McALLEN — Developers kicked off a 70,000-square-foot retail venture here at Tres Lagos on Saturday with a groundbreaking, beginning a project they say will help meet a demand for services in the extreme northern part of McAllen.
“The Shoppes at Tres Lagos” is a multi-building development that will consist of steel frame stone and stucco structures in a Tuscan style that will complement existing features in the community.
Although the Tres Lagos community already contains homes and an educational facility, the Shoppes will be its first retail development.
Rhodes Enterprises President and CEO Nick Rhodes said Thursday that the near-$20 million project will bring jobs to the area and needed services to the almost 1,800 people living in 600 homes at Tres Lagos.
“Most of the uses we want to really help the community at large,” he said. “So we’re looking at what the residents want and will use and will enhance their lives living out there, so that’s the services we’re targeting right now.”
So far, the development will host an Esperanza Homes Design Studio, a community welcome center, a mortgage company office and a South Texas Health Systems family medicine and rehabilitation center. Rhodes said his company is also in talks with a dentist, a coffee shop and a sandwich shop.
“Right now, if you go out there, it’s quite a hike to grab a coffee or a sandwich or go to the doctor or get services,” he said.
The Shoppes will complement the 2,800-acre master planned Tres Lagos community, which still has about 25 years of development left. McAllen Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Steve Ahlenius called that community a success story worth celebrating at Friday’s groundbreaking.
“I’m always excited when I see folks that see the invisible, feel the intangible and do the impossible,” he said. “And that’s what the Rhodes family have done. They’ve made a huge investment, not only in our community, but beyond our area.”
The Shoppes at Tres Lagos is expected to open in the spring of 2022.
“We’re excited to announce this development,” Rhodes said Friday. “In line with our mission statement and the core purpose of the company that we all follow is to enhance the lives of our customers and team members through building communities, so that’s why we’re here today and that’s why we chose to start this development of the Shoppes.”