Drive along Preston Road past Northwest Highway this month and you pass two versions of Preston Center within about ninety seconds. On one corner, fresh brick pavers and a rebuilt trellis frame a courtyard that did not look like this eighteen months ago. A block over on Westchester Drive, a chain-link fence runs along a stretch of empty storefronts where a shopping strip used to be. Both are Preston Center. Only one of them is finished.
The disorientation locals feel walking or driving through the district right now is not one messy construction project. It is two separate developments running on two very different clocks. One just wrapped up and is leasing space to new tenants. The other barely broke ground and will not deliver its first phase until 2028. Knowing which side you are looking at is the difference between expecting Wang's Chinese Cafe to reopen somewhere nearby and realizing it already closed for good.
The Renovation That's Already Behind Us
The Plaza at Preston Center, at the southeast corner of Preston Road and Northwest Highway in University Park, just came off its largest construction project in more than a decade, the first major work since an underground parking garage and office tower went in between 2010 and 2012. The refresh was timed to the Plaza's 75th anniversary and covered nearly every building on the property: a new color scheme, replaced roof caps, new brick pavers on the sidewalks, and new trellises throughout the center.
The tenant list that came in behind the construction crews tells you the renovation is done, not ongoing. Trina Turk relocated to the Plaza from West Village. Frenchie, a concept from Travis Street Hospitality, opened in the space. Women's boutique Y-OHR moved in, and med spa Viva Day Spa followed. Maman, the New York bakery-cafe chain, chose the Plaza for its Texas debut in November 2025 before expanding to Lakewood and, as of August 7, 2026, a third North Texas location at Legacy East in Plano.
Swoozie's, the party-goods shop that had anchored the Plaza since its Dallas debut in August 2008, went dark at the end of 2024 during a corporate sale and reopened under its original owners, Kelly Plank Dworkin and her daughter Ashley O'Donnell, with a November 2025 grand reopening benefiting The Birthday Party Project. The refreshed store now groups merchandise by trend, Western, mahjong, lake living, alongside the returning bridal and children's sections regulars came for in the first place.
Not everyone in the neighborhood reads the changes the same way. One longtime observer told local paper People Newspapers, "This corner has needed a glow-up for some time." Others have quietly worried that a run of national names moving in could dull what made the Plaza feel like a neighborhood spot rather than a shopping mall. Whichever side of that you land on, the construction dust on this half of Preston Center has settled.
Two New Restaurants That Are Not Part of the Demolition
Two restaurant openings this year sit close enough to the construction fencing that it is easy to assume they are part of the same project. They are not, and the distinction matters if you are trying to figure out what is stable and what is temporary.
CRAFT Restaurant & Beer Market opened April 1, 2026, at 5974 W Northwest Hwy, occupying a former office suite across from Village Baking Co. It is the first U.S. location for the Calgary-founded brand, and it brought more than 100 taps, a 5,250-square-foot rooftop patio with a full bar, and rooftop bocce and cornhole to a stretch of Preston Center that had not seen a sports bar before. Founder PJ L'Heureux called the Dallas market an important next step for the brand when the location opened.
Scilla, a coastal Italian concept from Duro Hospitality, opened July 17, 2026, at 8111 Douglas Avenue on the ground floor of the 8111 Douglas office tower. This is worth pausing on, because it is easy to confuse 8111 Douglas with the 8300 Douglas project down the street, and they are not the same building. 8111 Douglas is an already-completed tower. Duro, the group behind The Charles, Sister, and Norman's Japanese Grill, designed Scilla to function as an everyday neighborhood restaurant rather than a destination spot, the kind of place meant for a Tuesday lunch or a late cocktail rather than a special occasion.
Between these two openings and the longer-running Il Bracco, the upscale Italian restaurant that has anchored the Plaza's dining room for years, the food and drink options on the finished side of Preston Center have actually expanded this year, even as the other side of the district is losing tenants.
The Construction Zone That Just Started
The project actually tearing up Preston Center is called 8300 Douglas, at the intersection of Luther Lane and Westchester Drive. Developer Ramrock Real Estate, working with Lincoln Property Company, HKS Architects, and Willow Bridge Property Management, broke ground in March 2026. The plan calls for a 12-story, roughly 300,000-square-foot office tower, a 17-story residential tower with 147 units, a 35,000-square-foot rooftop park, and 24,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space. The first completed phase is not expected until late 2028, which means this is a multi-year construction zone, not a seasonal refresh like the Plaza.
The businesses that occupied that stretch have not been folded into a temporary relocation plan. According to City of Dallas records responding to resident questions about the project, the retail along the south side of Westchester Drive to Luther Lane, including Office Depot, Yolk, Hollywood Nails, Salata, AT Bistro, Roti, and Wang's, was set to be displaced, though the developer said relocation options exist for tenants who want to stay somewhere else in Preston Center. As of this spring, Wang's Chinese Cafe, Yolk, and AT Bistro–Au Troisième had already left the center entirely, according to local coverage. Target and CVS are the two major tenants expected to remain through construction.
The project has already attracted a significant office commitment. Fifth Third Bank signed a lease in May 2026 to establish its Texas headquarters inside the new office tower, planning to occupy two floors once the building tops off and exit its current lease at Comerica Bank Tower downtown. A source close to the property told D Magazine the building was already 79 percent leased as of that announcement, with the ownership group unwilling to do a deal for less than $90 a square foot. That is a strong signal of confidence in the corner's long-term draw, even with two more years of active construction ahead.
For anyone routing errands through the area in the meantime, city records indicate the property owner does not anticipate permanent road closures. Retail parking during construction is set to rely on roughly 38 surface spaces along Westchester Drive, the center's parking garage, and valet service.
Reading the Fence Line Correctly
The practical takeaway for anyone who lives near Preston Center is simple once you separate the two timelines. If you are standing in front of the Plaza, the disruption is over. What you see now, Trina Turk, Frenchie, Maman, the reopened Swoozie's, CRAFT down the block, is close to the settled version of that corner for the foreseeable future. If you are standing on Westchester Drive looking at the fence line, you are looking at the early stage of a project that will not resolve until 2028, and the tenants that used to occupy that block are not coming back to that address.
Preston Center has weathered redevelopment debates for decades, and this particular split, one half finished, one half just getting started, happens to be unfolding at the same time. It is a useful reminder that in a district this dense, "Preston Center" can mean two very different things depending on which side of Preston Road you are standing on.
If you are curious how these changes are shaping values or leasing activity in the high-rises and homes near Preston Center, Sharon Quist has spent more than three decades tracking how Dallas's luxury corridors evolve block by block. Request a private consultation with Sharon to get a grounded read on what this stretch of Preston Hollow and the Park Cities looks like right now.
