Updated Oct. 22 at 3:48 p.m.


After years of planning, Randalls broke ground Oct. 15 on its 59,000-square-foot Leander store at Crystal Falls Town Center, where the business will serve as the anchor tenant when it opens in fall 2016.

Crystal Falls Town Center, located at the southwest corner of Crystal Falls Parkway and Lakeline Boulevard, will include other tenants, such as Bella Salon and Spa as well as Starbucks, which will also have a location inside Randalls. The plaza will also include a Randalls gas station and a second freestanding restaurant, which has yet to be announced, next to Lakeline.

At an Oct. 15 groundbreaking ceremony, Randalls President Sidney Hopper said the grocery store will offer fresh produce, cheeses and beverages such as craft beers and imported wines. Stephen Schmidt, senior vice president of Cypress Equities, said the completed Crystal Falls Town Center plaza will include 93,000 square feet and will open in late October or early November 2016.

Plans call for the store to include meat and floral departments, a pharmacy and a sushi bar.

Mayor Chris Fielder said Randalls will be city’s second grocery retailer and has been a long time coming to Leander.

“When I got in office in 2007 there were rumors of a grocery store coming to this side [of the city],” he said. “We said, ‘We’ll believe it when we see it.’ Well, here we go, we’re seeing it.”

In September 2012, Randalls signed a development agreement that requires landowner Cypress Equities to build the store within two years of the city completing a north extension to Lakeline. The road extension opened April 27, and links Lakeline from Crystal Falls to Old FM 2243.

Randalls is expected to draw shoppers from two nearby neighborhoods, the Crystal Falls development, which has about 3,000 of 4,000 homes built, and the Mason Hills development, which has about 350 of 1,100 homes built. Two smaller projects, which include single-family condominiums and townhomes, are expected to open west of Randalls starting in spring.

Randalls has already proven to be a good partner in community involvement, said Bridget Brandt, president of the Leander Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center.

The store used local businesses to supply facilities for the ground breaking ceremony, she said.

“Often we have corporations that come into our communities, and they all [approach us] and tell us how they want to be part of the community,” Brandt said. “In this scenario, [Randalls is] actually already doing it.”

Updated Oct. 7 at 11:15 a.m.


Randalls Food Markets will break ground 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 15 on a new Leander store southwest of the intersection of Lakeline Boulevard and Crystal Falls Parkway.

The retailer will be Leander’s second grocery store, following the H-E-B Plus located on US 183.

“This is an exciting time of growth for the city of Leander,” Randalls President Sidney Hopper said. “We’re looking forward to being a community partner, serving customers and creating a positive economic impact in Leander by adding approximately 150 new jobs.”

The store will comprise about 59,000 square feet and will anchor a new shopping center called Crystal Falls Town Center. The center will include a retail strip of about 23,000 additional square feet as well as a fuel station and two freestanding restaurants.

Businesses coming to the center include Jack Brown Cleaners as well as Bella Salon and Spa, Randalls Community Relations Manager Dawne Proffitt said.

The grocer signed a development agreement with the city in September 2012.

Utility work is already ongoing at the construction site and the retailer’s building plans will likely be approved soon, Leander Assistant City Manager Tom Yantis said.

“Randalls is a great grocery store and a good anchor tenant for shopping centers,” Yantis said. “[Randalls stores] tend to attract good [tenants] around them. … We’ll have restaurants and other options.”

The first restaurant at the intersection, Brooklyn Heights Pizzeria, opened Aug. 19 in The Shops at Crystal Falls retail plaza southeast of Lakeline and Crystal Falls. Northeast of the intersection, Cedar Park Regional Medical Center is building its first facility in Leander, Cedar Park Regional Emergency Center, which is set to open in March. The hospital owns adjacent land that will be used to develop a new center for physicians’ offices, Yantis said.