Netflix transforms former mall department stores into experiential venues
By Mitchell Parton • December 12, 2025 •
Ivy Liu
This story was first published by Digiday sibling Modern Retail
About two years ago, Trademark Property Co. CEO Terry Montesi heard from a national real estate broker that there was a big, secret tenant interested in Galleria Dallas, which his firm operates. He eventually found out that it was not a typical retail tenant: It was Netflix.
Netflix was looking for the first locations for a concept called Netflix House, which includes a rotating selection of games or “experiences” based on shows such as “Stranger Things,” “Squid Game,” “Wednesday” and “One Piece.” The location in Dallas opens this week, and one at the King of Prussia mall near Philadelphia — in a former Lord & Taylor store — opened last month.
Both are around 100,000 square feet and have an area where people can sit down for food and beverages inspired by Netflix titles. They’re open to anyone to walk through for free, but guests have to pay to play games. The location in Dallas also has an arcade-style game room, and the Philadelphia location has VR Games, mini golf and a theater. A third is planned for Las Vegas in 2027, and the company hopes to open additional locations, though it’s unclear how many.
The initial Netflix House locations represent a desire from landlords to bring in experiential concepts to malls that recruit a younger crowd, rather than the traditional department store anchor.
Montesi and his team were compelled by the offer, as the mall had already been pushing to make Galleria Dallas even more of an entertainment destination. The mall already has an ice skating rink and has been adding more restaurants in recent years. The space Netflix eventually moved into was originally built for Marshall Fields and later housed Belk. Belk exited the market a couple years ago — Montesi said it was a very high-end, expensive store that didn’t work in the Dallas market.
Montesi said he has also seen other entertainment- or experience-based concepts, such as Round 1 and Dick’s House of Sports, take former department stores.
“The importance of department stores to the success of the shop tenants in malls has become less and less and less and less,” Montesi said, adding that alternatives often make the mall more of a diversified, interesting place for people to visit. “If we’re talking to tenants that we’re trying to lease space to at the Galleria — smaller tenants — I would think 95 out of 100 of them would probably rather have a big Netflix concept like this than just another department store.”
Greg Lombardo, vp of experiences for Netflix, said it landed on these cities and these malls as it felt they were convenient or accessible to fans. Being a part of the ecosystem at each of these malls — both have an entrance within the mall itself — had the potential to drive new visitors.
“There’s a cultural fabric in those cities, and I think there’s just a willingness on the part of the population to go out and experience,” Lombardo said at a press event in Dallas. “But I think the other factor is really having these very well-established malls that already occupy a share of mind with the population and are already destinations in and of themselves.”
Lombardo said Netflix first experimented with in-person experiences during the pandemic, when the company did an immersive drive-through event based on “Stranger Things” in Los Angeles with recreations of locations in the show.
“What we found was it really tapped into that fandom, and we found that fans wanted to do more with these titles,” Lombardo said, adding that the company then began launching a variety of touring experiences worldwide that have hosted more than 10 million visitors since 2020. “All those experiences around the world really informed what Netflix House is today — we knew, at some point, we would need a permanent venue to bring these experiences in and out of throughout the year.”
He said the department stores had plenty of space for what Netflix wanted to do and made sense for an experience that caters to both families during the day and adults at night. The company redesigned the entries to resemble the iconic envelope used when it was a DVDs-by-mail service.
“You have these amazing spaces that are ripe for reuse in these department store boxes, and then you have the ability to offer another form of entertainment, so it’s really complementary to the offerings that exist in great malls already,” Lombardo said. “I think a lot of mall developers and operators are realizing that entertainment is a really important piece of the offering now; certainly, shopping is still a big part of a mall endeavor, but it’s also really important to come and be entertained.”
And as Netflix grows as an entertainment giant, with the potential deal to acquire Warner Bros. announced last week, the Netflix House locations could become even more compelling by adding additional brands.
“We’re really excited about the WB deal and the chance to combine Netflix’s incredible innovation and technology, and the platform, the service, with some amazing legacy stories, from ‘Wizard of Oz’ to ‘Harry Potter’ and the DC Universe,” Lombardo said. “So, combining those with ‘Stranger Things’ and ‘Squid Game’ and ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ is an awesome opportunity. Obviously, it’s really early.”
