Walk through Southlake Town Square this month and the storefront math looks uneven. Nike is gone from 181 Grand Avenue after four years. Francesca's is running liquidation sales. Eddie Bauer has shuttered. If you only counted exits, you'd assume the Square was losing its grip.
But look at the new arrivals, and the story flips. ON Running and Reformation are opening their first stores in Tarrant County here. Two national brands, one property, and two county debuts.
The Exits Are a National Story, Not a Local One
Start with what's actually leaving, because the reason matters as much as the departure.
Nike's closure at Southlake Town Square came alongside the company's closures or announced closures in cities including Tampa, Kansas City, Atlanta, and Naperville, Illinois.
Francesca's tells a similar story. The Houston-founded boutique chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and launched storewide liquidation sales at all of its locations, including the one at Town Square, as part of a wind-down covering 457 stores across 45 states. Francesca's had already survived one bankruptcy in 2020 before being acquired by TerraMar Capital and Tiger Group.
Eddie Bauer's exit fits the same pattern. Its departure reflects a broader shift in the brand's physical retail strategy, not a judgment on foot traffic at the Square specifically.
Here's the pattern worth sitting with: the three closures coincided with broader changes at the companies involved. If you're trying to read the health of Town Square from its vacancies alone, you're reading the wrong signal.
Two New County Debuts
Now look at what's moving in: two brands are opening their first Tarrant County stores at the Square.
ON Running is opening a 6,000-square-foot store at 415 Grand Avenue East, between Alo and Sunglass Hut, and it will be the brand's first location in Tarrant County. Reformation is taking a 2,007-square-foot space at 213 Grand Avenue near lululemon and YETI for its first Tarrant County retail location as well.
Read that detail again. Both county debuts are at a four-block town square in Southlake, rather than a Fort Worth power center or a Grapevine outlet mall. Those first-in-county locations make the Southlake openings notable, beyond the available square footage.
The sustainable footwear brand Rothy's opened its storefront at 307 Grand Avenue East, near Vuori and across from Tecovas, filling a space just under 2,000 square feet. Ascension Coffee, a Dallas-born concept, is targeting a late-summer opening at 100 State Street, in the space that used to hold Corner Bakery.
ON Running and Reformation each have existing footprints elsewhere in Texas, and each has a first Tarrant County location at one of the Southlake addresses described above.
A Big Box Gets a New Tenant
The Crate & Barrel opening deserves its own explanation, because the space has a history that makes the deal more interesting than a simple lease signing.
In 2020, Macy's chose Southlake Town Square as the launch site for Market by Macy's, a new concept for the department store chain. It didn't stick. The company announced in January 2025 that the location would close as part of a 66-store nationwide closure plan, and it shut down that March.
That left a nearly 19,000-square-foot hole at 321 State Street, next to Tyler's, sitting empty through most of 2025. Filling a box that size, in a spot where a national retailer had previously operated, is a harder lease to sign than a small boutique storefront. Crate & Barrel opened its full-line store there on June 25, and the timing means the space sat vacant for a little over a year before a tenant with the scale to fill it stepped in.
Other Retail Moves in and Around Town Square
The smaller shuffles at Town Square are easy to miss.
L'Occitane en Provence is relocating from its longtime spot at 1428 Civic Place to a new storefront at 1251 Main Street. LOFT is returning to the Square after a previous run there, just in a different location this time. Nearby, Mr. Winston's, a luxury grooming and barber lounge, has opened at 1251 E. Southlake Blvd, inside the Shops of Southlake.
The Square Still Fills Up, No Matter Who's Behind the Glass
Retail turnover is only half of what keeps people walking through Town Square, and the calendar side of the property hasn't slowed down at all.
Oktoberfest Southlake returns October 16 through 18, 2026, marking its 25th year, with free admission and parking and live music across the weekend, including an AC/DC tribute act and a boyband tribute show anchoring the two nights. It joins a run of recurring events that already draw people downtown regardless of what's leasing space that quarter, including Art in the Square each spring, DiwaliFest each fall, the MasterWorks Concert series, and the city's Stars and Stripes fireworks celebration every July.
That calendar matters here because it explains why the storefront turnover hasn't cost the Square its pull. People aren't just showing up for whichever retailer currently occupies 181 Grand Avenue. They're showing up for the plaza itself, the recurring reasons to be there, and the assumption that whatever's new is worth a look on the way to the next event.
What This Actually Tells You
The headline version of this story is "stores closing, stores opening," and that version is true but empty. The version worth knowing if you live here is that the closures and the arrivals aren't playing the same game. Nike, Francesca's, and Eddie Bauer left amid broader changes at the companies involved. ON Running and Reformation each have a first Tarrant County location at this address. Those county debuts are the detail that gets lost when a shopping center update just reads like a list.
Next time you're parked near the fountain waiting for a table, it's worth noticing which kind of tenant you're standing in front of.
For more on what's changing across North DFW, including recent openings in Keller and the dual growth happening across Grapevine, the Verrett Team keeps a close eye on the communities we call home. Whenever a market update like this one leaves you curious about your own street, our neighborhood guides are a good place to keep browsing.
