Windsor Park Mall in the San Antonio suburb of Windcrest, Texas, is a classic example of the upheaval, disruption and innovation retail real estate has experienced in the past 20 years.
Windsor Park opened in the 1970s as a typical American suburban mall. Although successful during the ‘80s and ‘90s, a string of exits by its anchors, starting with Montgomery Ward in 2001, eventually led to its closure in 2005. The rise of e-commerce created new challenges for brick-and-mortar retailers, ultimately killing off several chains — the lifeblood of the mall.
In 2007, San Antonio-based cloud-computing firm Rackspace, in a deal with the city of Windcrest, bought and renovated the 1.6-million-square-foot Windsor Park Mall as its headquarters.
