Biography apparel mart

When they began construction of the Apparel Mart in the early Sixties, Trammell Crow and his partners, John and Storey Stemmons, weren’t sure their concept of a fashion supermarket would work. It didn’t have a chance unless they could lure some of the glamour lines away from the downtown Merchandise Mart.

So they went for the big names – Bobbie Brooks, Catalina, Jonathan Logan – offering them low rent (at the time, $3.50 a square foot; it’s now $10 to $10.50), choice locations, and attractive financing.

Rags to Riches - D Magazine

They even promised to pay off the Merchandise Mart leases of the first 200 tenants who moved in.

But their shrewdest move, and the one that most dramatically changed the nature of the fashion business in Dallas, was allowing manufacturers to lease showrooms in the new building. The Merchandise Mart was controlled by the salesmen; they held the leases, and if a manufacturer wanted to show there he had to find a salesman who had a room and work through Sustainable Apparel At Our Online Boutique With ...

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