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Southside Barbeque Plans Hutto Opening by July

By Austin American Statesman

Elgin-based Southside Market and Barbeque is aiming to open in the Hutto Co-op district by July, said Tom Abney, the restaurant’s director of operations.

“Today I ordered a big barbecue pit and we are hoping we can hire 50 Hutto folks to come work at Southside in the next few months,” he said.

Abney spoke at a Hutto City Council meeting on Thursday. The Co-op District is on the north side of U.S. 79 just west of downtown Hutto.

The city bought the Co-Op property, which includes a cotton gin and cotton silos, for $2 million in 2004.

It gave the property to MA Partners, which built an $8 million City Hall and is creating a retail, restaurant, office and residential district with $400 million worth of private investment, the city has said.

The expense of the PID, over the lifetime of the project, is expected to cost between $10.5 and $12 million total, with net proceeds listed at closer to $8.5 million, according to Bob Wunsch of MA Partners.

Two million dollars for offsite wastewater improvements would come from the PID, according to presentations made by Jessica Geray, Hutto’s director of economic development. which would extend existing water infrastructure to the site. A traffic signal placed at FM 1660 and Mager Lane would be placed at an entrance to the development, which would also connect East Street and Main Street to Limmer Loop.

The project, Wunsch said, would be completed in one or two phases; if two phases are required, Wunsch added that the second construction cycle would begin 60 days after the first phase’s completion.

“As long as this isn’t done before the Co-Op, we’re okay,” said Mayor Doug Gaul, with a laugh.

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Hutto City Council Approves Proposal for New Mixed-Use Development Project

By Community Impact

Hutto’s Perfect Game site and Fritz Park could have new neighbors just west of FM 1660, according to a proposal for a new mixed-use development.

Hutto City Council on August 1 unanimously authorized City Manager Odis Jones to execute an agreement with MA Partners on a new development, proposed for a site near FM 1660 and Mager Lane. MA Partners are the developers behind Hutto’s Co-Op District.

The project, as proposed August 1, would sit on 95 acres of land. The site is currently outside Hutto city limits and would be annexed into the city and financed through the creation of a Public Improvement District. The development would include single-family homes, commercial uses and open space.

Following the execution of the agreement and creation of the PID, Hutto’s Planning and Zoning Commission will begin discussions on how much land will be zoned for each specified type, according to Executive Director of Infrastructure and Development Services Ashley Lumpkin. She added the number of single-family units included in the development would be discussed in Planning and Zoning, as well.

The expense of the PID, over the lifetime of the project, is expected to cost between $10.5 and $12 million total, with net proceeds listed at closer to $8.5 million, according to Bob Wunsch of MA Partners.

Two million dollars for offsite wastewater improvements would come from the PID, according to presentations made by Jessica Geray, Hutto’s director of economic development. which would extend existing water infrastructure to the site. A traffic signal placed at FM 1660 and Mager Lane would be placed at an entrance to the development, which would also connect East Street and Main Street to Limmer Loop.

The project, Wunsch said, would be completed in one or two phases; if two phases are required, Wunsch added that the second construction cycle would begin 60 days after the first phase’s completion.

“As long as this isn’t done before the Co-Op, we’re okay,” said Mayor Doug Gaul, with a laugh.

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Southside Market & Barbeque announces new opening date for Hutto location

By Community Impact

Southside Market & Barbeque has delayed its anticipated opening date for the Hutto location.

Originally slated to open in 2019, Southside Market announced it anticipates opening in the second quarter of 2020, per an August 2 news release. The restaurant, regarded as the oldest BBQ company in Texas, opened in its original location in Elgin in 1882. Southside’s Hutto location was the first business tenant announced for the Co-Op District.

“As Texans, we’ve had the personal privilege of enjoying Southside Market’s barbeque for decades, and we could not imagine a better match for a project with the vision and scale of The Co-Op District,” said Bob Wunsch of MA Partners, the developer behind the Co-Op District, in the news release. “Southside Market has set the standard for Texas barbeque, and we are thrilled to have a nationally renowned brand with such deep roots in Texas serve as our first retail tenant.”

The restaurant is known for slow-cooked sausage and meats. Alongside its upcoming Hutto location, Southside Market is also slated to open an Austin storefront in late 2019.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for our business and especially for the great folks on our team who work hard every day with a commitment to authentic Central Texas BBQ, excellent customer service, and Texas friendly hospitality,” said Bryan Bracewell, Owner of Southside Market & Barbeque, in the release. “We can’t wait to get the pits fired up and join in on all of the excitement that is happening in Hutto.”

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Hutto’s Co-Op District progresses with completion of new City Hall

By KXAN Austin

A 35-acre development in Hutto is beginning to take shape now that a new City Hall has officially opened there.

The city consolidated most of its departments into one building that is located in an area that will be called The Co-Op District off U.S. 79. The new City Hall, which is about 35,000 square feet in size, opened to the public Monday.

“Basically everything the public will need is all here on the first floor,” Mayor Doug Gaul said during a tour Tuesday. “They’ve got their library, pay their bills, pay their fines, interact with people. Then, we’ve got the offices upstairs.”

On the ground floor, the city library occupies more than 4,500 square feet. Staff members worked through the weekend to get all the books onto shelves, computers online and meeting rooms ready for people to use.

“We had over 241 people coming in [Monday] getting new library cards, checking out books,” library manager Lisa Riggs said. “We’ve had patrons that haven’t come in since 2009 come and get library cards.”

Pamela Carter came Tuesday to check out the new space and take home a few books.

“It was much more spacious and not so crowded,” Carter said about the new library. “It seemed like the staff were happy to be in a new place.”

The balcony on the second floor of City Hall overlooks the large construction site where crews are working on the rest of The Co-Op District development. The developer already announced that Top Notch Hamburgers, Southside Market & Barbeque and Flix Brewhouse will be the first three tenants in the walkable, mixed-use develpoment. More announcements should be made soon, city leaders told KXAN.

“Hutto’s only really had one street for their downtown, so this really kind of expands our downtown,” Gaul said. “It becomes a more downtown environment. I look forward to a family coming down here on a Saturday night and spending probably three or four hours down here.”

The city expects The Co-Op District development to take at least another five years to complete. Carter expects it to draw in visitors to the community she loves.

“Things are nearby where you don’t have to drive into austin to go out to eat,” she said. “It’s nice to see the community growing and [have] more things to do with family.”

The Hutto Police Department is not housed in the new City Hall. Police are instead renovating their current space at 401 Front Street.

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Historic Burger Restaurant Opening First Expansion in Hutto

By Eater Austin

In the first-ever expansion for the 48-year-old retro fast food restaurant, Top Notch Burgers is coming to Hutto. The new second location will be in the under-development Hutto Co-Op District at 420 Highway 79, starting in 2020.

The new Top Notch will serve the same classic menu of charcoal-grilled burgers, fried chicken, and onion rings, although a press release teased new secret menu items. The new location will also include details from the original like car hop stations and classic signage.

The Hutto Co-Op District will also have a location of Elgin-based barbecue restaurant Southside Market and a location of movie theater and restaurant Flix Brewhouse. It will also house Hutto’s City Hall and library.

Top Notch is best known for its inclusion in the classic movie Dazed and Confused. Ray and Frances Stanish opened the Burnet Road restaurant in 1971. In 2010, after Ray’s death, Frances passed ownership to her brothers-in-law Kelly Chappell and Phillip Santa Cruz, who own fast-casual restaurants Zocalo Cafe and Galaxy Cafe.

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Top Notch Hamburgers is headed to Hutto

By KVUE Austin

Alright, alright, alright! Looks like Hutto is getting a little weird. 

Iconic Austin restaurant Top Notch Hamburgers will be opening a new location at the Hutto Co-Op District.

The hamburger joint, along with Flix Brewhouse and Southside Market & Barbeque, will soon reside in a dynamic 25-acre business, retail, entertainment and residential location on ‘The Gin’ property.

To view a KVUE TV Foodie Friday segment on Top Notch, CLICK HERE!

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Top Notch Expands to Hutto

By Austin Food Magazine

Top Notch Burgers has announced their expansion to a 35-acre mixed-use destination now under construction on U.S. Highway 79 in Hutto and is expected to open its doors in early 2020.

Top Notch is well known for its award-winning, drive-in diner-style cuisine, and equally beloved for its role in the coming-of-age cult hit, “Dazed and Confused.” The new location in Hutto will represent the restaurant’s first ever expansion.The owners are focused on creating as many iconic details as possible with the new Hutto location, including greeting guests by the unmistakable classic signage and car hop stations.  The building itself will include as many of the same designs and materials as possible.

The menu will include all of the current customer favorites and as well as a few new items from its secret menu.  As Top Notch has proven over the past 48 years, it will always continue to look for ways to extend its customer reach and maintain its presence as a community gathering place.

Top Notch will join an impressive lineup of restaurants and entertainment tenants that will be established at the Co-Op District, including Southside Market, Flix Brewhouse and Hutto City Hall.

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Hutto’s Co-Op District lands Top Notch Hamburgers

By Austin Business Journal

Hutto’s Co-Op District has landed another tenant and this one comes with some history.

For its second location, Top Notch Hamburgers will open a store at the 35-acre mixed-use project in the Williamson County suburb. Founded in 1971, Top Notch has been selling burgers and fried chicken for nearly four decades from its location on Burnet Road and is regarded by many as an Austin institution.

The Co-Op District has also landed Southside Market barbecue restaurantand Flix Brewhouse movie theater as retail tenants.

Bob Wunsch of MA Partners, developer of The Co-Op District, said it took about eight or nine months to secure Top Notch’s commitment.

“One of our visions was to bring iconic Austin-area businesses to Hutto,” Wunsch said. “I think we fulfilled that promise.”

Top Notch is one of those small businesses many credit for bolstering Austin’s overall economy. The techies at Sailpoint Technologies love the brand so much, when it came time to donate food cans to the food bank as part of a contest they arranged them to look like the burger joint’s iconic sign.

Kelly Chappell, who is part of an ownership group that bought Top Notch in 2010, said they wanted to be on the “ground level” of Hutto’s growth.

“After all these years, we feel like [Hutto] has the small community feel that Austin did when I was growing up,” he said. “We feel like we picked the right project.”

Meanwhile, the 35-are Co-Op District continues to develop as one of the major projects for Hutto leaders. City staff are moving into the new City Hall building at the Co-Op on Monday. The mixed-use development is expected to have stores, offices and residential development, built a round a repurposed cotton gin on State Highway 79, about a mile west of downtown Hutto.

Wunsch said they’ve also gotten approval from the Texas Department of Transportation for work on Highway 79.

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Top Notch burger and fried chicken restaurant opening in Hutto

By Austin360

New Hutto is about to get a taste of Old Austin. Iconic burger and fried chicken restaurant Top Notch will open a location next year in the Hutto Co-Op District, a 35-acre mixed-use development that will also be home to the new Hutto City Hall.

The new location of the longtime Burnet Road burger joint memorialized in “Dazed and Confused” will join Co-Op tenants Southside Market & Barbecue of Elgin and Flix Brewhouse.

The new owners intend to transport the classic feel of the Leigh am to the new location, including aesthetic and service touches like the neon signage and car-hop stations.

Frances and Ray Stanish opened Top Notch in 1971, and Frances sold it to the team behind Galaxy Cafe in 2010.

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Iconic Austin drive-in restaurant shifts gears to open first new location in 48 years

By CultureMap Austin

It took almost 50 years, but Top Notch Burgers is finally getting a second location. The Austin institution is headed to the suburbs with an outpost in Hutto set to open in early 2020.

According to a release, the restaurant has signed on with Hutto Co-Op District, currently under construction on U.S. Highway 79. The ambitious development is a reimagined Main Street for the city, compete with a new city hall.

Founded in 1971 by Ray and Frances Stanish, Top Notch is one of the city’s most recognizable dining landmarks. The signage, car hop stations, and dining room has remained virtually untouched throughout the decades. In fact, keeping things the same was a stipulation when the Stanish family sold the spot to Phillip Santa Cruz and Kelly Chappell in 2010.

Its time capsule authenticity made it a natural choice when director Richard Linklater was scouting for locations for his 1993 cult hit Dazed and Confused. Chappell and Santa Cruz, whose families also own Zocalo and Galaxy Cafe, plan to bring the same ‘70s vibe to the new construction.

The building will be modern with more windows for natural light, but design elements and materials from the original — including the iconic sign — will be brought to Hutto. And, yes, it will still be a drive-in.

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Iconic Austin restaurant Top Notch Burgers to open its second location in Hutto

By Community Impact

MA Partners, developers of the Co-Op District in Hutto, announced Feb. 21 that Top Notch Burgers is going to open its second location in the mixed-use development. This is the first expansion for Top Notch Burgers, which has been in business since 1971.

“We know plenty of folks in Hutto who drive to Austin just to visit Top Notch, and we envision being met by friendly faces the day we open our doors,” said Kelly Chappell, owner of Top Notch Burgers.

Top Notch Burgers is known for its classic diner-style menu with drive-in style eating and car hops. The iconic Austin burger joint was also featured in the hit 1993 movie “Dazed and Confused”.

Chappell told Community Impact Newspaper that he expects Top Notch Burgers to open its Hutto location by early 2020. The restaurant’s patio will overlook the Co-Op District’s amphitheater in the development’s western section, according to Chappell.

The new Hutto location will closely resemble the iconic Top Notch Burgers on Burnet Road in Austin, complete with car hops and drive-in ordering, Chappell stated.

“I want to stay as true to the original design as possible, down to the brick and the booth and the decor inside,” Chappell said. “I really believe that we have something special and it is authentic. Why would we try to change that?”

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Boomtown: A look inside the explosive growth in Pflugerville and Hutto

By KVUE Austin

While people are still moving to Central Texas for the booming economy, they’re choosing to look outside city limits. They’re looking at areas like Pflugerville and Hutto.

“I call it an explosion and I call it growing at warp speed,” said Pflugerville Mayor Victor Gonzales.

US Census data deemed Pflugerville the third fastest growing city in the country.

On average, 11 people moved there each day last year.

“It’s the area of Central Texas is the place to be right now, and we’re kind of in that phase where we’re accepting,” said Hutto City Council member Nathan Killough.

Hutto’s population has doubled since 2010, with about half of that growth in the past two years. Both are booming Texas towns.

“This was corn,” said Gerald Wilke, as he showed us the recently harvested fields.

Wilke has lived in Pflugerville since the 1970s. his family’s farm has been there far longer.

“With the roads and the traffic the way they are, now it’s really hard to move his equipment over here to farm this anymore,” said Wilke.

He now leases the land.

“There are 67 acres left,” said Wilke.

Piece by piece, Wilke’s family sold off part of the original 300-acre property.

“They took some acreage off the front here to build this toll 45,” said Wilke.

State Highway 45 was once Wilke Lane, a country road named after his family.

“I never did think I’d see cars going up and down that fast, it used to be tractors going back and forth,” said Wilke.

In a region where the train used to the be the only real source of transportation, SH 45 and SH 130 put the area’s development in the fast lane.

“It really opened the world up to Pflugerville,” said Amy Madison, the executive director of the Pflugerville Community Development Corporation.

They’re in charge of recruiting new businesses.

“It’s just been exponential growth,” said Madison.

Part of that has been through a boom of 3D-printing manufacturers.

“It’s a high a growth industry that requires a lot of high tech work force,” said Madison.

The type of work for employees you can find in Central Texas.

It’s just one of the industries to move into 130 Commerce Center, a business and industrial park in Pflugerville.

The PCDC bought about 170 acres back in 2007 along SH 130 to help attract businesses. They just sold the last 20 acres this summer.

But with more than 2,000 undeveloped acres along SH 130, Madison said the growth is far from over.

“We have a lot of property and land along 130 that’s available we have a number of projects that are looking at us,” said Pflugerville Mayor Victor Gonzales.

Madison said developers are now calling them.

“Pflugerville was just known as a bedroom community, but now we’re starting to get industry into town,” said Wilke.

It’s the same story in Hutto where developers are building the new Innovation Business Park.

“Since we started breaking ground and showing that Hutto was open for business, and that we wanted businesses coming, the doors have just been knocked down, people are coming left and right,” said Killough.

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Hutto ISD receives highest classification in state financial accountability rating

By Community Impact

Amid a 5-year enrollment growth of more than 20 percent, Hutto ISD scored among the top of all school districts in Texas in the state’s Financial Integrity Rating System, the district announced Thursday night.

Hutto ISD received a “superior” rating in the financial accountability test, scoring 96 points out of a possible 100.

The Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas, or FIRST, scores school districts across 15 separate indicators of fiscal accountability.

Those indicators identify a district’s financial stability in terms of debt, cash-on-hand, administrative costs, payment compliances, assets, enrollment and analysis from an independent auditor.

“Hutto ISD received the highest possible rating,” Jeffri Orosco, director of finance for Hutto ISD, said Thursday night.

The school district received two scores of 8 out of 10 on just two indicators, the only ratings on which the district was docked points.

Those two indicators rated whether the number of days of cash on hand and current investments for the school are sufficient to cover operating expenditures and whether the ratio of current assets to liabilities are healthy enough to cover short-term debt.

According to financial documents provided to the state, Hutto ISD has $12.7 million in cash-on-hand and equivalents, with $59.97 million in total expenditures. Further, Hutto ISD currently holds $34.99 million in assets and $11.8 million in liabilities.

“There’s a lot of indicators here that take into effect our growth,” said Glenn Graham, chief financial officer for Hutto ISD. “The state understands when you take on a lot of growth, you take on a lot of debt.”

Orosco told the Board of Trustees tonight that the school district has experienced a growth of 20.52 percent growth in students in the past five years.

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BREAKING: California manufacturer lands in Hutto

By Community Impact

The city of Hutto Thursday night announced another California-based manufacturer is relocating to Texas.

Officials from AEND Industries Inc., a high-end performance polyurethane wheel manufacturing company, revealed Thursday that the company is relocating its headquarters and operations to Hutto. The company will open its doors Jan. 1, according to owner Neal Piper.

“We’re excited to come to Texas,” Piper said at Thursday night’s Hutto City Council meeting. “It is business friendly here and we’re ready for that.”

AEND Industries is building a new 19,200 square foot manufacturing facility at North Town Commons Business Park, located at the southeast corner of FM 1660 North and Limmer Loop. The company will open its doors Jan. 1, according to owner Neal Piper.

The manufacturer, which is relocating from Huntington Beach, California, produces specialty wheels for skateboards, inline skates, wheelchair wheels, derby wheels and more.

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Southside Market and Barbeque is coming to Hutto

By Austin American Statesman

Southside Market and Barbeque is coming to Hutto.

The restaurant is the first commercial tenant at the new Co-Op District in Hutto now under construction, according to the district’s developer, MA Partners.

The district is a 35-acre business, retail, entertainment and residential destination being developed on U.S. 79 in Hutto at the historic Gin property, according to a news release issued by the city.

The barbecue restaurant first opened in Elgin in 1882, where it is still operating. A second location opened in Bastrop in 2014.

“As Texans, we’ve had the personal privilege of enjoying Southside Market’s barbeque for decades and we could not imagine a better match for a project with the vision and scale of the Co-Op District,” said developer Bob Wunsch of MA Partners in the release.

One of the owners of Southside Market and Barbeque, Bryan Bracewell, said coming to the Co-Op District “is such a natural fit for us because Hutto is very similar to the two other towns we call home in that it’s a great place filled with salt-of-the-earth folks who have the same values we have,” according to the release.

A ground breaking for the Co-Op District, which includes four grain silos that have been preserved, took place in November.

A new City Hall — planned to be the anchor tenant of the Co-Op District — is anticipated to open within a year.

Information was not immediately available Monday about the projected opening date for Southside Market and Barbeque.

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