Growing Grapevine

Our tour of Grapevine Mills takes an exciting turn down Main Street, thanks to the startup-friendly culture at Simon and in the City of Grapevine! In this month's episode, you'll meet Rachel Townsend-Cerny, owner and gallerist at RTown Art Gallery. A Grapevine native and the product of GCISD schools, Rachel is determined to grow the arts in her hometown. And she's not alone.

Katy Lemieux and Valerie Walizadeh took a lifelong dream to Kickstarter and launched the City's first independent bookstore! Their improbable journey is just the beginning as we dive into the power of Grapevine, a post-COVID surge of entrepreneurship, and a management team that loves to add local flavor to the Destination Attractions at Grapevine Mills.

There's no shortage of cutting-edge entertainment users in Grapevine, but one batch predates the majority of well-known concepts. The Merlin Entertainments cluster - which consists of a LEGOland Discovery Center, a SeaLife Aquarium, and the first American Peppa Pig World of Play - draws hundreds of thousands of people into the City every year. In fact, their parent company is second only to Disney for visitor attraction.

Join us as we explore the first truly revolutionary tenants of Grapevine Mills... and, of course, the daring sea turtle rescues associated with their work.

Before Meow Wolf Grapevine was public knowledge, it was Project Black Corinth.

After doing our best to explain Grapevine's newest destination attraction in last month's episode, the Economic Development team wanted to dive into the most important part of the project: its impact. Hear from the Creative Directors behind The Real Unreal and the team that recruited one of the nation's fastest-growing family entertainment brands to Grapevine Mills in this episode of 'Growing Grapevine.'

Plus (of course) a few more details on the exhibit before it opens in July 2023.

This month, our tour of Grapevine Mills detours all the way to Santa Fe to answer a question we've been hearing a lot lately: What is Meow Wolf? There's no simple answer when it comes to Grapevine's newest destination attraction, so we pulled out all the stops to give you an insider experience at the House of Eternal Return.

Audio elements and episode image courtesy of Meow Wolf; original photography by Kate Russell.

Our tour of Grapevine Mills takes an unexpected detour to explore one of the most ambitious proposals ever entertained in this community: the establishment of a Fortune 100 International Headquarters in the heart of the City.

What would have happened if Grapevine was selected to be the home of Amazon HQ2? Could something similar happen in the future? Are these projects worth pursuing in communities like ours? This hypothetical alternate history leans into a classic Hollywood trope: based on a true story.

After opening to rave reviews, Grapevine Mills ran into tough headwinds in the mid-2000s. A dated aesthetic, less-than-perfect tenants, and a Great Recession should have spelled doom for the City's landmark shopping center... instead, Grapevine Mills now stands against the popular opinion that malls and physical retail are dying. Today, we're exploring the strategy that outperforms 99% of regional shopping centers.

We travel back in time to witness the wildly successful launch of Grapevine Mills, complete with skate parks, theme restaurants, and an obscure little band called Hanson. Then ask... how long can the 90s aesthetic hold up?

Grand opening footage and audio courtesy of KTVT, CBS 11 News.

Your tour of Grapevine Mills begins with an unusual stop: a video game arena from the United Kingdom. But BELONG Gaming is more than an interesting tenant at your favorite shopping center. It's a gateway into one of the most pressing questions of our day... how do you prepare the next generation to join a workforce filled with professional gamers, online influencers, and jobs that haven't yet been invented?

'Growing Grapevine' returns with an in-depth look at the shopping center at the heart of the city. From its arrival in 1997 to an overhaul in the 2010s and an innovative new lineup coming soon, Grapevine Mills is a microcosm of the community... join us for a special behind-the-scenes tour!

Audio from Grapevine Mills' grand opening courtesy of KTVT, CBS 11.

In the Season 1 Finale, we sit down with Economic Development Director Larry Holt and a panel of experts to answer one simple, yet essential question... what's next for Grapevine?