The Square at Lakeway spent 2026 on a road. The 63-acre development at 1935 Lohmans Crossing Road has been planned since the 2010s, and the city approved its planned unit development zoning in 2021. This year, as the City of Lakeway and Legend Communities reworked the project, almost every other part of it came to depend on Main Street, the new road that will connect Ranch Road 620 to Lohmans Crossing Road and include a roundabout. The approved construction deadline and phasing are built around it, and the developer's revised incentive proposal would pay nothing until it is complete. Anyone waiting for the city center to arrive should be watching the pavement.
The Lift Station Is Running
For most of this year the problem was underground. In a July 2026 briefing included in the August 3 City Council packet, the development team called delays in approvals from Travis County Water Control and Improvement District No. 17 and in getting the lift station running "the project's most significant infrastructure challenge." The briefing said those delays were holding up water and wastewater service to the Jovie apartments and to Phase 1 of The Square.
By September, Community Impact reported that Joe Bland Construction had started grading Main Street and trenching for underground electric and gas lines, after the city issued a notice to proceed in August. Legend's development project manager, Ben Gonzalez, told council the WCID 17 permit was still pending.
By October, there was visible progress. Jovie Lakeway at 50 Bella Toscana Ave., the first occupied building inside The Square, welcomed its first residents on Oct. 18, according to Community Impact. The next evening, Legend gave its quarterly report to City Council. The city's Oct. 23 newsletter says the new lift station along Main Street is "now in working order."
The lift station was one of the two items the July briefing called its biggest infrastructure challenge, and it is now running. On the ground, the work still underway is the road.
Two Dates for One Stretch of Pavement
Main Street's schedule has moved before. Here is how its dates line up:
| Milestone | Date | Source of the date |
|---|---|---|
| Original Main Street deadline in the PUD | June 30, 2026 | Superseded by the January 2026 amendment |
| Deadline the developer requested | April 30, 2027 | Not approved |
| Deadline council approved on Jan. 20, 2026 | Jan. 31, 2027 | Fourth PUD amendment |
| Developer's completion target, September 2026 | First quarter of 2027 | Legend's update to council |
| Completion expected, October 2026 | Early 2027, for the section closest to The Hills entrance | Oct. 19 quarterly report |
The approved deadline is Jan. 31, 2027. The developer's target is the first quarter of 2027, a window that runs through the end of March. The two dates overlap, but they are not the same date. The October report also narrows the early 2027 expectation to the section nearest The Hills entrance, not the full length of the road.
The year has already absorbed some slippage. The July briefing said heavy rain had pushed contractor mobilization back about ten days. It also said Church Pond improvements had been added to the Main Street contract through a change order, so both pieces of work run under one construction package. Legend founder Haythem Dawlett told council in January that utility work and plan revisions had cost the project almost two years, Community Impact reported.
The Proposed Deal Holds the Money Until the Road Is Done
The road matters this much in part because of how the incentive proposal was rebuilt.
In January, a proposed Chapter 380 incentive agreement worth roughly $47 million over 35 years came before council. Council members could not reach consensus, and the applicant withdrew it. According to Community Impact, Mayor Thomas Kilgore said council had done substantial work on the agreement but "learned we didn't know what we didn't know." Council Member Matt Sherman called for a citywide Chapter 380 policy with guardrails before the city considered individual deals.
The city then adopted that policy. A July 13, 2026 staff report from City Manager Joseph Molis says Lakeway has since adopted a comprehensive Economic Development Incentive Policy with eligibility criteria, return-on-investment standards and performance requirements, and that any package for The Square must comply with it.
The developer's revised proposal replaces the single Chapter 380 agreement with three linked agreements: a master Development and Economic Incentive Agreement, a TIRZ agreement and a Chapter 380 sales-tax agreement. The proposed terms compare this way with the January version:
- Cap: a combined $37 million, down from roughly $47 million
- Term: a maximum of 25 years, down from 35
- Trigger: payments would depend on new tax revenue the project generates, with nothing paid until Main Street is complete
- Staff estimate: $12.1 million in TIRZ reimbursements and $24.4 million in Chapter 380 reimbursements, a total of $36.5 million, with $39.6 million retained by the city
The staff report calls those estimates conceptual and unverified. In July, the development team said consultants were redrafting the agreement for city review. As proposed, every reimbursement dollar would wait until the road exists.
A Plan Rearranged Around Shops and Fewer Phases
The January amendment changed what will eventually line Main Street. It passed 5-2, with Mayor Pro Tem Louis Mastrangelo and Council Member Matt Sherman opposed. Sherman objected to what he called "continual scope creep."
For comparison, the 2025 PUD exhibit listed 247,000 square feet of retail and 145,000 square feet of office. The amendment moved that mix toward retail. Council approved 72,000 more square feet of retail and 10,000 fewer square feet of office, allowed slightly less commercial parking, and cut the build-out from eight phases to two. Most of Phase 1, on the eastern side, must be finished within five years. Phase 2, on the western side, has ten. Council turned down the developer's request for 44 more multifamily units and for lower residential parking requirements, and kept the daily traffic cap it had already approved.
With fewer phases, each one is larger and starts later. Every phase faces Main Street, which connects them to 620 and Lohmans Crossing.
The public spaces have changed over the years too. When council approved the zoning in 2021, the initial concept included a 2.5-acre green space that could double as an amphitheater. At the November 2022 groundbreaking, the developer described a Great Lawn, a pavilion, a children's splash pad and an amphitheater for markets and festivals. The 2025 plan exhibit labels a park and lists zero square feet for a performing-arts center. Of those ideas, the park is the one still shown in the current zoning documents.
The Next Piece of Land Is Already in Play
The Square may get bigger. The July briefing reported that a Lake Travis ISD property is "now formally under contract" and that the design firm DTJ has been hired to begin land-use programming and master planning for it. The briefing called the acquisition "a significant milestone in the long-term vision and expansion of The Square at Lakeway."
That planning is at an early stage. The approved deadline, the proposed incentive trigger and the newly running lift station all point back to the first section of Main Street near The Hills entrance, which is expected in early 2027 against a Jan. 31, 2027 deadline. The city posts each quarterly report on its City Center page, and Legend's next update to council will show which of those two dates the road meets.
If you own a home off Lohmans Crossing or RR 620 and want to talk through how the timing of Main Street and The Square fits your own plans, in English or Spanish, Roxanne Escobedo is glad to go over it with you. Schedule a confidential consultation.
