When a new spot to eat opens in Pflugerville, EOS of North America’s employees “jump all over it,” said Cindy Jones, office manager for the business.

Since relocating its North American headquarters to Pflugerville, the employees have looked for new places to entertain clients during the daytime as well as grab a quick lunch within the city, Jones said.

“We’ve pretty much always known when a new restaurant opens here,” she said.

EOS is one of Pflugerville’s newer major employers, and the Pflugerville Community Development Corp. expects the company to bring 73 jobs  to Pflugerville. Those jobs, according to PCDC Executive Director Amy Madison, lead to new jobs in retail and the service industry.

As an example, Chipotle, Wingstop, and Pie Five Pizza have all opened in Pflugerville in the past year. And a Freebirds World Burrito, In-N-Out Burger and Zaxby’s are all under construction.

“One of the things that attracts restaurants to the area is the fact that you have a daytime population that will be here, not just a nighttime population,” Madison said. “To me, [quick-serve restaurants opening] indicates we have more people who are coming here to work and are here during the day.”

Growing daytime population

Madison said the increased daytime population in Pflugerville indicates the PCDC and city’s efforts to recruit businesses are paying off in the community.

“The population created this need, and then the restaurants responded as a result of the statistics,” she said.

Madison said when the PCDC recruits a company, officials not only look at the direct jobs—the number of employees who will work for that company—but also the indirect and induced jobs created.

Jerry Walker, principal and founder of Impact DataSource, an economic consulting firm that works with the PCDC, said quick-service restaurants would provide secondary jobs, or spin-off jobs created by a new primary business, such as a manufacturer and its workers, to a community.

Attractive market

Further prompting the growth of quick-serve restaurants is the fact that Pflugerville has been underserved in terms of eating establishments for a long time, said Josh Friedlander, broker associate for Newquest Properties, which manages Stone Hill Town Center. He said new establishments off SH 130 are moving in because they see how successful existing eateries have been.

“You can see it through the sales volumes—they are doing very well,” he said.

Friedlander said the growth around SH 130 also helps attract food service and other types of retail to Stone Hill and the area around it, which he described as a regional hub.

“Within our trade area, there’s 1,000-1,500 new homes being sold each year,” he said. “There’s a little over three people per house. That’s 3,000-5,000 new people coming to our trade area each year.”

Furthermore, Friedlander said Pflugerville residents have a higher-than-average household income.

“Every type of restaurant caters to a different demographic,” he said. “But for the most part, having a higher income is better [in terms of attracting new establishments].”

Out-of-town business

The new retail and dining options in Pflugerville are not only keeping daytime and nighttime populations in Pflugerville to eat and shop, but they are attracting residents from other communities as well, Madison said.

“It may not be a surprise to people locally that we have new visitors with Hawaiian Falls, but it is surprising to learn that we also have people coming to take advantage of restaurants and retail,” Madison said.

The PCDC commissioned a study from The Retail Coach, a retail consulting firm, to determine where shoppers of Pflugerville stores and restaurants come from. The report, which used cell phone data to track shoppers, showed that people from Round Rock, North Austin and Hutto come to Pflugerville to eat and shop on a daily or very regular basis.

Furthermore, the report found the city attracts shoppers from Taylor, Elgin and Manor on a weekly basis.

Pflugerville is attracting people from these communities because it offers services such as new quick-serve restaurants in close proximity, Madison said.

“Its not that those communities don’t have some services, but they may be limited,” she said.

Further growth

Pflugerville Mayor Jeff Coleman said the No. 1 request he gets from residents is that the city attract more full-service, sit-down restaurants.

“While we have greatly enhanced our fast and fast-casual opportunities [...] we are still not getting our share of the full-service, sit-down restaurants,” he said. “There is no greater frustration for Pflugerville residents than that.”

Coleman said he sees more restaurants opening in Pflugerville in the next one to five years.

“Primarily chain restaurants [will come to Pflugerville at first] because those are the ones that can afford the development cost,” he said.

Coleman said he sees the increase in fast-casual dining as a stepping stone to more full-service restaurants.

“I think we’re following the market, and the market starts off with fast-food; then it comes to fast-casual; then the market goes to full-service,” he said.

The city has more sit-down restaurants than it did five years ago, including Morelia Mexican Grill, Shogun Japanese Grill & Sushi Bar, and Russo’s New York Pizzeria, he said.

Friedlander said he sees more retail growth coming, and that will lead to more restaurants following.

He said Stone Hill is looking to attract more food service as well, especially well-known Austin concepts such as Torchy’s Tacos.

“We want the best concepts out there,” he said.