Vacant Mall Has Future as Educational Facility

Part of Victoria, TX’s vacant Town Plaza Mall will be home to University of Houston-Victoria’s expansion. Specifically, the UHV Small Business Development Center and UHV Regional Center for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship will relocate to the space.

UHF used $1.9 million in capital construction bonds to acquire 132,000 square feet of the former mall at 1502 E. Airline Rd. from Our Lady of Victory Cathedral. The church, which acquired the asset in 2011, has been busy renovating other parts of the mall into a parish hall and meeting rooms. The project will be complete in August 2017.

Preliminary plans for the building include lab space, training classrooms, climate-controlled record storage and the Dalkey Archive Press. Some construction will begin in late fall 2017 or early spring 2018.

The 280,000-square-foot Town Plaza Mall delivered in 1969, and once contained a J.C. Penney store, as well as a Walgreen’s and Luby’s Cafeteria.

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