Drive past 1935 Lohmans Crossing Road this month and you will see grading equipment, trenching for gas and electric lines, and dirt where a roundabout is supposed to connect Ranch Road 620 to Lohmans Crossing. That work only started because the city issued a notice to proceed to Joe Bland Construction in August, four years after the developer broke ground on the site. Meanwhile, a few miles away, a new golf fitting shop has already opened its doors, and a feed store is finishing its second Lakeway location this same September.
That gap says something true about how this town actually changes. The projects with the biggest renderings and the longest public meetings are still, in practical terms, underground. The projects nobody put on a City Council agenda are the ones you can walk into this week.
Four Years After Groundbreaking, the Pipes Are Just Going In
The Square at Lakeway is the 63-acre planned unit development that's supposed to become Lakeway's downtown: a mix of retail, residences, office space, and a new Main Street with public open space. Legend Communities broke ground back in 2022 with an estimated one-year timeline for the first phase. That estimate did not hold.
As of early September, the contractor is grading the new Main Street corridor and trenching for underground gas and electric lines, according to Community Impact's reporting on the project. Water and wastewater utilities are expected to go in this September, which the city says would put Main Street on track to finish by the first quarter of 2027. That utility work has to clear one more hurdle first: permit approval from Travis County Water Control and Improvement District 17 for a new wastewater lift station, which is what pushed the timeline this far to begin with.
The project has also changed its name along the way. It was called The Square at Lohmans until January 2026, when the city's Zoning and Planning Commission approved a shift to The Square at Lakeway alongside a rebalancing of the site plan: retail and commercial space grew from 175,000 to 247,000 square feet, office space shrank by 10,000 square feet, and the number of residential units increased. City Council also pushed the Main Street completion deadline from June 30, 2026 to January 31, 2027, which is itself an improvement over the developer's original ask of April 2027.
None of this is a criticism of the builder. Complicated infrastructure work with multiple utility districts involved takes the time it takes. But it does mean that anyone picturing a finished Main Street with shops and a roundabout by next spring is picturing something that, on the current schedule, is still a year away at best. In August, City Council actually rejected the developer's quarterly progress packet because it didn't include the in-person update the PUD agreement requires, and directed monthly written reports going forward. That's a paperwork dispute, not a construction delay, but it's a useful signal: this project is still very much in the phase where meetings happen more often than milestones do.
A Park Bond Voters Approved Two Years Ago Is Still a Slide Deck
The same pattern shows up on the recreation side of town. In 2024, 68 percent of Lakeway voters approved a $22 million parks bond covering five projects. One of them, the Lakeway Activity Center playground, was finished in September 2025 and is already drawing 50 to 100 visitors a day, according to the city's Parks and Recreation director. Another, temporarily named Butler Rough Hollow Park, broke ground this past summer as a roughly $2.6 million addition with a playground, an amphitheater, a mountain bike course, and a multisports field.
Lakeway City Park itself, the largest piece of the bond at an estimated $10.65 million, is still in the design phase. The city hired engineering firm Dunaway in November 2025 for a $1.02 million contract to turn the conceptual plans, an improved skate park, a beginner bike skills park, a new boardwalk trail, overlook platforms, and pickleball courts, into a buildable design. That design work is expected to take about a year and a half. The city opened a feedback form on the proposed skate park and bike skills park elements, and it closes September 30. A community planning meeting on the same projects was held at City Hall on September 15.
Here's the timeline that matters if you're trying to picture your own weekends at that park: the project isn't expected to go out to bid until March 2027, with construction starting that June. Voters said yes to this park in May 2024. By the time a shovel is in the ground, three full years will have passed.
| Project | Funding source | Status as of September 2026 | Expected completion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square at Lakeway (Main Street/roundabout) | Private development, city infrastructure support | Grading and utility trenching underway | Main Street: Q1 2027 |
| Lakeway City Park redesign | 2024 Parks Bond ($22M) | Design phase, feedback form closes Sept. 30 | Construction begins June 2027 |
| Butler Rough Hollow Park | 2024 Parks Bond ($22M) | Groundbreaking held summer 2026 | Ongoing construction |
| Lakeway Activity Center playground | 2024 Parks Bond ($22M) | Complete | Finished September 2025 |
What Actually Opened While the Zoning Commission Kept Meeting
Set the multi-year civic projects aside and look at what independent small businesses managed to finish in the same window. Fit 4 Birdies, a golf club fitting and repair shop with a virtual practice bay available to rent, opened in Lakeway this fall. A fitting session runs $100 for putters and wedges or $150 for irons and drivers, with half the fee credited back if you buy clubs afterward.
Tomlinson's Feed, which already has a Lakeway presence, was on track to open a second store at the Oaks at Lakeway shopping center this September. And Lakeway Village Square Grooming opened back in May at 1200 Lakeway Drive, offering full grooming services with both appointment and walk-in slots.
Three independent operators identified a need, signed a lease, and opened for business, all inside roughly the same stretch of months that a 63-acre master-planned development spent moving dirt for a road. That's not a knock on the scale of the bigger projects. It's just a reminder that the things residents actually get to use this season tend to be smaller and less publicized than the things that make the City Council agenda.
The One Thing You Can Walk Through Before Halloween
If you want something finished and open right now, the most literal option is behind Lakeway City Hall. Through mid-October, the city has set up 28 displays along the trails there as part of Hispanic Heritage Month programming, covering the history, culture, and customs of Hispanic communities. It's free, it's outdoors, and unlike the roundabout or the skate park, it's done.
Earlier this month, the Lakeway Activity Center also hosted a cornhole tournament, a community garage sale, and a blood drive, all on the same Saturday, which is fairly typical of how the city stacks its recurring events onto one calendar date rather than spreading them out. The Lakeway Arts Committee has likewise been opening the City Hall gallery early on select council meeting nights this fall, most recently for a show from resident artist Lynn Zwern.
What This Means If You Live Here
The honest read on Lakeway this fall is that the big-ticket changes, the ones with renderings and bond dollars attached, are running on a 2027 clock even though they're generating 2026 headlines. If you're waiting for the Square at Lakeway's Main Street or the redesigned City Park to change your daily routine, that's still a year or more out. What's actually different on the ground right now is smaller and easier to miss: a golf fitting bay, a second feed store, a grooming shop, a temporary trail exhibit that will be gone by November.
Neither pace is wrong. Big infrastructure and voter-funded parks take the years they take, and the small businesses filling in around them are part of what makes a place feel lived-in while the larger plans catch up. It just helps to know which category you're looking at before you build expectations around it.
If you're the kind of person who likes knowing the difference between what's finished and what's still a slide deck, whether that's about a park bond or a property down the street, Briana Headley keeps an eye on both sides of Lakeway. Let's Connect.
