HIGHLAND MALL
Airport Boulevard and East Koenig Lane
Austin, Texas
The first shopping mall in Greater Austin opened for business in
1963. 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 Austin
Malls, Incorporated, a subsidiary of 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.
Los Angeles' Katzman & Associates designed the complex. In its
original state, it encompassed approximately 750,600 leasable square
feet and housed eighty-four stores and services. Anchoring the mall 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 stores and services 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. This venue showed first features on November 21, 1973.
HIGHLAND MALL was expanded on one occasion. A bi-level East Wing was
designed by the HOK (Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum) firm, of Dallas.
The addition was anchored by a 2-level (197,000 square foot),
Houston-based Foley's. Among seventy-three new 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. LAKELINE MALL {11 miles northwest, in Austin}, was
completed in 1995.
As a keeping up with Austin malls measure, HIGHLAND MALL was given a 3.5
million dollar face lift in the mid-1980s. This project included new
fountains, skylights, landscaping and a 17-bay Food Court. The
3-year-long refurbishment was completed in December 1987 and 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 debuted 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, two stores in the
Scarbroughs chain were bought by Dillard's in February 1992. The
HIGHLAND MALL store was included in this transaction. Scarbroughs
re-opened -as a Dillard's Men's & Children's- on November 20, 1992.
The original Dillard's was refashioned into a Dillard's Women's.
By
the late 1990s, HIGHLAND MALL was owned and operated by a joint
venture of the Rouse Company and New York City's Corporate Property
Investors. The land was owned by the American General Life &
Accident Insurance Company, of New York City. Indiana's Simon Property
Group bought the portfolio of Corporate Property
Investors in September 1998 and now owned a stake in HIGHLAND MALL.
In 2004, Chicago-based General Growth Properties acquired the holdings
of The Rouse Company. With this transaction, ownership of the shopping
center consisted of a joint venture of General Growth Properties and the
Simon Property Group.
HIGHLAND MALL suffered several 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. Dillard's Men's 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 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 on 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.
