"We're proud of our history, our neighborhoods, our families and our small town spirit, but we are also a growing community that welcomes new businesses, new opportunities and new neighbors," Katy Mayor Dusty Thiele said at the Target ribbon-cutting on Oct. 6, as Community Impact reported.
That ceremony took place at Texas Heritage Marketplace, the 165-acre, $400 million center on the eastbound side of I-10 at Texas Heritage Parkway. Covering Katy puts it among the largest new shopping and dining destinations in the Katy area. The center is opening in a deliberate order. The stores you drive to with a list came first. The restaurants, the shaded green space and the relocated oak tree it was all designed around come last, mostly in the first months of 2027. If you live in Jordan Ranch, Sunterra, Firethorne or Tamarron, you have an errand stop for the holidays and a place to spend a Saturday evening next spring.
Three Doors Are Open, and All Three Are Built for a Quick Trip
Here is the center as it stands in early November:
| Business | Address | Opened | What's inside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lowe's | 981 Heritage Oak Lane | Sept. 4, 2026 | 95,000-square-foot store with a 30,000-square-foot garden center |
| Whataburger | 925 Texas Heritage Parkway | September 2026 | Drive-thru and dining room |
| Target | 29355 Katy Freeway | Oct. 11, 2026 | Expanded grocery, CVS Pharmacy, Starbucks, Target Optical, EV charging |
Target matters most for a weekly routine. At 148,000 square feet, it is billed as the largest food-forward Target in Greater Houston, meaning more of the floor goes to groceries than at a typical store. It is open daily from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. The Houston Chronicle's Chron counts it as the fourth Target in the Katy market. For households on the far west side, though, it is the first one that doesn't require a drive back east along I-10.
Lowe's, which Chron reported employs more than 100 full-time workers, gives the same neighborhoods a closer garden center going into planting season. A Chase Bank branch has been getting ready to open on the site as well.
The Order Follows a Decade of Waiting for a Road
The errand stores opened first because of how long this project took. NewQuest, the Houston-based developer, spent nearly 10 years on Texas Heritage Marketplace, and its own release says it waited "as growth pushed westward." The site was not considered ready for construction until the 6.5-mile Texas Heritage Parkway was finished. That parkway opened to traffic on Aug. 21, 2021, linking FM 1093 to I-10, the Houston Chronicle reported at the time.
Once the road was in place, the anchors came first. Target was signed as the first anchor when construction began in January 2025. In August 2026, Katy City Council accepted the water, sewer, drainage and street improvements along Heritage Oak Lane, the internal street Lowe's now sits on. At the Target ceremony, NewQuest president and chief development officer Austin Alvis described what follows the big stores. "Then we'll have another 40 tenants open over the course of the next six months," he told Community Impact.
The Next Wave Is Mostly Retail, and It Lands Between January and April
The second wave works on the same logic as the first. More destination retail arrives before the dining district does. A NewQuest spokesperson gave Chron this estimate: "Every tenant's interior build out time is slightly different. Having said that, we estimate most of the opening will occur in the first 3-4 months of next year."
According to Covering Katy, these are under construction or preparing their spaces now:
- Sam's Club, about 168,000 square feet, now projected for March 2027 after earlier schedules pointed to January
- Academy Sports + Outdoors, about 51,000 square feet
- EoS Fitness, a planned 40,000-square-foot gym
- Burlington, about 22,000 square feet
- Spec's, about 16,800 square feet
- Ulta Beauty, about 10,000 square feet
NewQuest expects to deliver several of these buildings in the first quarter of 2027. Store openings follow once each tenant finishes its interior. Bath & Body Works, James Avery, Mattress Firm, America's Best Contacts & Eyeglasses, PNC Bank and Blast Off Carwash have also signed on, without opening dates. Chron also lists Methodist among the leases, and the site plans show room for a possible three-story, 51,000-square-foot medical building and a proposed vet clinic.
A combined City of Katy police and fire station is also planned on the property.
The Restaurant List Is Long, and Most of It Circles the Oak
The dining side is where the center's character changes. Thirteen restaurants have been announced: Texas Roadhouse, Olive Garden, Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, Escalante's, Tony C's Pizza & Beer Garden, CAVA, Jersey Mike's, The Kebab Shop, Dave's Hot Chicken, Biscuit Belly, Aji Izakaya, JoJo Chinese Restaurant and Kilwins.
Jersey Mike's has the clearest paper trail. A state construction filing describes a 1,400-square-foot shop at 1552 Heritage Oak Lane, Suite 130, with work scheduled from Oct. 12 to Nov. 30. Several others were placed in a particular spot. NewQuest said in 2025 that Escalante's, Tony C's, Aji Izakaya and Kilwins had preleased space around the planned green space.
That green space is Heritage Grove, a nearly five-acre gathering area with about 35,000 square feet of restaurants and shops around it. At its center stands a tree that was in the way of Texas Heritage Parkway. Instead of cutting it down, NewQuest moved it to the middle of the development and calls it the largest tree ever moved in the Houston area. Covering Katy has described it as a centuries-old live oak.
"We wanted to invest in preserving this Heritage oak and make the project a gathering space for the community." Austin Alvis, NewQuest, in the developer's January 2025 announcement
The plans add a water feature and native plantings around the oak. In April 2026, NewQuest set a first-quarter 2027 delivery target for Heritage Grove, the same window as the junior anchors and EoS Fitness. That timing explains the whole schedule. The tree was the starting point of the design, and the space around it is one of the last pieces to arrive.
Getting There This Winter
For now, you reach the center from I-10 and Texas Heritage Parkway. In its April 2026 update, NewQuest said TxDOT was designing I-10 entrance and exit ramps for the development. The project sits in Waller County and was built with the City of Katy, Waller County and the Texas Heritage Parkway Association, the group that developed the parkway.
Here's how the next few months shape up for anyone nearby:
- November and December: Target, Lowe's and Whataburger cover groceries, pharmacy runs, holiday decorations and garden supplies. Target's 11 p.m. closing time helps with late errands.
- January through April 2027: The retail buildings start opening. Sam's Club is currently projected for March, with Academy, Burlington, Spec's, Ulta Beauty and EoS Fitness opening as their interiors are finished.
- Spring 2027: Heritage Grove is targeted for the first quarter, and the restaurants placed around it turn the center from an errand stop into a place to stay for dinner.
Covering Katy describes the center as built to serve Jordan Ranch, Sunterra, Firethorne and Tamarron, where new homes have increased demand for shopping and dining closer by. An additional 38,000 square feet is still available for lease, so the tenant list may keep growing after the first wave.
If you live near Texas Heritage Parkway and want to know how a new center like this shows up in your home's value, Donnette Premier Group can help. Get your free home valuation and neighborhood guide, and we'll keep you updated on west Katy as the 2027 openings arrive.
