Target Store Planned For Inside Dobie Mall Adjacent To University of Texas-Austin

AUSTIN, TX — In what is shaping up to be a brilliant retail move, Target confirmed this week it would open a store adjacent to the University of Texas at Austin by next year.

The planned 22,000-square-foot store will be located at West 21st and Guadalupe Streets in the Dobie Twenty21 development company officials told reporters. The store will make its debut in July of 2017 with a ready-made clientele of some 50,000 university students next door.

Known as the Dobie Mall, the future home of the retailer at 2021 Guadalupe Street has undergone various renovations over the years. It once housed an art house movie theater. Save for a smattering of retailers and a few eateries, the mall now sits largely empty.

Resurrected Games is a popular draw at the place where a largely youthful customer base buy and sell their favorite video games, consoles, accessories, movies and collectibles. Each weekend on the upper floor of the mall, students gather to trade, compare and play cards at theResurrected Games-hosted event. The gatherings yield an intense scene as players debate strategies or argue over card rulings, as the college newspaper The Daily Texas reported in a recent feature story.

There are places to eat there, including the popular Hoa Hoa Chinese food eatery where a brisk business hints at the bustling mall it once was back in the day. There's also a Niki's location there offering pizza and pasta, a Subway sandwich shop and a few other eateries.

Many still lament the closure of the Dobie Theater at the site, which once screened indie films, foreign offerings and more avant garde cinematic fare until its 2010 closure. Developers have since hinted they might bring back the theater, but those plans announced in 2014 have yet to bear fruit.

The Dobie, which served as Austin’s main independent theater beginning in the 1980s, closed after the Landmark Theatres Corp. opted to not renew its lease, the Austin Business Journal reported.

But the coming of Target could help spur further development. In the immediate area, there's no place for students and others to purchase cheaply priced housewares. A nearby hardware store offers housewares, but the price points are a tad high. There are also specialty shops around campus, but with a higher price structures as well.

The Target store also will offer some groceries — another need scarce in the area within walking distance, save again for some high-end stores offering produce and the like at higher prices. Given the planned amenities to be offered at the upcoming store, company officials seem aware of the current offerings elsewhere, and the boutique-style store seems tailored to the college crowd.

The Austin American-Statesman noted that the planned store will be considerably smaller than most other Target locations in the area, but will still offer an assortment of groceries. dorm and apartment essentials, technology products and accessories, clothing and health and beauty items.

“Growth on college campuses and in urban markets is a priority for Target,” Target senior vice president Mark Schindele told the newspaper in a written statement. “We’re able to serve more guests by adding flexible-format stores near top universities across the country, including the quick-trip shopping experience we’ll bring to the University of Texas campus. We’re thrilled to open our first flexible-format store in Austin and to join the Longhorn community.”

It appears the retailer is right on Target to make this happen.

>>> Image via Target media relations page