Interstate 410 / Loop 410 and Fredericksburg Road
Balcones Heights, Texas
Greater San Antonio's first fully-enclosed shopping center, NORTH STAR MALL, opened for business in 1960. The Alamo City's second enclosed mall was dedicated in the following year. Originally known as WONDERLAND SHOPPING CITY, the facility was constructed on a 61-acre plot, located 8 miles northwest of the center city. The site, within suburban Balcones ["Bal-COHN-eez"] Heights, was adjacent to newly-opened sections of Interstates 10 and 410.
The bi-level retail complex was developed by a joint venture of the Handy Andy supermarket chain and San Antonio's Charles Becker, under the auspices of the Community Realty Company. Design of the complex was handled by Dallas' Jim Collier and Los Angeles' Chaix & Johnson firm.
WONDERLAND SHOPPING CITY was an addition to an existing Handy Andy supermarket, which had opened in May 1959. At its grand opening, held on September 14, 1961, the mall spanned approximately 544,000 leasable square feet and housed forty-two stores and services.
A 2-level (149,000 square foot) Montgomery Ward was the primary anchor. Other major stores were the aforementioned (66,000 square foot) Handy Andy, a (43,000 square foot) F.W. Woolworth 5 & 10, (19,500 square foot) Winn's variety store and (12,000 square foot) Hutchins Brothers. Charter inline stores included Cinderella Cake Shoppe, Ann & Tom Browne Toys, El Cafe Mexicano, Frederick's Beauty Salon, German Hi-Fi Imports, Platter Palace records and Sommers Drugs.
In March 1963, ground was broken for a second anchor store. Rhodes added a 3-level (131,000 square foot) unit to the southeast corner of the complex. Its first floor housed a covered parking deck, with a glass-enclosed elevator -and escalators- transporting shoppers to the 2-level store above.
An official dedication was held February 14, 1964. WONDERLAND SHOPPING CITY now encompassed approximately 675,000 leasable square feet. There were sixty-three stores. The Interstate Theatres Wonder Theater was built, as a northeast outparcel of the mall proper. It showed its first feature on November 23, 1966.
The Rhodes-Wonderland store was promoted as a Liberty House-Rhodes in the mid-1970s. It received a bona fide Liberty House banner on August 8, 1977 and was rebranded, as a San Antonio-based Frost Brothers, in 1980.
Commercial competitors of the WONDERLAND complex included the previously mentioned NORTH STAR MALL (1960) {3.5 miles northeast, in San Antonio} and INGRAM PARK MALL (1979) {6 miles southwest, also in San Antonio}.
Dallas-based Lehndorff USA had acquired WONDERLAND MALL in September 1977. A 7 million dollar, indoor-outdoor face lift was completed in 1980. In order to keep the facility competitive, a large-scale renovation was being planned by 1985.
RTKL Associates, of Dallas, were hired to totally reconfigure the shopping hub. Construction commenced in the spring of 1986 and was finished in November 1987. The 28 million dollar project included gutting a vacant Woolworth, with a new retail wing -known as the Palm Pavilion- extended to a 1-level (38,800 square foot), Jacksonville, Florida-based Stein Mart.
Beneath Stein Mart were a 7-bay Food Court and Crossroads 6 multiplex. Existing sections of the mall were refurbished with new tile flooring, lighting, graphics and skylights. A parking garage was also built in the southwestern periphery. Plans for accompanying office towers and hotels were scrapped.
As part of the remodeling, the official name of the mall was changed to CROSSROADS OF SAN ANTONIO. The new & improved retail hub was successful for a short time, but was nearly half vacant by 1990. Frost Brothers, a major trip generator, had pulled up stakes in 1989.
The moribund mall was reinvented as a value-oriented shopping facility. Burlington Coat Factory opened, in the old Rhodes / Frost Brothers space, in 1991. Other new CROSSROADS tenants included County Seat Outlet, 50 Off and Vantage Shoe Warehouse.
Phar-Mor Drug expanded a vacant Handy Andy space, adding 20,000 square feet. The store began business in 1990 but closed in 1992. Hobby Lobby filled the vacancy in 1994. Montgomery Ward, a charter 1961 tenant, closed in March 2001. In February 2002, 75,000 square feet of the abandoned Wards was demolished. What remained of the store's lower level was reconfigured as the (25,000 square foot) Norris Convention Center, which was dedicated in November 2004.
A 1-level (175,000 square foot) Target "Super T" was built on a portion of the old Ward's space and was completed in March 2003. This store was physically connected to the mall structure but did not have an interior entrance. As Target was being built, the mall's lower level 6-plex was renovated. The Santikos Bijou Cinema Bistro, a 6-screen venue with dine-in seating, showed its first features on July 24, 2003.
The 630,700 square foot retail complex had been acquired by an affiliate of Midland, Texas' Red Oak Realty in 1997. In early 2009, after a couple additional ownership changes, it was sold to Crossroads Mall Partners, Limited, a consortium of San Antonio-based investors. They initiated a 10 million dollar, 2-year-long, renovation project in 2010.
This included installation of new "Alamo motif" entryways, painting of the mall's facade, and interior upgrades, such as soft seating areas, a children's play area, a (40,000 square foot) Mercado Marketplace and state-of-the-art video system. As part of this renovation and repositioning, the shopping center was given a new name on January 14, 2010. It would be known, henceforth, as WONDERLAND OF THE AMERICAS, a homage to its original moniker.
Sources:
The San Antonio Express & News
Rhodes Western Annual Report 1963
http://www.labelscar.com / "Prange Way"
City-Data Forum / "San Antonio Crossroads Mall"
http://www.mysanantonio.com
"Crossroads Mall (San Antonio) Slide show-1987" / Mark Langford
"Crossroads of San Antonio" Project Reference File / Urban Land Institute / January-March 1994
http://www.crossroadsofsanantonio.com
https://www.cinematreasures.org
