Sam Moon

Moon grew the mom-and-pop shop his parents opened in the 1980s into a Dallas real estate empire. His parents, Korean immigrants David and In Sun Moon, founded Sam Moon Trading Company in 1984 as a wholesale importer of women’s accessories and handbags, selling mostly to boutiques. 

He scaled the company from a wholesale business to a retail chain with a real estate component. Under Moon’s leadership, the company bought shopping centers anchored by Sam Moon retail stores, and later bought land to develop retail centers for the stores. The company’s retail holdings span Dallas, Frisco, Fort Worth, Houston, Plano and the Woodlands. The Great Financial Crisis pushed the retail-focused Moons to get into hospitality development; Moon’s Frisco-based firm, Sam Moon Group, has developed mixed-use properties and hotels in Dallas, Plano and The Woodlands.

Moon developed the 15-story Renaissance Dallas at Plano Legacy West Hotel, which opened in 2017. It sold the hotel in 2023 to Dallas-based Paceline Equity Partners and ESR Group, a Hong Kong-based real estate manager, for an estimated $136 million. He partnered with JPMorgan Asset Management to complete the JW Marriott Dallas Arts District in 2023, Moon’s fourth hotel development. 

Retail revenues declined in the early 2020s due to competition from e-retailers. It closed its Austin location in 2019 and its San Antonio location in 2023. The company sold the Metropark Center, a 70-acre retail development in the Houston suburb Shenandoah in October 2025. 

— Rachel Stone