Legend Communities held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new development, The Square at Lohmans, on Nov. 9. The Square at Lohmans will be one of several developments, along with The Oaks and Tuscan Village, to create a new segment of Main Street.

“This is where our city will have its center,” Lakeway Mayor Thomas Kilgore said. “We will see this as a real linchpin in the city’s growth pattern both for how to develop and how to have additional sales tax opportunities for the residents.”

Lohman’s Square will be built out on 57 acres and will be around $500 million invested into the community, Kilgore said. Its center feature will also have a Great Lawn similar to Bee Cave’s Great Lawn at the Hill Country Galleria, he said.

“Our lead developer here is making a statement about what the city of Lakeway is going to look like,” Kilgore said.

The fully developed area will also have a mixture of housing, commercial buildings, parking garages, a hotel and pedestrian paths.

Bill Hayes, Legend Communities chief operating officer and developer for the project, said the Lohman’s Square park area would be a site for ongoing events throughout the year.

“Whether it’s a wine festival or car shows or farmers markets, you name it, we’re going to try and have this park here active all day every day,” Hayes said.

At a Lakeway City Council meeting in October 2021, when council members approved a planned unit development for Lohman’s Square, Hayes told council that Lohman’s Square Main Street project, as planned, would contain four lanes and include a traffic roundabout connecting the roadway with an extension to Lohmans’s Spur.

“Drivers won’t have to go through four speed bumps just to make it to H-E-B,” Hayes said during the groundbreaking ceremony.

In an interview with Community Impact, Hayes said the project was something he always wanted to bring to the community.

“We don’t have anything like the Galleria here in Lakeway,” he said. “This is something that is going to make people want to come here [to shop] and make people proud to be part of Lakeway.”

The undeveloped land, which is currently rows of trees surrounding an empty field, will also have a pavilion, a kids splashpad and an amphitheater, he said.

The project is in Phase 1. About one year from now, Hayes said, the area will be developed enough to start construction on the buildings.