For four decades the Arboretum has been the thing you point at when someone asks where Great Hills is. Cow statues in the grass, a Cheesecake Factory next to a Barnes & Noble, a Renaissance hotel behind it all. If you have lived here more than a year, you have probably stopped noticing the place except as a landmark on the way to somewhere else.
That is about to change, and the shift is bigger than a new tenant or a fresh coat of paint.
On February 4, 2026, Charlotte-based Asana Partners acquired the 200,000-square-foot shopping center at 10000 Research Blvd. The Arboretum had been owned by Washington Prime Group from 1998 until that sale, which is to say it had been sitting under an owner in bankruptcy proceedings for years. The new group has a specific vision, a start date, and a completion target. If you live in Great Hills, this is the piece of neighborhood news that will actually alter your weekends.
The Deal, In Plain Numbers
The Charlotte-based company acquired the iconic 200,000-square-foot retail center in the heart of Great Hills with plans to transform it back into a premier destination, committing to physical improvements, fresh common areas for live music, pop-up shops, and community events, plus new outdoor patios for dining, better walkability throughout, updated signage, and a curated mix of tenants.
The timing matters:
- Work kicks off this summer, with completion targeted for early 2027.
- The current tenant roster is not disappearing. The site is home to The Cheesecake Factory, Amy's Ice Creams, Cava, Juliet Italian Kitchen, Pottery Barn, Soma and more.
- The stated goal is a true 18-hour destination, morning coffee, daytime shopping, and evening fun.
An 18-hour destination is retail-industry shorthand for a place people show up to on purpose from breakfast through late dinner, not a place they duck into for a return at 6:45 p.m.
Translated for a resident: expect construction fencing on Research Boulevard through the back half of 2026, more outdoor seating and programmed events by spring 2027, and a slower gradual churn of national chains getting replaced by operators picked to keep people on-site longer. If you are used to parking near Barnes & Noble and walking straight through, plan for a different traffic pattern this fall.
The Second Shoe
The Arboretum sale is not happening in isolation, and this is the part most residents have not connected yet.
In April 2026, a joint venture between Austin-based Aquila Commercial and San Diego-based PacVentures acquired the Campus at Arboretum, a five-building, 318,000-square-foot office complex near the Arboretum shopping center. The property is about 67 percent leased and was most recently appraised at $67.7 million.
Why that matters if you never set foot in an office park: the buyers bought a two-thirds-full building on purpose, which means they intend to add tenants. Combine that with the Arboretum overhaul and the context just down the road at the Domain, where the city saw its biggest office leases last year, including Nvidia's nearly 100,000-square-foot lease-up at Brandywine Realty Trust's One Uptown, and a corridor poised for significant change, with several nearby properties slated for redevelopment or repositioning, potentially reshaping the area into a denser mixed-use destination, and the picture sharpens. Great Hills is being repositioned as an extension of the Domain rather than a quieter cul-de-sac off Loop 360.
For a homeowner already here, that shows up as three things over the next 18 months: more daytime foot traffic near the Arboretum, more evening activity on the west side of 183, and eventually more competition for the weekend restaurant seats you have taken for granted.
Sunday Morning Is Still Yours
The overhaul does not touch the piece of the Arboretum most residents actually use on a weekly basis. The Great Hills Trail Farmer's Market and Open Air Artisan Fair at the Arboretum, located at 10000 Research Blvd at the intersection of Great Hills Trail and Research Blvd, occurs every Sunday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and includes locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables, local baked goods, cheeses, pastas, handmade crafts and original art, plus a bounce house for the kids.
The cows are still there too. The park spaces contain a set of five cow statues by sculptor Harold F. Clayton, and they have been part of the site's identity since long before the Cheesecake Factory replaced the old Arbor 7 Cinema in 2002. Whatever the redesign renderings eventually show, a herd of bronze cows is a hard thing to lose in the shuffle.
The Restaurant Map, By What You Actually Want
The Arboretum-adjacent dining pool is deeper than the parts most residents cycle through. A working guide, organized by intent rather than cuisine:
| If you want | Go to | Where |
|---|---|---|
| A patio with actual views | Roaring Fork, wood-fired American with an open-air patio and panoramic views of Quarry Lake | Arboretum area |
| Fish flown in this week | Truluck's Austin Arboretum, with Florida Stone Crab served from trap to table in 24 hours during its October to May season | Arboretum |
| Hotel bar with Hill Country sightlines | Knotty Deck Kitchen & Bar inside the Renaissance Austin Hotel, indoor dining or an expansive outdoor deck with Hill Country views | Renaissance Austin |
| Weeknight Italian without a scene | Juliet Italian Kitchen in the Arboretum neighborhood, built for a relaxed date night, business lunch or weekend brunch | Arboretum |
| A fast, healthy lunch | Honest Mary's, tucked into the Arboretum shopping strip | Arboretum |
| Mediterranean at the Domain | Ēma at Domain NORTHSIDE, sister to Aba, a Mediterranean restaurant with a California influence and indoor and outdoor dining spaces | Domain NORTHSIDE |
| A steakhouse night out | Perry's Domain NORTHSIDE, known for award-winning steaks, tableside presentations, the famous pork chop, and Bar 79 | Domain NORTHSIDE |
Two more that reward locals over visitors: Vida Verde Kitchen, the kind of place review readers describe as a hidden gem in the Arboretum orbit, and the Trader Joe's over at Arboretum Market on the corner of Great Hills Trail and Jollyville Road. Arboretum Market's tenant mix includes Trader Joe's, Milk + Honey Salon, Sephora, Starbucks Coffee, Talbots, J. Jill, Ann Taylor, and Pottery Barn Kids, which is a useful reminder that "the Arboretum" for retail purposes is really two adjacent centers under different ownership.
When You Want The Trees, Not The Retail
The best answer to a Great Hills weekend is usually the one hiding behind the houses. Great Hills Park is a City of Austin neighborhood park in a Hill Country setting tucked away in northwest Austin, more than 80 acres in size, with a large natural area, hiking trails, a playscape, a covered pavilion, picnic tables, and exercise equipment.
A few specifics that a search engine's summary will not give you:
- The main trail connects the Floral Park Trailhead to the upper trailheads at Sierra Oaks and Sierra Nevada, crossing creeks five times along the way, and a side trail explores a dense cedar forest and emerges at the Foxway trailhead just off Penny Creek Drive.
- After a heavy rain, there is a 6-foot waterfall along the cedar side trail, and another side trail leads to the Fish Pool on a tributary stream, where a quiet approach can reveal bass, sunfish, and the occasional snapping turtle.
- The trail sits inside the neighborhood rather than beside it. Houses are close, but the creek corridor is deep enough that the trees screen most of them and the little cliffs and water crossings feel more like a state park than a suburb.
- The park runs on volunteer labor. Bi-annual Park Work Days happen once each in fall and spring, with dates announced on the park's website, and volunteers help remove invasive plants, pick up trash, maintain trails, spread mulch, and add new plants.
If you have already worn out the loop and want variation without driving to the greenbelt, the Dominion at Great Hills Trail is a 2.1-mile loop with 249 feet of elevation gain, taking about 30 to 60 minutes. It is the harder cousin of the main park trail and stays quiet on weekday mornings.
What To Watch For Through 2027
A short list of things a Great Hills resident should keep half an eye on:
- Construction phasing at 10000 Research. Summer 2026 groundbreaking, early 2027 target. Expect Great Hills Trail and Research Blvd side entries to shift.
- Tenant announcements from Asana Partners. The signal to watch is not another national chain but a chef-driven local operator or a coffee concept that opens at 6:30 a.m. Either would confirm the 18-hour thesis.
- Leasing pace at the Campus at Arboretum. Movement from 67 percent toward the mid-80s means daytime population is growing and lunch reservations will get harder.
- The Sunday market. If it survives the construction season, it survives the redesign. Worth showing up for.
For four decades Great Hills has been quiet in a way that suited people who wanted the trees and the trails without the Domain's noise. The next 18 months will test how much of that quiet is structural and how much was simply a byproduct of a shopping center that had stopped trying. The neighborhood's bones, meaning the park, the creek, the cedar side trails, the cows in the grass, are not going anywhere. The rest is up for revision.
If you are thinking about how the Arboretum overhaul and the office repositioning are likely to shape values on your specific block, or you are weighing a move within the neighborhood before the corridor's next chapter lands, The Holm Team tracks Great Hills at street level and would be glad to talk through what it means for your house in particular. Schedule a personalized consultation.
