On February 17, 2023, somewhere between 60 and 70 people came to a special called Hillsboro City Council meeting about the old outlet mall. Developer Brian Glaser was there. He said the first phase would be mostly food with some retail mixed in, and that it would take about three years to get going. When the meeting ended, Mayor Smith said, "We have never seen this kind of a crowd," according to the minutes the city posts on its redevelopment timeline page.
The site now goes by The Point at Hillsboro, and that three-year estimate held up well. Chili's held its ribbon-cutting on May 18, 2026, a few months past the three-year mark. Three more restaurants opened over the summer. The restaurants were always meant to come first, and they did. The pieces that will change a Hillsboro errand list the most are the retail stores, the hoped-for anchor and the city's acreage out back. Those are moving more slowly.
The food phase arrived about when it was supposed to
Since the start of May, four restaurants have opened along the I-35 frontage. KWTX reported that all four were serving customers by late August.
| Business | Status as of October 2026 | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Chili's | Open | First new business open to the public; ribbon-cutting May 18, 2026 |
| Chick-fil-A | Open | Opened July 16, 2026, at 250 I-35 Service Road; local Owner-Operator Gabbie Baez |
| Waffle House | Open | Opening date set for August 17, per the city |
| Panda Express | Open | Scheduled to open August 20 |
| Bath & Body Works | Open | Reopened in November 2025 in a retained building on the city's portion |
| Nail salon | Open | Also on the city's portion |
| Boot Barn | Coming | 12,000-square-foot store; interior work scheduled October 25, 2026, through April 15, 2027 |
| Starbucks | Planned | Next to Panda Express; no opening date announced |
None of these names should surprise anyone who read the state filings early. In June 2025, WFAA, working with the Dallas Business Journal, reported that Chili's, Panda Express and Waffle House had already filed to build on the site with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Glaser himself would not name tenants at the time. That story also described the plan as a $75 million project.
Restaurants could go first because pad sites along a frontage road are the simplest thing to build on cleared land. In spring 2025, before demolition, the city and developer worked out a demolition plan because prospective tenants needed the site cleared before they could build. The city also held a "Mallmageddon" event to say goodbye to the mall. About a year later, the first pad was open.
The retail clock runs into 2027
The city's timeline calls Boot Barn the "first new true retail business" at The Point, announced in May 2026. In late August, KWTX described it as under construction. The state filing gives a more precise schedule, though. Texas Construction Media reported on September 11 that a TDLR registration lists 104 I-35 Highway North as the address, with an estimated $350,000 interior renovation covering walls, finishes, fixtures and paint.
The filing, TABS2027000795, puts that interior work between October 25, 2026, and April 15, 2027. Those dates cover the construction work, and Boot Barn has not announced an opening day. With the filed work scheduled to start October 25 and run into April, a Western wear and workwear store at The Point looks like a 2027 event at the earliest.
Starbucks is even less certain. KWTX reported in August that one was planning to open next to Panda Express, and no opening date has been announced since.
To see where the site stands overall, compare it with an older count. In October 2025, KWTX reported four spots filled and seven still to go. A year later, those four restaurants are open, and Boot Barn and Starbucks are the only additional names attached to the frontage. Several pads are still unspoken for.
The 32 acres the city is holding on purpose
The financing is what makes this project different from a typical pad-site development. The city didn't just approve zoning and step back. It created Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone #2 in February 2023. On March 10, 2023, the same day Glaser closed on buying the mall from Craig Realty, the city bought the back two-thirds of the property from Glaser, about 32 acres.
That makes the city an owner of most of the land, and it is in no hurry with it. The city kept the existing buildings on the south side rather than tearing them down. One of them is where it approved an incentive in 2025 to move Bath & Body Works into new space. Economic Development Director Jessica Trew explained the approach to KWTX: "We retained the existing buildings because we are playing the long game with this half and we wanted to maximize this space while we can but really we are just looking for whatever will be the best fit for our community as everything else comes to life."
Earlier reporting gives a sense of what the bigger plan was built around. Glaser told the Dallas Business Journal, as carried by WFAA, that the project aimed to attract a big-box anchor, possibly a home improvement store, a hardware store or a major grocery store. Connect CRE reported in June 2026 that the plan includes roughly a 120,000-square-foot site for that big-box user, plus about 15 acres at the rear set aside for distribution. In October 2025, Trew told KWTX that distribution and logistics could be a future phase. No anchor has been named. For now, the anchor is a goal and not a signed lease.
Why the slow half matters more to people who live here
Travelers can get gas and a meal at plenty of I-35 exits. Buc-ee's opened along the Hillsboro stretch in 2024, two years before these restaurants arrived. City Manager Megan Henderson has described the project as something for residents, not only for drivers passing through.
"We are not a bedroom community, we are 30 minutes from anything larger in terms of shopping, so it's a significant benefit to our citizens to be able to do their purchasing or get their waffles or their chicken or their Chili's burger here in town," Henderson told KWTX.
That 30-minute figure is the baseline the project is measured against. Waffles and chicken sandwiches cover dinner. Work boots, hardware or a big grocery run still mean a drive out of town until the retail phase fills in, and that phase sits on the slower schedule described above.
Henderson also talked about what the city expects to get out of it. She said residents and local businesses won't see their payments change because of the redevelopment. She added that sales and property tax revenue from the new businesses should "free up project dollars" for city needs such as street repair. Every pad that fills on the frontage adds to that, and so does whatever eventually goes on the city's own 32 acres.
The neighbors who were here first
New chains aren't the only places to eat along the interstate. Bertha Camarena has run El Taco Jalisco off I-35 in Hillsboro for more than two decades. She told KWTX that travelers often stop in after seeing the restaurant's reviews online. She said she's glad to see Hillsboro growing, and she encouraged other longtime local owners to keep serving their customers. She also asked the community to keep supporting the businesses already here.
If you have a free Saturday this fall, you can see the whole picture in one loop. Start with lunch at a counter that has been feeding Hillsboro for twenty-plus years. Then drive past the Boot Barn space, where interior work was scheduled to begin October 25, and the south-side buildings the city kept standing while it decides what comes next. The city's redevelopment page adds meeting links and milestones as the project moves along.
Our team at WestLand Realty Group watches changes along the I-35 corridor closely, because new businesses and city investment on that strip affect daily life and property in Hillsboro. If you'd like to talk about how The Point could affect a home or piece of land you own nearby, give us a call. Contact Our WestLand Experts.
