What Will Happen to Windsor Park Mall??? Windcrest buys most of it.
 

I say cool because someone on another board has found out the City of Windcrest Economic Development Corporation now owns most of Windsor Park Mall. The only buildings it doesn't own is the Montgomery Wards building (owned by Rackspace) and the Mervyn's building. It has been rumored that Rackspace will be building a new HQ at that site (whether renovation the building or tearing it down and building from scratch is unknown).

Something you may or may not know is that Windcrest has something big in the works, whether it pretains to Windor Park Mall site is an unknown. They have secret closed door meetings about Project Castle. No one knows what it means and with the discovery that Windcrest recently purchased most of the now defunct Windsor Park Mall.

The Winsdor Park Mall site is in San Antonio and even though Windcrest can't swap land with SA, SA can release land to Windcrest. And both cities have been in discussions about that for some time.

My question, does Project Castle have something to do with the Windsor Park Mall site? Or is that something different? Does anyone know what Windcrest has planned for said site? Honestly, Windcrest wouldn't have bought all those buildings and land of it didn't have something in mind.

I would also like to apologize for the grammatically challenged title. Could a MOD please reverse the order of the subject and the pronoun. In my rush to post this due to excitment having just read information from another forum, I neglected to proofread.

Doubting that...

I think it should be made into a convention conference area! Hotels, meeting facilities, some shops and restuarnts. It is only a few miles away from the airport and is the gate way into the heart of San Antonio.

I think it's odd that Rackspace owns a former department store, or could own a chunk of a mall. I thought they just recently completed a new or upgraded headquarters on Datapoint? :borg:

Project castle...Maybe it will be a giant White Castle:worship: slinging out burgers to all the hungry Harold and Kumars who need the late night fix...

I hope they can find something decent to do with it. Frankly, that area of town is not exactly very high-demographic anymore.

Windcrest is still pretty well respected. Also their are new subdivisions going up less than five minutes away where houses are going for 225-250K. Alamo Heights, Northwood and Terrell Hills are also nearby. Windsor Park has been the sticking point it got a bad reputation more than 15 years ago. This could be the turn around point, and hopefully spur more dense development in a multi-use facility.

The only real downside to that area is the Camelot area, but that shouldn't be enough to stop anything massive from taking place. Everything else around there is very middle class and higher.

Employees with Rackspace are saying Rackspace will relocate their HQ to the Windsor Park Mall site within the year.

So they have time to install a car alarm:tup:

I wonder if that means they'll be building an office building on the site. Having the mall itself as an HQ would be quite ugly. Is Rackspace large enough of a company to anchor a large site?

that was pretty funny, i must say...

They don't own the mall. They do own the 220,000 sq ft. Montgomery Wards building. I believe they take up several floors of an office building on datapoint drive, and have grown even larger. It's not unusual for tech users to buy department store actually to use. It's a large footprint but they can consolidate down to two floors. As for having to buy a car alarm, that kind of statement only helps to perpetuate the incorrect negative connotation that the walzem corridor is trying to break. I would feel safer leaving my car in the windsor park lot than I would at the north star lot which has a history of car theft/ jackings and muggings.

I agree about the Walzem corridor and the stereotyping done to that area. If anything, there's a freakin Starbucks there.

As for Rackspace, I home they raze and build something that can integrate with an urban like Village if that is what Windcrest is hopeing to do with the site.

The cat is officially out of the bag.

Windsor Park Mall lands new owner
San Antonio Business Journal - 6:10 PM CDT Tuesday, April 24, 2007
by Tricia Lynn Silva
http://sanantonio.bizjournals.com/sa...l?surround=lfn

The city of Windcrest and the Windcrest Economic Development Co. LLC have completed the purchase of the site formerly known as Windsor Park Mall, officials announced late Tuesday.

The two organizations are also in the process of purchasing 17 additional acres of nearby land on the northeastern edge of San Antonio.

The purchase price was not disclosed.

The Windcrest Economic Development Co. provided the capital necessary to buy the property, which, for years, was owned by three separate entities, according to Ronnie Cain, city administrator for the city of Windcrest.

The mall spans 747,386 square feet; it is located off of Interstate Highway 35 and Walzem Road in Northeast San Antonio.

The purchase represents the first step in an initiative to revitalize the Walzem Road corridor, according to Windcrest Mayor Jack Leonhardt. The mall itself is located in the city of San Antonio.

The additional 17 acres is located in the Windcrest city limits, and sits across Walzem Road from the mall property.

Coddat, I added it for you, but please next time include the link with the article. It's forum rules.

That's an interesting reference to that area. I mean what exactly is it a corridor to? Windcrest?

Walzem is a corridor for San Antonio and Windcrest, it is a major road that connects both. I also think this HAS to be the quietly talked aboit Project Castle. With section 8 being kicked out of The Glen and Camelot II, that area with the help of Windcrest could really make that quite something.

Also, if any future light rail or commuter rail is built, there is the UP line/ROW that goes directly through that area. Could you imagine that row of furniture outlet warehouses along 35 across from Walzem being razed and being turned into high density housing/retail/office.

Are there any redevelopment plans afloat for the abandoned/underused big box stores immediately to the south of Windsor Park? This includes the buildings that previously housed a Wal-Mart and Builders Square. That area could use some help as well.

Right now those bigboxes are being used as a flea market (wal-mart) and a furniture store (builder's square). I think that progress needs to happen with the mall first. Windsor is the biggest obstacle, fix windsor and you can attract just about anything to the area.