAC lease.

Then the Stars Made It Two

The announcement lasted about 24 hours before Dallas lost its second downtown anchor.

On June 2, the Dallas Stars submitted a non-binding letter of intent to the City of Plano for a new arena at the Shops at Willow Bend. The proposed complex sits at the Dallas North Tollway and West Park Boulevard, about 17 miles north of the AAC.

The Stars' proposal carries a cost exceeding $1 billion. Plano could contribute up to $700 million through a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone covering nearly 900 acres around the Willow Bend site. The projected new development value tied to the TIRZ is approximately $2.4 billion. The Plano City Council votes on the proposal June 8.

If both projects proceed, the American Airlines Center will lose both anchor tenants before 2032, leaving downtown Dallas without a major arena tenant for the first time since Reunion Arena opened in 1980. The Dallas Wings are building their own downtown arena and have been mentioned informally as a potential interim occupant of the AAC. Nothing is confirmed on that front.

The Valley View Site: Thirteen Years in the Making

Beck Ventures acquired the Valley View site in 2012 with a vision for a massive mixed-use district they called Dallas Midtown. The mall closed in January 2022. Demolition was complete by May 2023. An $85 million mixed-use apartment and retail building finally broke ground at the site in late 2025, marking the first vertical development after more than a decade of planning, debate, and delays.

The Mavericks entering the picture reframes the entire site.

Beck Ventures noted in their statement that the Valley View and Dallas Midtown TIF districts were structured as a "barbell" connecting Valley View development with the Redbird Mall community in southern Dallas. In plain terms: new tax revenue generated at Valley View can flow to Redbird and its surrounding neighborhoods. That is an unusual built-in community benefit for a development of this scale. Most large sports projects generate tax revenue that stays close to the venue.

13 years of preparation work is already done. The infrastructure and TIF framework are in place. The Mavericks are not starting from zero.

What Arena Districts Actually Do to Nearby Real Estate

The research on sports venues and property values is mixed. Here is the honest version.

Studies published in the Journal of Sports Economics found that housing values near major sports arenas increased by roughly 4.7% on average. That average covers a wide range of outcomes, and the surrounding development is the biggest factor in determining where a specific project lands within that range.

A venue that sits alone in a sea of parking draws activity maybe 40 nights a year. A venue surrounded by restaurants, retail, residential options, and public green space draws activity every day of the year. The Mavericks' stated vision is the second kind. The same goes for the Stars' proposal in Plano.

There is one honest limitation worth naming. The American Airlines Center has direct DART light rail access. The Valley View site does not. DART buses serve the area, but there is no train connection. How the team and city address transit will shape how quickly the surrounding corridor develops and what kind of day-to-day experience residents near the site actually have.

For Plano and the Willow Bend corridor, the 900-acre TIRZ proposal is a larger infrastructure lever than most people realize. A TIRZ captures new tax revenue generated within its boundaries and reinvests it back into the zone. If the Stars project moves forward and Plano deploys that tool effectively, the surrounding corridor could see sustained infrastructure investment for decades.

What to Watch Between Now and 2031

Both announcements are early stage. Here are the checkpoints worth tracking.

For the Mavericks: The option agreement needs to convert to an actual land purchase. From there, construction permits, architectural plans, and city coordination all come before anything moves. With a construction timeline of approximately 30 months, groundbreaking would need to occur no later than roughly mid-2028 to hit the 2031 target.

For the Stars: The Plano City Council votes June 8. That is the first real checkpoint. A yes moves the proposal into formal development agreement territory. Any delays at the council level push the Stars' timeline.

For the AAC: No final plan for the building has been announced. The City of Dallas owns it. What the AAC becomes after 2031 is an open and active question.

Here's What This Means for You

If you own or are looking at property near the LBJ Freeway and Preston Road corridor in North Dallas, or anywhere along the Dallas North Tollway near Willow Bend in Plano, you are watching two large-scale mixed-use developments take shape within a few miles of each other. These are long plays. Neither shovel is in the ground today. Mixed-use entertainment districts, when they succeed, tend to reshape the corridors around them over 5 to 10 years. The direction of travel is set. What matters now is execution, transit solutions, and the pace of surrounding investment. You do not need to make any decisions right now. You just need to understand what is in motion.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Not yet. They signed option agreements, which give the team the right to purchase approximately 104 acres. That is not a binding obligation to complete the transaction. The land purchase and formal development approvals are the next steps.

  • The team is targeting the 2031-32 NBA season, which aligns with the expiration of their current AAC lease. Construction is estimated to take about 30 months, which means groundbreaking would need to occur no later than roughly mid-2028.

  • DART buses serve the area, but there is no light rail connection. That is a meaningful difference from the American Airlines Center, which sits adjacent to a DART rail station. Transit access is one of the key factors that will influence how quickly and how well the surrounding corridor develops over time.

  • The Stars signed a non-binding letter of intent and submitted it to the City of Plano. The proposal goes before Plano City Council on June 8. The development cost is expected to exceed $1 billion, with Plano potentially contributing up to $700 million through a TIRZ structure.

  • No final plan has been announced. The city of Dallas owns the building. The Dallas Wings have been mentioned informally as a potential short-term occupant while their own downtown arena is under construction, but nothing is confirmed.

  • The honest answer is: it depends on execution. Large mixed-use entertainment districts with hotels, retail, restaurants, and green space have a stronger track record of lifting surrounding property values than standalone arenas do. The scale of both projects, and the TIF infrastructure already in place for each site, suggests both cities are thinking beyond the arena itself. Whether the execution follows through determines everything else.

Conclusion

Two announcements. Two days. A complete reshaping of where Dallas-area sports live for the next generation. The Mavericks are heading to Far North Dallas. The Stars are heading to Plano. And North DFW, which has spent the last decade absorbing corporate relocations, population growth, and major infrastructure investment, is now adding professional sports to that list.

If you want to talk through what any of this means for a property you own or are considering in North DFW, feel free to book a free 30-minute consult.

Curious what you think: does having both teams move north change how you see the long-term value of living in this part of the Metroplex? Share this with a friend and tag me.

Sources

Emilio Cinelli https://www.homeswithcinelli.com
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