Crate & Barrel likes Knox Street so much that it's bringing a second store to the Dallas shopping district.
The Chicago-based retailer has a sister chain called CB2 that's planning to open later this year just south of Knox on McKinney Avenue. The two stores will practically be visible from each other's front door.
Crate & Barrel opened its first CB2 in 1999 and now there are 18 in the U.S. and Canada. There's only one other in Texas, an Austin store that opened in 2017 in Domain Northside. In Austin, the two stores are about 2.5 miles apart.
"Twenty years ago, this was created to be the young brand, kind of a throwback to when Crate & Barrel first started out [in the 1960s], when it was targeting the young urban apartment dweller with the size of its furniture and lower prices," said Neil Stern, senior partner at retail consulting firm McMillanDoolittle in Chicago.
But CB2 has evolved, he said, and now it's less about being cheaper but more about being sleeker, more modern and minimalist-inspired. The two brands address customers with different tastes, he said, similar to Pottery Barn and West Elm, both owned by Williams-Sonoma.
CB2 sells the same categories as Crate & Barrel, from tableware and gifts to furniture and accessories such as rugs and lighting.
CB2 is taking over the 8,392-square-foot store that was home to Forty Five Ten for more than 15 years. (Forty Five Ten moved into a new building on Main Street in downtown Dallas in 2016.) CB2 has posted management positions for the store on its website, but didn't respond Wednesday to The Dallas Morning News' request for more information.
The former Forty Five Ten building was purchased last year along with several other properties in the Knox District by the investment arm of Austin tech billionaire Michael Dell and Dallas-based Retail Connection. The partnership also owns the buildings that house Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, Z Gallerie, On the Border and others.
In a couple of years, Knox District is going to look a lot different.
In addition to a new 12-story building coming at Knox and Travis that will have Weir's Furniture on the first two levels, another project has started.
The southeast corner of Knox and Cole Avenue is being demolished to build a new home for Restoration Hardware. It's going to be a three-story building with a restaurant on the top floor. It's a concept the retailer has been building in other cities. In the meantime, Restoration Hardware opened RH Modern on McKinney last year.
