When Manor's economic development director talked to a local news crew about downtown's future, he skipped the percentage and reached for a before-and-after instead: the city was sitting at roughly 22,000 people, up from less than half that five years earlier. That conversation happened before this year's second wave of retail openings. By mid-2026, population estimates put Manor at just under 25,000. Ride down U.S. 290 through the H-E-B and Chick-fil-A cluster at FM 973, and even that newer number feels almost conservative. Drive six miles west into the original downtown blocks, and it feels like a different town entirely.
That split is the actual story in Manor right now. It is not one boom. It is two, moving at different speeds, funded by different money, and as of this summer, connected by one paper trail that almost nobody outside a state licensing database has noticed yet.
The 290 Corridor Already Has Its Anchor, And It Keeps Adding Names
Manor Crossing, the 63-acre retail center at U.S. 290 and FM 973, spent years as a rumor before it was a building. H-E-B bought 20 acres on the site in 2024, filed for a sign permit, and finally opened the town's first H-E-B in October 2025, after years of residents asking for exactly that. Chick-fil-A actually beat the anchor to the punch, opening at 11900 E US 290 in April 2025 with a hiring push of roughly 120 jobs. Planet Fitness and T.J. Maxx followed into the same center.
None of that is news to anyone who already shops there. What's newer is what's landed since, and what's still landing:
- HTeaO opened at 12211 US-290 on April 11, 2026, run by local franchise owner Bethany Beeman, with a happy hour built into the daily schedule from 2 to 4 p.m.
- Killer Burger, the Portland chain making its second Austin-area move, filed for a 2,600-square-foot buildout at Manor Crossing in late March 2026, with a projected $900,000 interior finish and a target completion date of July 1. That date has already come and gone by late summer, which in restaurant buildouts usually means a delayed opening rather than a scrapped one, so it's worth a phone check before you plan a first visit.
- McAlister's Deli has filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation for a spot at 11300 US Hwy 290, the same address block where Chokdee Thai Cuisine of Manor and Pho Yes already do steady lunch business.
That last detail matters more than it looks. Manor already had a sit-down Thai spot and a Vietnamese pho counter along this stretch before any of the 2026 chains showed up. The corridor isn't inventing a food scene from nothing. It's stacking national names on top of one that residents built themselves.
Manor Crossing's original 2024 announcement also promised Home Depot, Chipotle, Burlington, Five Below, and a dozen other tenants, most now open or under construction. The pace hasn't slowed. If anything, the 2026 additions suggest the leasing office is still fielding calls.
The Grocery Store With No Name Yet, And A Familiar One On The Paperwork
Here's the part that hasn't made it into the usual "look what's opening" roundup. On April 9, 2026, a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation described a project simply titled "grocery store," slated for the Lapoynor Commons Center at 11724 Lapoynor St. Construction was expected to start in June and wrap by December, which puts the project roughly three months into its build as of late summer, with an end-of-year finish still on the books. The filing doesn't say which grocer. Nobody has confirmed it publicly.
What the filing does say is a name most Manor locals would recognize for a different reason. The tenant listed is Islah Uddin, the Manor teenager who opened the Mirchi Boyz food truck with his brother in 2023, serving Indian and Pakistani food out of a lot at 203 W Parson St. Whether that name on the grocery filing means a brick-and-mortar version of the truck, a stake in the new development, or something else entirely, nobody outside the project has said. But it means the second grocery store chasing H-E-B into Manor might arrive with a homegrown name attached to it, not just another national logo.
That's the kind of detail that changes how you read the corridor. The first grocery store took years of petitions and a Fortune 500 supply chain to land. The second one might be tangled up with a kid who started selling food out of a trailer three years ago.
Six Miles West, Downtown Is Betting On Itself Instead Of A Chain
While the 290 corridor fills in with recognizable names, the original downtown Manor blocks are working a completely different plan, and it isn't about landing a tenant. Most of the buildings downtown have stood for close to a century. City leadership has been preparing a Master Development Plan aimed at revamping the aging infrastructure, adding parking, fixing sidewalks, and pulling new businesses into buildings that have outlived their original pipes.
The funding mechanism is a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, approved by the Manor City Council in December, which sets aside half of any increase in tax value above the 2024 base year for the next twenty years. City estimates put the eventual project value near $40 million, built from bonds sold against that projected tax growth rather than from a developer's balance sheet.
"Manor kind of needs a facelift, and it's a welcome change to me," said lifelong Manor resident Clifton Duett.
That sentiment sums up the difference between the two tracks. The 290 corridor is being built by national retail chains chasing traffic counts on a state highway. Downtown is being rebuilt with the town's own future tax dollars, on a twenty-year timeline, aimed at buildings that predate the highway entirely.
What The Split Actually Means If You Live Here
If you already live near the 290 corridor, "Manor is booming" has meant a new grocery run, a faster lunch rotation, and a lot of orange traffic cones near FM 973. If you live closer to downtown, that same headline has meant almost nothing yet, because the money and the timeline are pointed somewhere slower.
Both are real. Neither cancels the other out. The corridor will keep adding names as long as H-E-B keeps pulling daytime traffic off 290, and the mystery grocer at Lapoynor Commons is worth watching specifically because it's the first project where those two growth tracks, chain retail and homegrown business, might actually cross paths on the same filing.
For anyone tracking Manor's day-to-day changes rather than its real estate listings, that's the thing worth knowing before the next roundup post tells you what already opened. The interesting story isn't what's already here. It's whose name shows up next to the next permit.
If you're curious how any of this shapes up against what's happening in nearby Georgetown, Round Rock, or Pflugerville, or you just want a straight answer about a specific Manor address, LaTashia Mitchell is always glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
