Drive the length of New Hope Drive right now and you will pass two very different stages of construction. Near Bell Boulevard, Scheels opened its doors two weekends ago, even as cranes and graded earth still surround the furniture showroom and hotel going up beside it. Keep going toward the Leander line and the scene turns quieter: freshly graded lots and permit signs for three restaurants that are only now about to break ground.
Both projects sit on the same street. Neither is an accident. And the split between them is the most useful thing a Cedar Park resident can understand about where their weeknight dinner options and weekend errands are headed over the next year.
Same Street, Two Signatures
The address at 750 E. New Hope Drive belongs to CedarView, a 118-acre mixed-use development the city has spent years courting. It is anchored by NFM, the company formerly known as Nebraska Furniture Mart, building a 1.1-million-square-foot store that will rank among the largest retail spaces in Texas when it opens in 2027. Scheels, the sporting goods chain known for turning a shopping trip into an outing, already opened its own store in the development on August 29, drawing crowds who camped out overnight for the first look. The Cedar Park location, at 2150 Cedarview Drive, carries more than 75 specialty shops under one roof, along with a 65-foot indoor Ferris wheel and a 16,000-gallon saltwater aquarium.
Farther down the same road, at 1605 E. New Hope Drive, a different kind of project is taking shape. The New Hope-Scottsdale Development is pulling in three Austin-area restaurant names that have never had a Cedar Park location before: Pinthouse Pizza, Salt Traders Coastal Cooking, and a second location of Day Maker Half Day Cafe. Construction on all three is scheduled to start this month and wrap by June 2027, according to permits filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
One end of New Hope Drive just delivered a destination. The other is only starting to build a neighborhood dining row. Here is what each one actually means for the person who already lives here.
| CedarView (750 E. New Hope Dr.) | New Hope-Scottsdale (1605 E. New Hope Dr.) | |
|---|---|---|
| Anchor tenants | NFM, Scheels, Marriott hotel | Pinthouse Pizza, Salt Traders Coastal Cooking, Day Maker Half Day Cafe |
| Character | Regional destination retail and hospitality | Casual, walkable dining row |
| Named restaurants | J. Alexander's, Haywire | Pinthouse Pizza, Salt Traders, Day Maker |
| Status as of September 2026 | Scheels open since Aug. 29; NFM and hotel still under construction, targeting 2027 | Construction starting this month, completion targeted for mid-2027 |
What's Actually Landing at 750
Scheels isn't the only name attached to CedarView, and the store is no longer just a construction site. It opened to the public on August 29 after a ribbon-cutting and skydiver performance that morning, and the company reported record foot traffic on opening day. J. Alexander's, the full-service restaurant chain, is building its first Cedar Park location within the same development. Construction was expected to wrap around November, so an opening this fall or early winter is the more realistic bet than a firm date. Haywire, the Texas-themed restaurant known for dishes like elk tacos and chicken-fried steak, has also been confirmed as a coming tenant, though no opening date has been announced. The Marriott hotel component, announced in 2025, is planned as a roughly 300-room property with a 30,000-square-foot convention center, positioned as one of the city's only full-service hotels once it opens in early 2027.
One detail worth knowing if you made the trip for the grand opening, or plan to visit soon: the road itself is still catching up to the store. The city's expansion of New Hope Drive between Block House Drive and CR 180, a $49.5 million project, is not expected to finish until spring 2027, which lands roughly seven months after Scheels already opened its doors. The store beat the road to the finish line, not the other way around, so expect construction traffic on approach for a while yet.
When the broader CedarView project was first unveiled, Cedar Park Mayor Jim Penniman-Morin framed it as more than a shopping center, saying the city was "delivering on a promise to our community" through the development. Whatever the long-term framing, the short-term reality for residents is a corridor that already feels like a regional shopping destination rather than a place you pop into on a Tuesday.
What's Building at 1605
The New Hope-Scottsdale Development reads almost like the opposite instinct, and it is just getting started. Pinthouse Pizza, which already has three Austin locations plus one each in Round Rock and San Antonio, is putting a 13,640-square-foot restaurant and brewery here, complete with a covered canopy and outdoor beer garden, in a $7.43 million project. Salt Traders Coastal Cooking is building an 8,175-square-foot shell nearby, and Day Maker Half Day Cafe, whose first location opened in South Austin in late 2024, is opening its second storefront in the same development. All three permits share a construction start this month and a completion target of June 2027.
There's a small irony in the address. Most coverage describes this as a Cedar Park arrival, since it sits right at the edge of town, but the permit filed with the state lists the building's mailing address in Leander. For residents on that side of town, the distinction won't matter much once the patios open. What will matter is that this stretch of New Hope Drive is shaping up as the kind of place you drive to for a Friday dinner, not a place you drive to for a furniture delivery.
The Small Openings Already Changing Your Weeknight
While the two big developments work through construction, smaller changes have already landed and are open right now:
- The Peached Tortilla added a family-oriented outdoor extension called The Backyard on February 17, 2026, complete with a playscape, Adirondack chairs, and picnic tables alongside its existing dining room.
- Mi Mundo Coffeehouse & Roastery opened its first Cedar Park location on April 18, 2026, serving organic coffee, espresso drinks, teas, and smoothies.
- Conejos Tex-Mex Cantina, the original Leander restaurant known for its fajitas and enchiladas, is expanding into Cedar Park with an opening targeted for October or November 2026, according to co-owner Bobby Hernandez.
None of these require waiting on a construction timeline. They're already part of the rotation, or close enough to be worth watching for an opening date rather than a groundbreaking.
A Weekly Rhythm Worth Knowing About
If you want a lower-stakes way to see how the city is filling in around these bigger projects, the Bell District runs two recurring events every Saturday at 200 South Bell Boulevard. The Texas Farmers' Market at Bell runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. with produce, prepared food, and live music from local artists. An hour earlier, Flow Yoga hosts free outdoor yoga in the Bell Backyard, in front of the Cedar Park Public Library. Neither requires a reservation, and both have been running long enough to become a fixture rather than a novelty.
The Read for a Resident
The useful takeaway isn't that Cedar Park is growing. Everyone already knows that. It's that the growth is sorting itself by address. If you live closer to the Bell Boulevard side of town, you've already seen Scheels open its doors, and a furniture showroom the size of a small airport terminal and a hotel ballroom are still on the way. If you're closer to the Leander line, your next year looks more like a beer garden, a coastal seafood menu, and a second cafe from a team that already runs Jack Allen's Kitchen. Same road, same city, two very different versions of what "going out" will mean depending on which end you're closer to.
That kind of split is worth watching even if you have no plans to move. It changes which direction you drive on a Friday night, and it's the sort of local detail that tends to show up later in how a neighborhood's character gets described.
If you're curious how any of this fits into the bigger picture of buying or selling near these corridors, Michael Langford follows Cedar Park's development pipeline closely and is always happy to talk through what it means for a specific street or property. Let's Connect.
