For years an ugly duckling, the shopping center at North Loop 340 and Interstate 35 in Lacy Lakeview is attracting attention from retailers and sit-down restaurants.

A new $1.2 million Heitmiller Steakhouse will open soon.

Meanwhile, progress continues on converting an old Winn-Dixie grocery store into a 50,000-square-foot Atwoods Ranch & Home store that will sell everything from clothing and furniture to watering troughs for livestock. Atwoods reportedly is shooting for an October opening.

An old theater remains vacant, and Dallas real estate agent Clay Mote said it likely would be leveled to make room for restaurants and stores.

He said a national sit-down restaurant chain is looking hard at the center. It would join Heitmiller, Taco Bell and McDonald’s as eating establishments there.

Heitmiller Steakhouse (set to open late this month in the building at right) is just one of several new restaurants or businesses that have found Lacy Lakeview appealing of late.
Jerry Larson/Tribune-Herald

“We’ve also talked to a couple of drugstores,” said Mote, who works for Venture Commercial.

Mote said inquiries have picked up with decisions by Atwoods and Heitmiller to call the center home.

Lowell Langford, with Arkansas-based Rabb’s Construction, said crews have gutted the old Winn-Dixie, which is getting a new roof and facade.

Langford said construction could wrap up “anytime between now and Christmas, and then Atwoods will prepare the store for its opening.”

Nicoletti said Atwoods wants to open sometime in October.

The first Atwoods store opened in 1960 in Enid, Okla., home to the company’s headquarters. It has grown to more than 40 locations in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas.

Some have compared its line of merchandise to that of Tractor Supply. In Texas, it has located in midsize communities like Corsicana and Tyler.

Atwoods reportedly employs between 25 and 45 people, depending upon store size.

Meanwhile, Heitmiller owner Jay Hinojosa hopes to open his new restaurant Sept. 29. It will seat about 350 people, have a gift shop and feature an expanded menu that includes old favorites, Hinojosa said.

K.K. Heitmiller and his wife, Donna, opened Heitmiller in Elm Mott in 1988. They created a loyal following with their generous helpings and large steaks.

Hinojosa bought the place in 2007, but the Texas Department of Highways and Public Transportation has bought it to widen Interstate 35 from North Loop 340 to just south of West.

Longtime customers begged Hinojosa to build a new Heitmiller, and he complied with their wishes.

“This center has been lying here like a dead dog for a long time, but now it is really moving,” he said.

“We’re excited about the economic boom going on in Lacy Lakeview,” Nicoletti said. “We’ve been getting quite a bit of interest in that site, and we’re hoping to land as many as a half-dozen new businesses there.”

mcopeland@wacotrib.com

757-5736

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