Texas Heritage Marketplace in Katy: What's Open and What's Next

"Then we'll have another 40 tenants open over the course of the next six months." That was Austin Alvis, president and chief development officer of NewQuest, speaking on Oct. 6 at the Target ribbon-cutting at Texas Heritage Marketplace. He also said the developer bought the land 10 years ago and that work has sped up over the past three.

Counting six months from that ceremony brings you to early April 2027, just after the window NewQuest has given for the part of the project most people picture when they hear the name. The five-acre green space called Heritage Grove, the restaurants around it and the fitness club next to it are scheduled for the first quarter of 2027. The buildings at the edges opened first. The heart of the project opens last.

That order explains what the corner of I-10 and Texas Heritage Parkway is good for this fall and what it will be good for by spring.

This fall it's an errand stop

The first two businesses to open were a 24-hour burger stand and a hardware store. Whataburger at 925 Texas Heritage Parkway was open by Aug. 19, with dine-in, drive-through and delivery around the clock. Lowe's opened on Friday, Sept. 4, at 981 Heritage Oak Lane. The store is 95,000 square feet, and about 30,000 of that is garden center.

Target comes next. The ribbon-cutting on Oct. 6 was a ceremony, and the doors are scheduled to open to the public on Sunday, Oct. 11, at 29355 Katy Freeway. At 148,000 square feet, Community Impact describes it as the largest food-forward Target in the Greater Houston area. It has a Starbucks, a CVS Pharmacy, Target Optical and EV charging stations. The store's own page lists hours of 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., plus Order Pickup, Drive Up and same-day delivery.

A food-forward Target with a pharmacy, a large Lowe's garden center and a 24-hour drive-through cover groceries, prescriptions, mulch and a late-night meal. That's errand territory. Local coverage puts the development four to five miles west of Katy's existing big-retail cluster. For households in the communities NewQuest calls its gateway neighborhoods, the errand loop just got shorter: Jordan Ranch, Tamarron, Willow Creek Farms and Cross Creek Ranch.

Why the edges came first

The opening order follows how each piece is built. NewQuest's April 2026 announcement describes three kinds of construction moving on separate schedules.

1. Anchor boxes. Lowe's, Target and a membership wholesale club each put up their own building. Their openings were set to roll out one after another starting in September.
2. Ground-lease pads. These are 12 standalone sites along the frontage. Whataburger and Chase Bank were the first two under way.
3. The multi-tenant core. NewQuest broke ground on this phase on April 6, 2026. It includes 100,021 square feet for four junior anchors, 35,000 square feet of dining and spa- or fitness-related shops, and Heritage Grove in the middle.

Big boxes and pad sites are single buildings with a single tenant, so they can open as soon as their own walls are up. The core is a set of shared buildings around a park, and none of it works as a destination until most of it is finished. That's why the Grove, the part most likely to make the project a place to spend an evening, is last in line. NewQuest's own release calls it "the bull's eye of the project."

Four kinds of dates, and they don't mean the same thing

The coverage mixes four kinds of dates: opening dates the retailers announced themselves, developer targets, estimates from state permit filings, and leases with no date at all. Each one is a different level of commitment. The table sorts the named tenants by what is actually on record as of Oct. 8, 2026.

Sam's Club is the next big opening. Covering Katy reports that NewQuest is aiming for January but that Sam's Club itself has not set an official date. Academy and Burlington have a more specific paper trail. Their tenant build-outs in Building 2 started in March, and the state filings estimate completion in late December 2026, with Dec. 25 given for Burlington. A finished build-out is not the same as an opening day. NewQuest's own target for those spaces is still the first quarter of 2027.

The restaurant filings have the widest gap between paperwork and food on a plate. Dave's Hot Chicken has filed for a 2,100-square-foot build-out at 1552 Heritage Oak Lane, its first Katy location. The estimated work window runs from Nov. 1, 2026, to Jan. 31, 2027, and the chain hasn't announced an opening. Jersey Mike's is listed for Suite 130 at the same address, and Biscuit Belly has filed plans there as well. Neither has a public opening date. P. Terry's has a 4,056-square-foot restaurant on file for 29269 Katy Freeway, with construction projected from January to August 2027. The project brochure lists P. Terry's as "in negotiation," so that filing is not a confirmed lease.

A longer list of names has signed leases or announcements but no dates. NewQuest finalized long-term leases with James Avery, Mattress Firm and The Kebab Shop in June. Covering Katy's September roundup also names Texas Roadhouse, Olive Garden, Escalante's and Tony C's Pizza & Beer Garden among the restaurants coming. Tenant rosters published in 2025 and early 2026 included proposed concepts that may have changed since. Until a filing or announcement turns up, any name on them is a maybe.

What arrives with the Grove

The Q1 2027 phase is the one that changes what this corner is for. NewQuest describes Heritage Grove as five acres of park-like green space surrounded by 35,000 square feet of dining and spa- or fitness-related retail. A 40,000-square-foot EoS Fitness opens right beside it on the same schedule. Escalante's and Tony C's are among the names earlier reporting placed around the green space.

Put those together with the junior anchors (Academy, Burlington, Spec's and Ulta, all aimed at the same quarter) and the first quarter of 2027 is when a Saturday here could mean more than one stop. NewQuest says more than 90% of the project was preleased in about 18 months. Heavy preleasing helps a schedule but doesn't guarantee it.

Getting in, and the ramps that aren't built yet

Heritage Oak Lane is the street that runs between the stores. On Aug. 10, Katy City Council accepted the water, sewer, drainage and street improvements along it, along with a sewer lift station, in the weeks before Lowe's opened. The site has about 2,900 feet of I-10 frontage and 2,200 feet along Texas Heritage Parkway.

The I-10 entrance and exit ramps meant to serve the development directly were still in TxDOT design when NewQuest made its April announcement, and no construction schedule has been published. So the anchors open months before the highway access that was planned with them in mind. NewQuest projects the anchors alone will draw four million visits a year, and the full lineup more than nine million. Traffic on the parkway and frontage road will grow as each wave opens, before any new ramp is built.

The parts on a longer clock

Some pieces are scheduled past the six-month window. Houston Methodist broke ground on Oct. 7 on an 11,150-square-foot, 24-hour emergency care center at 29133 Katy Freeway. The project is about $10 million and is expected to be finished in summer 2027. The City of Katy also plans a combined police and fire station inside the development. NewQuest's plans include a medical office building of 50,000 square feet that could expand to 70,000, plus about 550 apartments. No delivery schedule has been published for either.

NewQuest calls the project the largest retail development in Waller County's 153-year history, which places part of Katy's newest shopping district on the Waller County side of the city. In the April release, Alvis summed up the gap the project is meant to close: "Waller and surrounding rural counties have been unserved by major retailers. Texas Heritage Marketplace will fill in that gap." Target is the next date on the calendar, Sam's Club is aimed for January, and Heritage Grove and its restaurants are set for the first quarter of 2027.

If you're keeping an eye on what Texas Heritage Marketplace means for daily life in Jordan Ranch, Cross Creek Ranch or anywhere along Texas Heritage Parkway, Kellye Casey is following each opening as it happens and is glad to talk through what this corner looks like from your street. Let's Connect.