Puerto Rico’s Retail Mecca
With continuous updating and reinvesting, Plaza Las Américas has become an icon in Puerto Rico.
Susan H. Fishman

An aerial view of Plaza Las Américas, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

With a 255,000-square-foot Macy’s, the largest JC Penney and Sears in the world and more than 300 stores, Plaza Las Américas is home to the best in local retailers as well as the most recognized names from the United States. “Plaza,” as it is known and acknowledged in the market, is the largest and most successful shopping center in the Caribbean. The contemporary, super-regional center is considered Puerto Rico’s premier shopping, dining and entertainment destination and, with sales at more than $700 per square foot, one of the top performers in North America.

The first shopping center in the Caribbean, Plaza Las Américas is 38 years old.

The center was founded by the Fonalledas family, an emigrant family from Spain who decided to establish a shopping center on land they owned that was part of a dairy farm in the northern region of San Juan. In 1968, Plaza Las Americas was inaugurated in the middle of what has become the busiest intersection in all of Puerto Rico and what eventually became the center of the metropolitan area of San Juan.

Plaza Las Américas features 2.1 million square feet of retail GLA plus several big box stores on the periphery. The center dominates the Puerto Rican market in first to the market and exclusive retailers.

Plaza is now considered a retail mecca with a constant attitude of reinvesting and perfecting what has become an icon in Puerto Rico. In 1968, the mall featured 60-plus stores and was anchored by JC Penney and a local department store. The first expansion was done at the end of the ‘70s, with the addition of Sears and a food court with more than 20 eateries on the third level. In the mid-1980s, the family started envisioning another expansion and, in 1992, added a nine-story office tower with primarily medical offices and federal government agencies, which enhanced traffic for the mall. In 2,000, the third expansion was underway with the first Macy’s store and the addition of more than 700,000 square feet of retail space.

Today, Plaza features 2.1 million square feet of retail GLA plus several big box stores on the periphery. The center dominates the Puerto Rican market in first-to-the-market and exclusive retailers, as well as the size, number of retailers, sales per square foot and diversity of experiences. The only White House|Black Market, Mango, Zara, Lacoste, Façconable, BCBG, Brookstone and Bose are complemented by other premier retailers, such as Borders and Bebe, who opened their first Puerto Rican stores at Plaza. The center also includes a flagship Gap and Gap Body, Gap Kids and Baby Gap, Ann Taylor, Armani Exchange, Banana Republic, Coach, Chico’s, Soma and Marciano to mention a few. Stores such as Coach and White House|Black Market, which opened in 2000, have since doubled in size.

The south wing at Plaza Las Américas. Sales at the center are greater than $700 per square foot.

Plaza Las Américas is a reflection of Puerto Rico. The design incorporates many locally produced finish materials, with large circular, mosaic floor medallions depicting the flowers and fauna of the Island, plus metal sculptures of local fish and animals in major courts. Primarily a two-level center serviced by four sets of escalators and numerous elevators, Plaza has a third level, which houses a food court, restaurants, drug store and bowling alley accessible directly from the parking deck, as well as department stores and the center’s grand court.

The most recent completed expansion by architects RTKL and García & Joglar Architects PS brought extensive site improvements, which included new landscaping and construction of major new parking facilities with additional highway access constructed. The mall’s renovated center court is devoted to the memory of Christopher Columbus’ arrival at the island. In addition to the towering palm trees and three-story volume of this newly expanded grand space, complete with skylights and dramatic high-level windows, the area houses diverse programs of promotional activities along the primary path west toward the new four-story JC Penney store. The pattern in the flooring in the court is modeled on the image of the waves of the sea, and sits below a dramatic glistening sculpture of the sails from Columbus’ ships above.

Exterior of Plaza Las Américas.

It is no wonder Plaza has experienced consistent and unparalleled growth year after year for almost 40 years. In addition to the star line-up of retailers, the center features two adjacent specialty centers with a Toys “R” Us, a supermarket, Big Kmart, OfficeMax and Rooms to Go; an 11-story office building within the center; a 13-screen cinema; 30 places to eat; 11,000 deck and surface parking spaces; and a bowling alley that becomes a night club — each working as additional magnets to attract the more than 26 million people who visit the mall each year.

Plaza is located in the heart of San Juan, where roughly 2 million people reside, at the intersection of Las Americas and the De Diego Expressways, the two most important highways in Puerto Rico. The center enjoys an Island-wide draw (3.9 million people) for special occasion shopping — 76 percent of the traffic from the San Juan primary market and the rest from throughout the Island. San Juan is the shopping mecca of the island; 80 percent of residents in the San Juan area shop at Plaza, and almost 54 percent of all residents of Puerto Rico go to Plaza for their major shopping occasions, such as “back to school” and Christmas. The primary shoppers make Plaza a way of life, shopping 4.6 times per month (nearly double the average for U.S. centers).

“The location is one of the center’s primary assets, as is the uniqueness of retailers,” says Rafael Ruiz, leasing director for Empresas Fonalledas, the company that owns Plaza. “It’s that combination of location with a good balance of local, national and international retailers that provides the shopping center an advantage to other malls on the island.”

Another important factor has been the vision of the owners, says Lorraine Vissepó, communications director for Empresas Fonalledas.

“The owners have anticipated the changes and the needs of the consumers and have practically incorporated changes to the mall and to the mix of stores we have,” she says. “Another important factor has been that the mall has stayed under the same administration for 40 years, which has given the owners the capacity and opportunity to continue growing their original idea of the property.”

A significant investment in marketing and advertising also plays in the success of the property.

“This is primarily the only shopping center on the island that invests a huge amount of money in advertising,” adds Ruiz. “We like to keep that investment — it provides a benefit for us and the retailers, as well.”


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