Dallas Group Explores Alternative to DMC

After one group of developers failed to launch a new contemporaryapparel market in Dallas, a group of Dallas showroom owners is keeping the idea alive.

Federico Mariel, who currently has a showroom in the soon-to-beshuttered International Apparel Mart on the Dallas Market Center campus, confirmed he and several other showroom owners are considering a downtown, “fashion-only” alternative to the DMC’s proposed Fashion Center Dallas in the World Trade Center.

The WTC project, set to be completed by March 2004, will combine two floors of apparel showrooms with floors devoted to gifts and home furnishings in a manner similar to the mixed-use layout at the California Market Center in Los Angeles, which DMC executives also helped plan. (When the California Mart added gift and home accessories to the mix, the center was renamed the California Market Center.)

The alternative plan is focusing on apparel rather than on apparel and gifts, said Mariel.

“People will say that there is gift buying in clothing stores, but gifts don’t drive your business,” he said. “Having a fashion-only venue is going to keep the focus on apparel.”

Mariel also noted that the apparel business has become more specialized and niche-oriented in recent years and that bridge and contemporary lines require merchandising that may work better in a separate venue.

According to Mariel, the group has approached former California Mart executive Marsha Timson, though no deals have been struck.

Timson had been slated to manage the Fashion District Dallas apparel mart in the downtown Mercantile Bank tower before developers scrapped plans for the project earlier this month.

Mariel said his group has held meetings and spoken with building owners about securing a venue. One site the group has targeted is the Davis Building on Main Street near Neiman Marcus. Mariel, however, said the group has not ruled out taking up residence in the WTC, where most of the current apparel-mart tenants are heading.

“We’re looking at different options, and the World Trade Center is an option,” he said. —Robert McAllister