Bath & Body Works Is Now Open in Forney: What It Means for the US-80 Corridor
Bath & Body Works is now open in Forney, in the Village at Gateway retail corridor at 11620 E US Highway 80, Suite 140. It’s a roughly 4,020-square-foot store — a build-out valued around $300,000 that went up over the spring and summer of 2026.
Small store by square footage, genuinely big deal by local standards — because until now, the nearest Bath & Body Works to Forney was a drive to Mesquite, Rockwall, or Town East Mall.
The Details
- Where: 11620 E US Highway 80, Suite 140, Forney, TX 75126
- Size: about 4,020 square feet — standard inline mall-format footprint
- Build-out value: roughly $300,000
- Neighbor: James Avery Artisan Jewelry, in the same building
Bath & Body Works stores are small, high-traffic, and heavily seasonal. Expect the usual: body care, hand soaps, candles, wallflowers, and the semi-annual sale that reliably empties the shelves twice a year.
Why a 4,000 Sq Ft Store Is Actually Newsworthy
Retail follows rooftops, but it follows them in a specific order. Grocery and home improvement come first — that’s H-E-B, Home Depot, Target. Then value apparel: Ross, Burlington, Five Below. Specialty and lifestyle retail — the stuff people drive to a mall for — comes last, and only when a market has proven it can support it.
Bath & Body Works opening in Forney means the market crossed that line. So does James Avery, which opened its first-in-DFW concept store in the same building, plus Rack Room Shoes and Verizon. That’s the tell: Forney is being treated as a destination, not a bedroom community that shops elsewhere.
What Else Is Filling In Around It
The Village at Gateway’s first phase is roughly 500,000 square feet. Confirmed and expected tenants beyond the anchors include:
- James Avery Artisan Jewelry — open
- Five Below
- Rack Room Shoes
- Verizon
- Solis Mammography
- Pacific Dental Services
- America’s Best Contacts and Eyeglasses
- BJ’s Wholesale Club
- EVO Entertainment — 82,000 sq ft of theaters, bowling, and attractions
- Restaurants including Portillo’s, Hawaiian Bros, Costa Vida, and 151 Coffee
We keep the running list current in the Village at Gateway opening calendar.
Practical Notes Now That It’s Open
Bath & Body Works stores follow a predictable rhythm:
- Launch coupons are the best they’ll be right now. If you want the promos, go early; if you want to actually browse, wait a couple of weeks.
- Candle season starts in August. Fall scents hit shelves earlier than anyone expects, so an August opening lands right at the busiest inventory moment of the year.
- Semi-annual sales are January and June. Worth knowing before you stock up at full price in October.
The Honest Local Angle
We run a gym, so we’ll be straight with you: nothing in a Bath & Body Works makes you healthier. It’s soap and candles, and that’s fine — small pleasures are part of a good life.
What we will say is this. The reason this store matters is the same reason our gym has stayed on US-80 for 25 years: proximity changes behavior. People don’t do the things they intend to do. They do the things that are already on the route.
Every store that opens in Forney is another 30-minute round trip you’re not making to Mesquite. Over a month, that adds up to hours. The question worth asking is what those hours become — more screen time, or the thing you keep saying you’ll start “when life calms down.”
Same Corridor, 25 Years
TX Fitness is at 127 E US Highway 80, Forney, TX 75126 — the same road as Gateway, a few minutes west. Weekday hours start at 5 AM, there’s no annual fee, and members with kids can use the supervised Kids Zone while they train.
If you’re already going to be over that way for errands, add twenty minutes and stop in. Twenty minutes of real work beats an hour you never schedule.
Questions? Call (972) 564-0909.