Highland Park Village Is Growing Inside Its Own Walls This Season

Three fashion houses are coming to Highland Park Village, and none of them is getting a new building. Bvlgari is slated to open at the end of this month. Louis Vuitton is next in line, but it can't move in until Hermès moves out. Gucci has a suite number and no opening date. Each new arrival is fitting into a storefront that already exists in a shopping center first built in 1931. That limit on space explains how the Village has been changing, and the order those changes come in.

The handoffs, in the order they happen

The Village announced the new tenants at the start of October. People Newspapers and The Dallas Morning News both reported the details. In the order they happen, the announced moves are:

1. Bvlgari, end of October 2026. The Italian jeweler is slated to open at 44A Highland Park Village. It will be the brand's only North Texas location, so it's the one piece of this news you can see this season.
2. Hermès, early 2027. Hermès is moving into a new, expanded boutique within the Village.
3. Louis Vuitton, after Hermès leaves. Louis Vuitton will open a new store at 21 Highland Park Village, in the space Hermès uses now. Its timing depends entirely on step two.
4. Gucci, no date given. Gucci will take 100 Highland Park Village, Suite 105. A Village spokesperson didn't give People Newspapers an anticipated opening timeline.

If you're keeping track by address, here is how it maps out today:

Only one of the four rows has a date this calendar year. A walk past 21 Highland Park Village this holiday season will still find Hermès there, with Louis Vuitton coming sometime after early 2027.

In its statement to The Dallas Morning News, Stephen Summers, CEO of Summers Group, said the team "remains dedicated to continually elevating the experience at Highland Park Village in partnership with the world's most important fashion houses." Adding names without adding buildings means handoffs like this one, where one tenant's move frees the space for the next.

Why the Village grows by swapping

The constraint is physical. Highland Park Village covers 250,000 square feet of open-air retail space across seven buildings. People Newspapers noted that its last ground-up addition was Building 100 on Preston Road, finished in early 2019. Gucci's coming suite is in that building. Since then, the visible projects have been improvements to the existing grounds, such as the fountains at the Preston Road entrances.

Inside a fixed footprint, a new tenant usually means an existing tenant moves, gets a bigger space somewhere else on the property, or leaves. This season's announcement includes one handoff, from Hermès to Louis Vuitton. The Dallas Morning News reported that Miu Miu opened at the Village in December 2025 in a store of about 3,800 square feet, one of fewer than a dozen of its kind in the country. That puts the Bvlgari, Gucci and Louis Vuitton news less than a year after the last major fashion opening.

The other way to grow inward: rebuild what's there

Swapping tenants is one way to change a fixed property. Renovating the buildings themselves is the other, and the filings for that work point to the corner of Mockingbird Lane and Douglas Avenue.

In April, The Dallas Morning News reported Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filings for about $11 million in projects set to begin in 2026. One is roughly $6 million at D40 and the other roughly $5 million at C34, both near that intersection. The paper noted the filings are preliminary and subject to change.

People Newspapers later gave the scope in square feet. The work covers 3,500 square feet in Building C, which faces Douglas Avenue, and 7,000 square feet in Building D, at the corner of Mockingbird and Douglas. According to the shopping center's directory, Building C includes Oscar de la Renta and Ceron Highland Park. Building D includes Balmain, Veronica Beard, Brunello Cucinelli, Loro Piana and Vacheron Constantin. Crews were seen working there over the summer. As of the September report, the Village had not answered questions about the project's status or completion date.

The two filings add up to about 10,500 square feet, a little over 4% of the Village's 250,000 square feet. Measured against the whole property, that's a small amount of space. But it sits on the Village's northeast edge, the side closest to Mockingbird Lane and the homes beyond it. That edge is where the bigger question sits.

The one place the Village could grow outward

Across Mockingbird Lane, in the 4200 block, sits the Village's north surface parking lot. According to the town's zoning map, as reported by People Newspapers, the shopping center is zoned as a planned development district. The north lot and the surrounding neighborhood are zoned single-family residential. Because the Village has nowhere else to build out, that lot has become the focus of neighborhood attention this fall.

On the record, no plan has been filed. In a September 3 statement quoted by People Newspapers, the Village said:

"Various concepts have been explored for this location over the years to provide positive solutions for not only Highland Park Village but also the community. As of today, nothing has been decided. There is no firm plan or timeline, and no zoning case has been prepared or submitted to the Town."

In the same report, Jeff Armstrong, the Town of Highland Park's Director of Community Development, said the town had not received any zoning or other development applications for the site.

That's why "No Rezone No Hotel" signs have appeared near the shopping center. The neighbor group behind them, NoRezoneHPV, says in its own materials that the uses it worries about come from neighborhood conversations, not official plans. It also says no official zoning application has been filed. In a September 23 update, the group reported 825 signed petitions from Highland Park and University Park delivered to the town, 65 letters of opposition sent between June 1 and August 17, and about 200 yard signs. Those figures come from the campaign.

The campaign also describes a September letter from the Village to nearby neighbors. According to the group, the letter said that if the Village decides to pursue any change of use for the lot, it will meet with the closest neighbors before submitting anything to the town. If that's accurate, the neighbors closest to the lot would hear about any proposal before it reaches a public agenda.

Highland Park has a second commercial zoning case in progress. At its August 26 meeting, the Highland Park Zoning Commission continued to October 28 a public hearing on rezoning The Shops of Highland Park, at 4200–4270 Oaklawn Avenue. According to People Newspapers, the proposal covered more landscaping in exchange for fewer parking spaces, a 10-foot height increase, buried power lines, and a solid fence or wall along the property line. When Commission chair Ralph Perry-Miller asked about keeping the current maximum height, managing partner Kenneth Pratt of Stockdale Investment Group said he was agreeable to addressing those concerns. The application was being revised as of that report, so the version heard in October may differ.

What this season actually holds

For now, the changes you'll see are small and inside the property. Bvlgari is due at 44A by the end of this month. The renovation near Mockingbird and Douglas, where crews were seen over the summer, has no announced finish date. Complimentary daily valet is still near Bistro 31 and The Honor Bar, and the Village's guest services page lists more parking off Mockingbird Lane and Douglas Avenue.

The Village has not yet announced a date for its 2026 Christmas Lights celebration. The neighborhood's first confirmed holiday date is at Snider Plaza, where the Centennial Park Holiday Tree Lighting is set for Sunday, November 29, from 3 to 7 p.m.

Want to know how changes at Highland Park Village and the town's zoning cases could affect your own block? Diane Bearden follows these filings and hearings closely and is glad to talk through what they mean for your home. Contact Diane for a personalized market consultation.