The Shops at La Cantera is an open-air regional

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

located in

La Cantera, San Antonio La Cantera is a master-planned development and district of the City of San Antonio in the U.S. state of Texas, on the city's Northwest Side. "La Cantera" is Spanish for "the quarry", in reference to what the district was before USAA turned it to ...

, near the Texas State Highway Loop 1604 and Interstate 10 interchange, on the city's Northwest Side. The initial phase of the project opened on September 16, 2005. The center sits on a site in La Cantera, a master-planned resort community developed by

USAA The United Services Automobile Association (USAA) is a San Antonio-based Fortune 500 diversified financial services group of companies including a Texas Department of Insurance-regulated reciprocal inter-insurance exchange and subsidiaries offeri ...

Real Estate Company. La Cantera is also home to

Six Flags Fiesta Texas Six Flags Fiesta Texas, formerly known simply as Fiesta Texas, is a theme park located in Northwest San Antonio. It opened on March 14, 1992, in the La Cantera master-planned development and district as the first business in that development. S ...

, La Cantera Resort & Spa and two world-class golf courses, The Palmer Course at La Cantera and the Resort Course, which was home to the PGA

Valero Texas Open The Texas Open, known as the Valero Texas Open for sponsorship reasons, is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, played near San Antonio, Texas. It dates back years to 1922, when it was first called the Texas Open; San Antonio-based Val ...

. The anchor stores are

Neiman Marcus Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compani ...

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, a ...

, Dillard's,

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

, Barnes & Noble, and H&M.

Design

The concept for the center was originally developed and conceived by

The Rouse Company The Rouse Company, founded by Hunter Moss and James W. Rouse in 1939, was a publicly held shopping mall and community developer from 1956 until 2004, when General Growth Properties (GGP) purchased the company. Beginnings - Moss-Rouse Company ...

under a joint venture with USAA Real Estate Company. (The Rouse Company also developed San Antonio's North Star Mall.) General Growth Properties acquired The Rouse Company in November 2004. Local architectural firm Alamo Architects designed The Shops at La Cantera, constructed as a single-level, garden-like "retail village" with varied storefronts, shared arcades, and subtle water features. The overall architectural style of the center has a Texas Hill Country vernacular vibe designed to ease environmental concerns about land usage and nature conservation. The shops reflect the preservation of natural landscape and evolution in modern shopping patterns. Austin-native J. Robert Anderson, FASLA conceived the landscape architecture style, that also reflects Hill Country. The Shops at La Cantera includes the first

and

in San Antonio and new stores from Dillard's and

Foley's Foley's was a chain of department stores owned by May Department Stores and headquartered in Downtown Houston, Texas. On August 30, 2005, the division was dissolved and operation of the stores was assumed by Federated's Macy's West and Macy's ...

(now

). There are also more than 150 other shops and restaurants. The second phase of the mall was opened in October 2008 and had 300,000 new square feet of retail space and contained an additional 40 stores (about 30 of which are new to the market), restaurants, a large bookstore, and Class A office space. Like the original mall, the second phase was designed by Alamo Architects.

Awards

*Superior Achievement in Design & Imaging (SADI) 2006 Grand Award Winner

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shops at La Cantera, The Shopping malls in San Antonio Brookfield Properties Shopping malls established in 2005 2005 establishments in Texas