A New Future For Springtown Shopping Center

Written by Staff | @CorridorNews

I think everyone in the Corridor and especially the residents of San Marcos will be thrilled to hear that the Springtown shopping center has new owners and they are hoping to turnaround this major I-35 eyesore.

Endeavor Real Estate closed the deal for the old Springtown shopping center this month and is planning multiple upgrades inside and out, according to Adam Zimel, director of real estate leasing for the Austin based developer.

According to Zimel, talks are already underway with multiple prospective occupants. “There is a tremendous amount of demand for San Marcos retail,” he said. He stated they are currently working deals with multiple categories of retail and service providers and are also very excited about a few potential best-in-class restaurants, and are very pleased with the activity.

As I think back, it really doesn’t seem like 5 years ago that Best Buy, Target, JC Penny, and Bealls moved on to newer and larger locations and left this commercial property considerably vacant.

Before the recent Endeavor purchase, the center had trouble attracting tenants because it had four different owners and each owner controlled different portions of the site.

“Each party had differing motivations and strategies, however they needed the cooperation of the other owners to redevelop,” Zimel said. Endeavor was able to aggregate the separate parcels to create one contiguous shopping center once again.

The U.S. Census Bureau has named the City of San Marcos the fastest growing city in the country for the last two years, putting the Springtown redevelopment on the radars of national chains looking to expand.

According to a San Marcos Corridor News source “at one point, Alamo Drafthouse was interested in Springtown and wanted to develop one of their infamous movie theaters, but those plans fell through. The Downtown Business Association had fought against Alamo Drafthouse with the reason that downtown businesses, including the square would lose money and the kill downtown business.”

Another reason was that two individuals owned the majority of the property, and those two individuals owned all the easements attached, which made re-developing this property almost unattainable, and with all these obstacles it made the property very unattractive to developers. It really needed one company to step in and purchase the entire center as a whole, and I am excited for San Marcos that Endeavor was able to close this deal. They have a good reputation, this is what they do, and they are good at it, according to a Corridor News source.

Endeavor has been involved with a number of prominent developments scattered throughout Central Texas, including The Domain and Southpark Meadows. The purchase price for Springtown has not been disclosed.

“This site benefits from being at the heart of the density adjacent to the residential population, including Texas State University, as well as I-35 visibility,” according to Adam Zimel with Endeavor.

Currently Springtown holds a handful of smaller retailers; including Bath and Body Works, Radio Shack, GNC and Twin Liquors, and we have been have been unable to clarify their future at Springtown.