Airport Boulevard and East Koenig Lane
Austin, Texas
The first shopping mall in Greater Austin opened for business in 1963 and '64. Open-air in configuration, HANCOCK CENTER encompassed 475,000 leasable square feet and was anchored by Sears and Dillard's.
HIGHLAND MALL, Austin's second mall-type center, was developed by Maryland's Rouse Company. The fully-enclosed center was built on an 81-acre plot, located 6 miles northeast of the Texas State House. The site was adjacent to the intersection of the Interstate 35 / Interregional Highway and US 290 Freeway.
The original bi-level complex was designed by Katzman & Associates, of Los Angeles. It encompassed approximately 750,600 leasable square feet and housed eighty-four stores and services. Anchoring the facility were a 2-level (208,000 square foot) J.C. Penney, 2-level (80,000 square foot), Austin-based Scarbroughs and 4-level (191,700 square foot) San Antonio-based Joske's.
Charter tenants included Luby's Cafeteria, Spencer Gifts, Disc Records, Cullum & Boren Sporting Goods and Florsheim Shoes. The General Cinema Corporation Highland Mall Cinema I & II was built as a northeast parking area outparcel. The venue showed its first features on November 21, 1973.
HIGHLAND MALL was only expanded on one occasion. A bi-level East Wing was designed by the Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (HOK) firm, of Dallas. The addition included a 2-level (197,000 square foot), Houston-based Foley's. Among seventy-three new inline stores were Swensen's Ice Cream Factory, Orange Julius, Gordon's Jewelers, Foot Locker, The Emporium, Contemporary Concepts and Mission Jewelers.
As the expansion was being built, original sections of the mall were refurbished to make them consistent with new construction. A grand opening was held on July 26, 1979. The shopping hub now encompassed approximately 1,063,700 leasable square feet and housed 157 stores and services.
Competing malls included the aforementioned HANCOCK CENTER {1.6 miles south, in Austin}, NORTHCROSS MALL (1975) {1.9 miles northwest, in Austin} and WESTGATE MALL (1972-1997) {8 miles southwest, also in Austin}. BARTON CREEK SQUARE {7 miles southwest, in Austin} was dedicated in 1981. This shopping hub had the size and commercial clout to put the hurt on the 11-year-old HIGHLAND. Another northside rival, LAKELINE MALL {11 miles northwest, in Austin}, was completed in 1995.
As a keeping up measure, HIGHLAND MALL had been given a 3.5 million dollar face lift in the mid-1980s, which included the installation of new fountains, skylights, landscaping and a 17-bay Food Court. This 3-year-long refurbishment, completed in December 1987, brought the mall up-to-date for a time. However, it was eventually eclipsed by BARTON CREEK SQUARE, which had been expanded to over 1,400,000 leasable square feet.
A second theatrical venue was built in the periphery of HIGHLAND MALL. The General Cinema Corporation Highland 10 was developed on a parcel located .3 mile northeast of the shopping complex. This multiplex movie house made its debut on December 16, 1988.
The first anchor alteration at HIGHLAND MALL occurred in May 1987, when Joske's stores were rebranded by Dillard's. Likewise, in February 1992, two stores in the Scarbroughs chain were bought by Dillard's, including the location at HIGHLAND MALL. On November 20, 1992, the former Scarbroughs re-opened as a Dillard's Men's & Children's store. The original Dillard's, in the former Joske's, had been refashioned into a Dillard's Women's store.
In 2004, Chicago-based General Growth Properties acquired the holdings of The Rouse Company, which owned a fifty percent share of HIGHLAND MALL. Ownership of the shopping center consisted of a joint venture with Indianapolis' Simon Property Group. Simon had acquired their share in the mall when they bought the portfolio of New York City-based Corporate Property Investors in September 1998.
HIGHLAND MALL suffered several major setbacks early in the 21st century. J.C. Penney closed their store in September 2006, just as Macy's was rebranding Foley's. A fourth rival, THE DOMAIN {4.6 miles northwest, in Austin}, was officially dedicated in March 2007. The Dillard's Men's store at HIGHLAND MALL went dark in May 2009.
Dillard's had announced earlier in the year that they were planning to close both of their HIGHLAND MALL stores. Nasty litigation between the Little Rock retailer and mall owners ensued. In the interim, a Dillard's Clearance Center was established in the Dillard's Women's space.
The court case was eventually settled; the Dillard's Clearance Center closed for good May 31, 2011. Macy's had been shuttered in the previous March. With the demise of the Dillard's Clearance Center, HIGHLAND MALL had no operational anchors.
In the meantime, the mall owners had defaulted on their loan. The lender, Wells Fargo Bank, assumed ownership. In mid-2010, they enlisted Chicago-based Jones, Lang, LaSalle to manage the property. The mall would be sold in four increments, with the buyer being a joint venture of the Austin-based Redleaf Properties, Limited Liability Company and Austin Community College District.
The Dillard's Women's / Clearance Center was acquired in May 2010, with the Macy's structure being bought in December of the same year. J.C. Penney, vacant for nearly 5 years, was sold in August 2011, with the remainder of the mall coming under Austin Community College ownership in August 2012.
HIGHLAND MALL closed for good on April 29, 2015. By this time, a Phase 1 ACC Highland facility had been completed. The old J.C. Penney had been reconfigured as Building 1000. This contained departments such as the ACCelerator Learning Lab, Library & Media Center, a Cafe' and District Police precinct. Building 1000 opened on August 13, 2014.
Building 4000, which encompassed the mall's East Wing section, was dedicated in September 2017. This portion of the ACC Highland campus housed various Art Department components, such as drawing, dance and ceramics studios and classrooms. There was also a Biosciences simulator and Veterans Resources Center.
Construction on the Phase 2 mall-to-college conversion commenced in October 2017. The central shopping center section, including the old Scarbroughs / Dillard's Men's, was reconfigured as a Health Sciences simulator, art gallery, Culinary Arts center and restaurant and facilities devoted to Computer Science and Information Technology, Visual Communication and Architecture and Engineering.
The old Joske's / Dillard's Women's was stripped down to its steel framework. Rackspace, a San Antonio-based tech firm, had planned to renovate the structure, but backed out of the plan in February 2017. The mall's old Foley's / Macy's structure will be repurposed, in some capacity, in the near future.
Building 4000, which encompassed the mall's East Wing section, was dedicated in September 2017. This portion of the ACC Highland campus housed various Art Department components, such as drawing, dance and ceramics studios and classrooms. There was also a Biosciences simulator and Veterans Resources Center.
Construction on the Phase 2 mall-to-college conversion commenced in October 2017. The central shopping center section, including the old Scarbroughs / Dillard's Men's, was reconfigured as a Health Sciences simulator, art gallery, Culinary Arts center and restaurant and facilities devoted to Computer Science and Information Technology, Visual Communication and Architecture and Engineering.
The old Joske's / Dillard's Women's was stripped down to its steel framework. Rackspace, a San Antonio-based tech firm, had planned to renovate the structure, but backed out of the plan in February 2017. The mall's old Foley's / Macy's structure will be repurposed, in some capacity, in the near future.
Sources:
The Austin-American Statesman
The Austin-American Statesman
The Austin Business Journal
www.simon.com / Simon Property Group
www.ggp.com / General Growth Properties
www.simon.com / Simon Property Group
www.ggp.com / General Growth Properties
http://www.therousecompany.com (Website on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
https://www.capmetro.org / Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority
http://southernretail.blogspot.com
http://kut.org / KUT radio
http://www.austincc.edu / Austin Community College District
"Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority" article on Wikipedia
"Foley's" article on Wikipedia
http://southernretail.blogspot.com
http://kut.org / KUT radio
http://www.austincc.edu / Austin Community College District
"Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority" article on Wikipedia
"Foley's" article on Wikipedia