"It will be the highlight of 2005," promises Robert Rubenkonig, VP of corporate communications for the former Columbia, MD-based Rouse Co. and now General Growth's man on the ground for the project. He tells GSR that the open-air retail resort's pre-leasing has hit 83%. "It's been business as usual," he says, "we're moving full speed ahead."
In recent months, La Cantera could have stumbled off schedule. Not only was it rolling to a new owner with the merger, but its senior development director, Chris Carlaw, died right before Christmas. "It was a very sad time for all of us," Rubenkonig stresses, adding a memorial of some type will be placed at his trophy development designed to be a primary shopping destination for affluent San Antonio residents and Mexican nationals.
Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Dillard's and Foley's will take up a combined 644,000 sf in the 100-acre first phase. Rubenkonig says a 40-acre second phase is in the preliminary design stage, but it's too early to say when ground will break or how much retail will go on the site. The second phase has been tagged to debut in 2008. He says the two phases will build out the lion's share of the land. A small tract has banked for the future.
The Shops at La Cantera's development team has been particularly sensitive to the environment in the city's northwest corridor along Loop 1604/I-10, a hotbed of upscale residential development activity for several years and now the drawing card for retail with the same pocketbook appeal. Just like at the Alamo, where a transplanted tree stands as a testament to man's ingenuity, La Cantera's stately trees were moved and carefully replanted in its lifestyle districts.
"Very few developments have gone to such pains to save the topography," Rubenkonig says. "They've taken great pains to save some of these huge trees."
In the next two weeks, the Shops at La Cantera website will go live so industry watchers and locals can see what's on the city's retail horizon. The tenant roster is predominately national names, but does include a small percentage of eclectic local and regional retailers The plan also includes premier concierge services and valet parking. The first phase will have 120 tenants, a "Main Street" mix of specialty shops, home furnishing stores and restaurants amid exquisitely landscaped courtyards and water features. The latest count shows 10 restaurants from grilled subs to gourmet sit-downs and 84 stores in an A-to-Z lineup for all ages, fashions and checkbook sizes. And like other General Growth properties, the per sf rate is a trade secret, available only to landlord and tenant.
Rubenkonig says La Cantera will boast some of the same water features as Jordan Creek Town Center in West Des Moines, a two-million-sf, bi-level retail shopping district in a streetscape design that debuted in August 2004. "It was the rave of the shopping center industry. Jordan Creek Town Center is considered to be the next phase of retail development, the genius of General Growth in terms of creating shopping excitement," Rubenkonig says, "and La Cantera is continuing that same mindset...great retail, a great destination."
The Chicago-based General Growth's pride of 2005 is tucked into a 1,677-acre development with neighbors like Six Flags Fiesta Texas theme park, Westin La Cantera Resort, La Cantera Golf Club and Palmer Course at La Cantera. Rouse partnered on the open-air center's development with the city's top employer, USAA and its real estate subsidiary.
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