Santikos plans $50 million shopping center 

Entertainment mogul plots fifth strip mall on Loop 1604 in San Antonio

Lucio Cantu of Santikos Real Estate Services and the development site at 6010 UTSA Boulevard in San Antonio
Lucio Cantu of Santikos Real Estate Services and the development site at 6010 UTSA Boulevard in San Antonio (Google Maps, LinkedIn)

A San Antonio movie theater mogul is making moves toward shopping center stardom. 

Santikos Real Estate Services, the property arm of Santikos Entertainment, filed plans to build a $50 million shopping center in northwestern San Antonio. The project at 6010 UTSA Boulevard will contain at least two buildings totaling 21,300 square feet, according to plans filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. 

Construction is set to begin in May and run through November. Santikos will build two building shells, the first running 8,500 square feet and the second 12,700 square feet, according to the plans.

While it started as a movie theater owner, Santikos has become a major player in the San Antonio real estate scene, largely due to those entertainment-related holdings. Still, the company has built a portfolio of retail and industrial holdings including four other strip malls that sit along Loop 1604.

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This project is called “Roadrunner Creek Retail” on the filing. On Santikos’ website, the firm posted a site plan for a raw land parcel called Roadrunner Creek which shows plans for a two-building retail development totaling 21,800 square feet, likely the same project. That plan also includes a 4,200-square-foot restaurant and a 900 square foot Dunkin’ Donuts on the property. 

Several phone calls to Santikos and an email to Lucio Cantu, the firm’s director of real estate, haven’t received responses. 

Outer San Antonio is in growth mode as the central business district cedes some prominence to the city’s fringes. Earlier this month, Microsoft announced plans to build a $176 million data center on the city’s far west side. That project is expected to be finished in September. Amid a slump in housing markets across the country, some market observers expect San Antonio to perform better than its peers in the event of a recession, due to the presence of stable industries like healthcare, military and cybersecurity. The Vue, a nine-story apartment complex in the city’s northern reaches, sold this month after expensive renovations by developer Mission DG. 

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