New Developments in Dripping Springs: Target, the Headwaters East Shopping Center, and a New Sports Club

If you have lived in Drip for more than a couple of years, you have had this conversation at a barbecue. Somebody mentions what is being built in Dripping Springs right now, and half the table lights up and the other half groans.

Both reactions make sense. We moved out here for the quiet, the dark sky, the twenty minutes of Hill Country between us and everything else. Nobody wants that to turn into Bee Cave.

And also, most of us drive to Sunset Valley for a Target run.

Three new developments in Dripping Springs are moving forward right now, and together they change the day to day math out here: a new shopping center on 290, a Target, and a sports and fitness complex. Here is what is actually confirmed on each one, what is still under wraps, and when any of it is supposed to open.

The Headwaters East Shopping Center

The biggest of the three is the Headwaters East shopping center. Forty three acres between Headwaters Boulevard and Canyonwood Drive, just north of US 290, with roughly 275,000 square feet of retail, restaurant, and service space planned across multiple phases.

It is a joint project between Marathon Equity and Endeavor Real Estate Group, both out of Austin, with Endeavor handling leasing and management. The land is currently owned by Oryx Land Holdings, and the developers plan to close around the time construction starts.

If Marathon Equity sounds familiar, it should. They built Belterra Village. That is the single most useful comparison anyone has offered on this project, and it came from the developers themselves: Marathon’s president said Belterra Village took about five years to fully build out and they expect a similar timeline here.

So this is not a switch that flips. It is a five year rollout.

What is confirmed on tenants: the project is about 50 percent pre-leased, and every incoming tenant is under a nondisclosure agreement. Endeavor’s principal would not name names, but he did say the mix includes full service sit down restaurants, national shops, coffee shops, and financial institutions. So if you have been waiting on new restaurants in Dripping Springs, this is where most of them are coming from.

What is not confirmed: literally which businesses. Anyone telling you a specific restaurant is going in has a source I have not seen.

Timeline: construction is expected to start near the end of 2026 or early 2027, with the majority of the first phase targeted to open by summer 2028.

One more detail that tells you something about scale. The developer went to the Planning and Zoning Commission asking for a parking variance, four spaces per 1,000 square feet instead of the five the city currently requires. That is 33 fewer parking spots than code. Small thing, but it is the kind of item that shows up on a city agenda long before a single sign goes up.

Target in Dripping Springs, TX: The Village at Dripping Springs

So is Target coming to Dripping Springs? Yes.

Target acquired roughly 10 acres at 13550 West US Highway 290 earlier this year. The store will anchor The Village at Dripping Springs, a 26 acre development from Houston based Property Commerce, with completion expected in 2028.

For a while this was a rumor with pretty good bones. The site plan showed a 128,660 square foot retail space, which is almost exactly the footprint of a standard Target, and the broker on the deal would only say the signs were promising. Now the acquisition is reported and the pieces line up.

Worth knowing where this actually sits. The Village at Dripping Springs is several miles east of the Headwaters East shopping center, closer in toward Austin, near the CVS and the Dripping Springs Racquet Club. So these are two separate centers on two different stretches of 290, not one big project. People are already mixing them up.

Dripping Springs Sports Club at Headwaters

The third one is different in kind, and if you have a kid in club volleyball or you have driven to Cedar Park for a tournament, you already understand why it matters.

The Dripping Springs Sports Club is building a 150,000 square foot flagship facility at the Headwaters development, with groundbreaking expected in late 2026 and opening targeted for 2028.

What is planned inside: four basketball courts, twelve volleyball courts, and sixteen pickleball courts. Outside: six more pickleball courts, four beach volleyball courts, and another basketball court. Plus a cafe and community recreation space.

That is twenty two pickleball courts total, which I am told is the number that ends the current situation where you circle Founders Park hoping something opens up.

Founder and CEO Drew Rose has been open that the project is still raising money and looking for investors, so the 2028 date depends on that coming together.

In the meantime, they have already opened an interim space. The Dripping Springs Sports Club Warehouse at 15113 Fitzhugh Road opened in March with volleyball courts, basketball courts, and a weight room, and by late last year more than 250 families had come through their programming. If you have been waiting on the big facility, you do not have to wait for youth leagues.

So what does this mean if you live here

Honestly, for the next two years, not much. Construction traffic on 290 and a lot of conversation at school pickup.

After that, the shape of a normal week changes. Right now a Target run, a sit down dinner that is not on Mercer Street, and a club volleyball practice are three separate drives toward Austin. By 2028 all three are supposed to be inside city limits.

The thing people ask me next is what it does to home values. I will not pretend to have a number. What I can tell you is what happened the last time: Belterra Village opened and the homes closest to it got easier to sell, because “walk to H-E-B and a restaurant row” is a real selling point that shows up in listing photos and in what buyers say out loud on tours.

Headwaters, Caliterra, and the communities on that stretch of 290 are the ones sitting closest to the Headwaters East shopping center. Whether that shows up in price or just in days on market is something we will be able to see rather than guess in about three years.

And the quiet? The parts of Drip that are quiet are quiet because of acreage, well and septic, and no commercial zoning for miles. A shopping center on 290 does not change what Sunset Canyon or Saratoga Hills feels like on a Tuesday night. It changes how far you drive for a rotisserie chicken.

Where these Dripping Springs developments stand right now

Headwaters East shopping center: construction starting late 2026 or early 2027, first phase mostly open by summer 2028, full build out around five years, 50 percent leased with tenants unannounced.

The Village at Dripping Springs with Target: land acquired, completion expected 2028.

Dripping Springs Sports Club: groundbreaking late 2026, opening targeted 2028, still raising capital, interim facility already open on Fitzhugh Road.

All three of these dates are targets, not promises. Development timelines in Hays County move. I will update this post as things get confirmed, so if you want the current version, this page is the place.

Thinking about buying near any of this

If you are looking at Headwaters, Caliterra, or anywhere along the 290 corridor and you want to understand what is going in behind the house you are touring, that is a conversation worth having before you write an offer, not after.

Grab the free Dripping Springs Neighborhood Guide below for the full picture on every community out here. Or book a 20 minute call and I will tell you what I know about what is planned near the specific address you are looking at.

No pressure, ever.