 Fonalledas was still a child in the late 1950s when the family thought of the idea of developing a shopping center, modeled after Lenox Square in Atlanta and spurred on by the evolution of the concept in the United States.Construction began on the same sugar cane fields on which the Fonalledas family had established their dairy business and Plaza Las Americas was inaugurated in 1968, boasting the first JC Penney store outside the continental United States.Fonalledas eventually rose to the presidency of the family business.