The question that everyone wants an answer to: Where will Matt’s move after it leaves the Lakewood Shopping Center at the end of the year? The other, more complicated question: What does it mean that Matt’s is being replaced by the decidedly more upscale Mi Cocina?
The answer to the second question first, which I discuss in my column in the July issue of the magazine. Look for Mi Cocina’s arrival to mark the influx of more well-known national and regional restaurants and retailers to Lakewood and East Dallas, says Darrell Hernandez, an executive vice president with United Commercial Realty. He has worked on a variety of Dallas and suburban developments, including Village on the Parkway in Addison, Preston Village Center in Plano, and Preston Center.
Hernandez’s take? Mi Cocina “will bring more eyes to the area,” he says. “No one likes to be a ground breaker. They want someone else to go into an area first. Since Mi Cocina has done that, you’ll see more big names looking at Lakewood. Now, without taking into account whether you like Matt’s or not or think it should move, that a company like Mi Cocina is coming is going to be good for Lakewood.”
And where will Matt’s go? That, says Matt Martinez III, has still be decided. But Hernandez says not to be surprised if it replaces a restaurant close to Matt’s current location. Martinez has said he wants to stay as close as possible to the shopping center, and there isn’t a lot of empty restaurant space that fits that description. My hunch? Skillman and Live Oak, though that’s nothing but a guess on my part.
“I think there’s a 90 percent chance that Matt’s will go into an existing space,” says Hernandez. “There will be a landlord who will be willing to work with them to replace a tenant who is not doing as well as could be.”
