Retail business owner question about North Richland Hills area (Dallas: rent, home)

[sun_dance]

Hello all,
Looking to open up a small full service tennis shop in the Metroplex. I am from out of the area. I need your input on the North Richland Hills area (even if you don't play tennis I would like your opinion). The shop would be opened 10 am-7 pm, mon-sat. One of the most important factors is the ease/ability for customers to drive to my shop during hours of operation within an approx. 15-20 mile radius. Being in the business currently, I have found that a tennis shop is a destination-type retail store that customers will drive up to 20 miles depending on traffic.

I like North Richland Hills/Hurst because of the central location to Euless, Bedford, Colleyville, Southlake, Arlington, Irving, and Fort Worth etc.

That being...will people drive to NRH area once or twice per month for a retail store that is unique and has excellent customer service. Is there a particular retail location that has stores in the NRH area that draws customers on a weekly/monthly basis for the areas I listed above? An example out of state would be tennis shops in California that are near specialty grocery stores like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's tend to do well.

Thank you!

[jbb303]

The Home Town development near the intersection of Precinct Line and Hwy. 26 might be your best option in North Richland Hills. I think the name of their mixed use retail area is The Venue. I don't imagine rent is cheap, but it's a busy area with a lot of traffic.

Another option may be the Colleyville Town Center. It's only a few miles north on Hwy. 26 and it has the kind of niche retail that you're talking about. It's anchored by Market Street, which is about as close as you'll get to something like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods in that area.

Good luck.

[hypocore]

What type of clientele do you see shopping at your store the most?

Pros? Country club players? School teams? Recreational players? Age range?

My first thought was to be closer to a country club, however most probably have their own pro tennis shop. There are lots of great boutique shopping places near the new Trader Joe's on South Hulen that are located in close proximity to Colonial Country Club and Ridglea Country Club and that area seems more suitable to what I envision when thinking about what you may want to offer.

Back to North Richland Hills......there is a fairly large tennis court system located at Richland High School in NRH and run by NRH that also has it's own pro shop. The location suggested by the previous poster on 26 would be relatively close to that and is connected to a decent shopping area, though it's not quite what I consider specialty shops that bring in high paying clientele.

[sun_dance]

I am looking for competitive juniors and anyone who plays tennis regularly. I just need a good amount of players within a 15-20 mile radius. Am I right in assuming that NRH is centrally located to a large population with in a 20 min drive? I don't know the area well, but NRH seems like a high traffic area, people commuting to Fort Worth, etc. Tennis people will drive up to 20 min and more if they like a particular store that provides them will excellent customer service and is a good resource to improve their game.

Thanks for the heads up about trader Joe's in Fort Worth. Are there any other locations I should check out? What about near whole foods location in Arlington?

[hypocore]

NRH would be somewhat centrally located to all the Mid-Cities area (Hurst, Euless, Bedford, Arlington, Keller, Southlake and Grapevine for example) but not so much for other areas further away like west Fort Worth, or heading into Dallas county.

DFW is a very large and vast metroplex and travel time is almost always marred by construction and heavy traffic.

I would imagine that you could get some customers from areas further out if you had great PR to get them there, but whether or not they will make regular return trips is anyone's guess.

I have a friend who is a tennis coach and if I can remember to ask, I will see what they think about your idea in general. I don't see them that often though, so I will do my best to remember! lol

[hypocore]

OP, if still reading...I did ask my friend today and an immediate no response came from him. He said if you perhaps went to the furthest northern part of NRH but probably not unless you went into Southlake or Colleyville would you find any type of success.

He also said that Goldsmiths, which focuses on Golf and Tennis is closing out it's tennis business entirely and they are on the border of NRH and Hurst. So even they are not finding it lucrative for tennis in the area.