Monday evening, the Balcones Heights City Council will hold its regular monthly meeting at the city’s Justice Center and City Hall.
One key question to be considered is whether city government will continue to fund the annual smooth jazz festival that brings up to 4,000 visitors to its centerpiece mall.
The city of 3,000 residents voted recently for a change in mayoral leadership from longtime mayor Suzanne de Leon, who held office from 2008 through 2024, to Johnny Rodriguez, who will return to the position he held from 2000 to 2002.
A major issue in the election was Wonderland of the Americas, a 1960s-era shopping mall in which city leadership voted to invest $5.4 million in 2021, in partnership with the Crossroads Mall Partners investment group that purchased the failing mall in 2009.
The revived 650,000-square-foot indoor mall is now a community center with multiple health care outlets, a theater company and several popular festivals amid traditional retail shops and fast food restaurants.
Rodriguez campaigned on his opposition to the investment’s lack of return for city coffers, and de Leon lost by one vote in the May election.
Despite questions about the former mall’s profitability for the city, the Balcones Heights Jazz Festival each summer remains popular enough that some residents stake out their seating spots a week in advance, and the renamed Wonder Theatre recently signed a 10-year lease for the vacant Bijou Theater space.
But as the last chords of this year’s jazz festival fade following Friday’s one-day event, its organizer has retired and will not be immediately replaced, casting doubt on what form the 2025 festival will take under new city leadership.
An economic driver
The jazz festival celebrated its 31st anniversary on July 19 reduced from four consecutive Friday concerts to a one-night event.
New Balcones Heights Mayor Rodriguez recalls the origins of the festival, a small-scale concert first put forward by Councilman Jesse Pacheco in 1989 before it was branded in 1994 as the full-on jazz festival.
Rodriguez said he was a fan of the festival then as a council member and supports it now and going forward.
“I’m going to support it as much as possible, because it’s one of the few free events that the city can produce,” he said. It acts as an economic driver for Wonderland’s shops and restaurants and generates revenue for the city, he added.
Festival organizer Lorenzo Nastasi retired from his position as director of economic development and public affairs — the city role responsible for the annual event —earlier this year, and Rodriguez said he and the city council have decided to hold off on filling the position until the budgetary picture becomes clear.
Funding for the festival derives from the city’s hotel occupancy tax program, funds which cannot be diverted to the city general fund for other expenses, according to de Leon, who’s hopeful the festival isn’t going anywhere.
“I certainly hope that this new leadership will not change the forward vision of Balcones Heights or the vision and format of the jazz festival,” de Leon said. However, she said, “nothing is guaranteed,” noting that at least one council member has publicly questioned why city funds are spent on it.
Asked whether there will be a Balcones Heights Jazz Festival in 2025, Rodriguez said, “I’m not sure of that. We’ll have to see how the council turns out,” clarifying that the vote is in the hands of councilmembers.
“I don’t see any reason why it can’t move forward. I’m going to advocate for it,” he said.
Hispanic Trails
Organizers of another popular annual event held at Wonderland also hope city leadership will support the Hispanic Trails Cultural Festival in October with city funds.
Andres Urbano, director of the nonprofit Sociedad Cultural Hispanoamericana San Antonio, said 5,000 people attended last year’s festival, which brings together cuisines, music, dancing and artisans representing 15 Spanish-speaking countries.
Urbano said de Leon first invited his group to hold the one-day festival at Wonderland in 2017 and supported the event throughout her tenure as mayor.
Now, he and the festival’s food organizer Leonor Houston hope the new mayor will help the festival continue.
“We need support with the budget,” Urbano said. He and Houston hope to speak this week with Mayor Rodriguez to gain his support, but first they will meet with Victoria Hernandez, Wonderland of the Americas marketing director.
Hernandez said she’s confident that the change in city leadership would not change Wonderland’s vision for offering arts and entertainment.
“Nothing’s changed even with the change of regime,” she said. “They’ve got a regime that’s just as willing and just as excited about the events that we have coming up.”
The bigger picture
When the Woodlawn Theatre looked to expand its operations, it looked to working with Balcones Heights to rent the vacant Santikos Bijou theater space in the Wonderland of the Americas.
Renamed to suit its new location, Wonder Theatre held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 16 after staging its first production in March. The musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ran from June 21 through July 14.
The theater company’s 2024 season continues with The Wiz Aug. 16-Sept. 8, The Prom Oct. 4-27, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Nov. 29-Dec. 23.
Hernandez called the theater company’s relocation “a great move for all parties” that works synergistically with nearby restaurants and readily available parking.
Christopher Rodriguez, executive and artistic director, said in an email that Wonder Theatre is “thrilled to be in our new home and is excited to be part of the growth and excitement surrounding all the development going on” at Wonderland, and that “The former as well as the new mayor together with the entire city council of Balcones Heights have been incredibly supportive.”
Mayor Rodriguez said he fully supports the Wonder Theatre’s presence in the mall. To demonstrate his support publicly, he said, “I’ve been to pretty much every single theater performance that they’ve needed me at.”
And the new mayor said he intends to advocate to his fellow city council members not only for continuing existing arts and entertainment options at Wonderland, including the Hispanic Trails and jazz festivals, but to envision yet more cultural events.
“I want to create an art show that is ongoing monthly,” Rodriguez said, utilizing available vacant spaces in the building to exhibit the work of area artists, potentially in conjunction with a wine festival, with the goal of generating sales tax revenue.
“It’s just not about money” that arts and culture events bring in directly, he said, but that they can help boost the local economy.
“The bigger picture is, how does that type of arts cultural activity stimulate, from the outside, other activities that could produce sales tax revenue,” Rodriguez said. “My whole thing is to completely support it, because I know the value of it.”