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.