Construction of The Manchac, a local business park, was officially completed in 2015.[/caption]Growth in the South Manchaca Road area south of Slaughter Lane, deemed ‘SoChaca’ by local business owners, continued in 2015 with new businesses and developments being constructed along the Texas Department of Transportation road.
Work was completed in 2015 on two large projects in the area—Ravenscroft Retail and The Manchac. All that remains to be completed on the $6 million Ravenscroft Retail project is landscaping, which will likely happen in the spring, according to Sean Cummings Jr., owner and broker of Templar Development Inc., which is handling leasing for the property.
Now located in the development are pediatric dentist Tiny Texans Pediatric Dentistry, which began seeing patients in January. Also coming to the site is optometrist 512 Eye, which is targeting a February 2016 opening.
Three units are still available for lease, Cummings said. Additionally, an office building with 12,000 square feet of space was completed in 2015, and tenants will include an elder care specialist and insurance company. One section of the space was sold to a medical lab.
Work on local business park The Manchac began five years ago, Site Solutions Inc. president Susan Harris said. Construction on the final two buildings is complete, she said.
New tenants added in 2015 included Anything Around the House, Austin Blue Sky Investments, Uptown Valet, Signs Express, Site Solutions Inc. and Stitch Texas. There are three remaining vacancies in the center, Harris said.
Indian Roller, which celebrated its one-year anniversary in late October, is working to open a complex with a wine bar and outdoor stage, General Manager Rene Stokes said. The outdoor stage, named She Wolf, is still in development, Stokes said.
Plans for a few projects in the area have changed. Site work has stalled at the location of South Austin Beer Garden on Manchaca. The business is slated to consist of a covered pavilion, music stage and food trailers as well as a bar when it opens.
Moontower Saloon, which added new features in 2015 and had planned to build a 10,000-square-foot dance hall, shelved those plans and is preparing instead for a 6-acre industrial complex development, co-owner Josh Bumb said.
“The plans we are going to have drawn up also call for a brewery on our frontage road property next door,” Bumb said in an email, adding Moontower is also opening a new bar in Buda.
Area business It’s About Thyme on Manchaca plans to move in 2016.
As for the road itself, TxDOT’s plans to expand a 1-mile stretch of Manchaca from Ravenscroft Drive to FM 1626 have remained halted because of a lack of funding.
TxDOT officials said in August that the new timeline will be to open up construction bids to contractors in 2021.
