La Gran Plaza de Fort Worth is a Hispanic-themed shopping mall in Fort Worth, Texas. Opened in 1962 as Seminary South and later known as Fort Worth Town Center, it was reinvented as a center catering to largely Hispanic clientele after losing most of its major stores thru the mid 1990s to early 2000s. Current major tenants include Burlington, Ross Dress for Less, and El Mercado (The Market).
History
The roadside sign for La Gran Plaza de Fort Worth along Interstate 35W
Seminary south was built on the former site of Katy lake golf course, Katy lake was a natural spring fed lake. Homart purchased Katy lake in 1959 and drained the lake soon after to make room for the upcoming mall. The spring that fed Katy lake still flows to this day. The spring fed lake water is collected by a storm drain facing Anthony st westside of the mall's parking lot, the collected water is then run into a man made creek under the mall and Interstate 35W, the creek is connected to trinity river. Construction for the new mall started in early 1961. The mall opened for business on March 14, 1962 as Seminary South Shopping Center. It was Fort worth's first mall. Seminary South was Homart Development Company's first mall ever built, (Homart was a division of the Sears department stores through which they would built shopping malls all the way to it's demise in 1995).[2] Plans for the shopping center were drawn by Preston Geren of Fort Worth, George Dahl of Dallas and Lobel, Schlossman & Bennett of Chicago. The construction contract for the center was awarded to Thomas S. Byrne, Inc. of Fort Worth.[3]
The entrance escalators inside La Gran Plaza de Fort Worth shopping mall
Seminary South started life as an open air mall. Seminary South featured water fountains by each of the anchor stores and a whole landscape of beautiful flower gardens, trees, shrubs, and wide outdoor corridors. Its original tenants included Sears with Sears auto center, G. C. Murphy, and Stripling's department store later merged with Cox in 1983 and was renamed Stripling and Cox. Other major tenants included Buddies supermarket (later Winn Dixie), Finger Furniture, and a seven-story office tower. JCPenney was added in 1964 also opened with JCPenney auto center which closed in 1983 after JCPenney sold their auto business to Firstone, Former JCPenney auto center building was later subdivided and leased out to multiple businesses. In December 25, 1969 a two screen movie theater opened northwest of the mall's parking lot, later expanded to four screens in 1982, (closed in 1988) former theater building became a bingo hall. Dillard's joined in 1977.[4] Seminary south became infamous for the December 23, 1974, disappearance of three girls that became known as the Fort Worth Missing Trio, the girls haven't been found.
By the late 1970s two new modern enclosed malls opened in Fort Worth, Ridgmar mall (opened in 1976) and Hulen mall (opened in 1977). Both new malls were built in better neighborhoods and started stealing foot traffic and stores from Seminary south. As a result of the two new malls opening, Seminary south's decline began. In 1985 Texas Centers bought the mall from Homart and in late 1985 announced major renovation plans, enclosure of the open-air concourses and modernizing it to compete with the new malls.[5][6]
El Mercado Entrance
Stripling & Cox (formerly Stripling's), one of the Seminary South's original and major anchors, chose not to be part of the mall's renovation, store closed in january 1986 before construction started. [4] Despite the loss of stores and foot traffic, a new eight screen movie theater and food court were added, the food court was built and subdivided in the former basement of G. C. Murphy which closed in 1985. The new movie theater was built on the east side of the mall facing Interstate 35W on the former site of the finger furniture building, closed and partially demolished in 1986 to make room for the new theater, replacing the original movie theater northwest of the mall parking lot. During the remodel and enclosure of the mall, the mall remained opened, the former concourses were narrowed, the rooftops featured teflon coated fabric domes and the entrances were relocated. After the renovation was completed, the original 1962 mall exterior facade and parking lot remained untouched. In August 28, 1987, the former open air mall seminary south reopened as a modern enclosed mall and was renamed Fort worth town center. Fort worth town center was moderately successful thru the late 1980s to early 1990s. Despite the modernization of Fort worth town center, the mall continued to struggle and only got worse after, a new mall was built and opened in 1988 in Arlington, The Parks mall at Arlington, just a mere fifteen minute drive from Fort worth town center. As a result of the Parks mall opening, competition got more extreme for Fort worth town center. Changing neighborhood demographics, crime was another factor to the mall's decline. In 1993 the mall fell into foreclosure. Winn Dixie closed in 1996 and Fiesta mart (a Houston based Latino-American grocery chain) took over the former Winn Dixie location shortly afer and opened in 1997. JCPenney closed in 1997, Sears and Dillard's closed in 2002 leaving the mall without an anchor store. [4]
West Wing
In 2004, Legaspi bought the property, which at the time had only a 10 percent occupancy rate.[7][8] The new owners reinvented the property to cater to a largely Hispanic clientele. In late 2005 Fort worth town center was renamed La gran plaza de Fort Worth or ( The great town center of Fort Worth) in english. Starting in 2006 La gran plaza received an exterior remodel. The exterior of the mall was updated to mimic a Mexican market, however the mall's interior still retains the town center look from 1987. The former Dillard's space got turned into El Mercado, a market for local vendors. Burlington and Ross Dress for Less replaced the Sears space, in 2008 Fiesta mart built and opened a larger store in the northwest of the mall parking lot just in front of the old theater building. La gran plaza de Fort Worth is currently at 100% occupancy and the busiest mall in Fort Worth that it's rivals that nearly put it out of business in the late 1980s thru early 2000s are now struggling to have full occupancy. La gran plaza de Fort Worth is a testimony of how a once struggling mall can be reinvented to cater to the neighborhood its surrounded in and can also become a tourist attraction. [4]
References
↑"Leasing plan"(PDF). Boxer Properties. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
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