Years after a tornado tore through North Dallas, the Central Market-anchored Preston Oaks shopping center at the southeast corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane is drawing more than two million visits a year, and landlord Regency Centers says it's about to be fully leased. The milestone caps a long rebuild for the Preston Hollow-area retail hub, which now sits alongside the company's Tom Thumb-anchored Mockingbird Commons as the backbone of its Dallas portfolio.
A Long Road Back From the 2019 Tornado
Preston Oaks was devastated by a tornado in 2019, and Regency Centers has spent the years since working to repair and rebuild the center, according to Regency Centers. The anchor tenant, Central Market, was closed for 20 months for rebuilding and restoration before reopening, per Supermarket News. When the grocer came back, it did so bigger: the rebuilt store added 4,500 square feet of selling space along with expanded produce offerings, a juice bar, an updated coffee shop, a community room and a mezzanine, the company's blog post on the reopening notes.
Regency also used the rebuild to refresh the rest of the property, renewing Preston Oaks through modernized façades, improved landscaping, shaded seating and communal event spaces, according to Dallas Business Journal. Lauren Bottonari, senior vice president and senior market officer at Regency Centers, writing in that outlet, frames well-located retail real estate as a winning formula built on curated merchandising and necessity-based traffic. The dossier shows one Regency source listing the center at 102,706 square feet, while a separate Regency acquisition release puts it at 103,503 square feet.
Final Tenant Set to Finish Leasing This Fall
Four retailers — Ever/Body, Mia Bella Couture, Mr. Winston's Barbershop and Pinto Ranch — recently opened for business at Preston Oaks, the same Regency blog post states. Heyday Skincare is expected to join the lineup this fall, at which point the center will be fully leased, per that account. The broader tenant mix now spans dining options including Mendocino Farms, Fish City Grill, JuiceLand, D.L. Mack's and Nothing Bundt Cakes, specialty retailers Pinto Ranch, Talbots and White House Black Market, and daily-needs shops like Hollywood Feed, Preston Animal Clinic, Mr. Winston's Barber Shop and Dorado Nail Salon & Spa, according to Dallas Business Journal.
Regency's investor materials describe Preston Oaks as sitting along a corridor with 58,000 vehicles passing daily, surrounded by 109,000 people with an average household income of $144,000 within a three-mile radius, per Regency Centers' investor relations site. Dallas Business Journal separately reports average household income within one mile of the property exceeding $460,000.
Mockingbird Commons Rounds Out the North Dallas Footprint
Across town, Regency's other major North Dallas holding, Mockingbird Commons at 6333 E. Mockingbird Lane, is anchored by Tom Thumb and spans 120,321 square feet, according to Regency Centers' property listing. The center draws more than 1.5 million visits annually and sits in a trade area where average household income within one mile exceeds $200,000, per Dallas Business Journal. Regency's own property page puts that one-mile average household income at $222,041, while a separate review from Occupi lists it at $204,017 alongside a one-mile population of 18,173 — the dossier does not resolve which figure is current. Occupi also notes just one 2,400-square-foot space remains available for lease there.
Mockingbird Commons' tenant roster leans heavily on food, wellness and everyday services: Piada Italian Street Food, Crisp & Green, Einstein Bros. Bagels, Starbucks, Cafe Donuts and Wingstop handle the food and beverage side, while ATI Physical Therapy, Pure Yoga Dallas, Elements Massage, Any Lab Test Now and Tooth HQ Dental Specialists cover health and wellness, Dallas Business Journal reports. Daiso, Sport Clips, Signature Nail Salon and Ogle School of Hair Design round out the everyday-services mix. Per Occupi, the center competes with nearby power centers like Mockingbird Crossing and larger formats such as NorthPark Center.
A Grocery-Anchored Strategy Amid a Mixed DFW Market
Regency describes itself as a national owner, operator and developer of retail real estate, structured as a self-administered, self-managed real estate investment trust and S&P 500 index member, per Dallas Business Journal. The company says it leans on a disciplined, self-funded growth strategy backed by a strong balance sheet, selective capital deployment and merchandising expertise, with its Dallas portfolio concentrated in the Preston Road trade area in North Dallas and the East Mockingbird Lane corridor. More than 80% of Regency's national portfolio is anchored by top-performing grocers across more than 480 centers in high-barrier-to-entry markets, according to the company's development page.
That grocery-anchored approach comes as DFW retail fundamentals sent mixed signals in early 2026. The metro's vacancy rate rose 20 basis points to 5.4% in the first quarter, with negative net absorption of 25,401 square feet, according to a quarterly report from Partners Real Estate. Average asking rents still climbed, rising 0.9% quarter over quarter and 7.3% year over year to $21.23 per square foot, the same report shows, even as the construction pipeline grew 4.1% quarterly and 14.4% annually to 7.0 million square feet.
Despite the softer absorption numbers, DFW retail occupancy held at a record 95.3% over the first half of 2026, according to Bisnow. Grocery-anchored projects are expected to account for most of the new retail space delivered across the region over the next six months and beyond, the outlet reports, citing roughly 4.2 million square feet of new retail delivered or in the pipeline in 2026 compared with 2.4 million square feet added in 2025. Retail real estate developers more broadly face limited site availability, elevated construction and financing costs, and shifting tenant demand toward necessity-based and experiential retail, per Dallas Business Journal.
Bisnow also points to the Custer Frontier Marketplace in McKinney, a planned 170,000-square-foot grocery-anchored center anchored by a 99,000-square-foot Kroger Marketplace with another 54,000 square feet earmarked for shops, dining, services and medical uses, as an example of where the region's grocery-driven development is heading next. Rents in fast-growing suburbs like Prosper and Celina have jumped more than 40% over the past five years, far outpacing the roughly 4% annual rent growth seen across the broader metro, according to the same report.
