A $17 million assisted-living center may go up in the Legends Crossing development in southwest Waco, whose tenants now include Chuy’s Mexican restaurant and Waco Nissan.

John Cawthron is managing partner of Legends Crossing Waco Development LP, the group that is developing the 84-acre site adjacent to the new Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center.

Cawthron said his $17 million cost estimate on the 160-bed center is rough. He hopes to build the center on part of a 15-acre tract near Corporation Parkway or on tracts fronting a nine-acre lake.

A 160-room assisted living center is slated to cover five of the 84 available acres at the Legends Crossing development near the new Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center.
Rod Aydelotte/Tribune-Herald

Half the center’s beds will serve people suffering from dementia.

“I have been all over the Southeast looking at these centers, talking to people and asking how they have the guts to build something they don’t have pre-leased,” Cawthron said.

Cawthron and investors from Austin and Waco bought 158 acres at West Loop 340 and Interstate 35 from the Waco Industrial Foundation five years ago.

They spent more than $8 million on the land, Cawthron said, and later sold about half the acreage to Hillcrest for construction of a new hospital.

Since then, he said, the partners have spent about $6.2 million to place in Legends Crossing utility lines, streets, a lake, fountains, a pedestrian bridge and a play area. Entities that have built there include Waco Nissan, Incommons Bank, Homewood Suites by Hilton and Chuy’s Mexican restaurant.

Real estate agent Jimmy Banks markets Legends Crossing. He said Wednesday he stands by his prediction that at least six restaurants will locate there, though so far only Chuy’s has taken space.

“I feel the economy in Waco and Central Texas is better than the national economy, but a lot of the national restaurants are sitting on their hands and waiting for things to turn around,” Banks said.

Banks said he still thinks Legends Crossing can become a hotbed for eating places. He said Chuy’s has generated momentum, a 20,000-square-foot retail center is coming, and Hillcrest’s new hospital opened next door.

“Chuy’s is doing fantastic, and I would like to see more restaurants. The more we have, the more of a destination we become,” said Munir Lalani, who opened his Homewood Suites in November. “People will say, ‘Let’s go to Legends Crossing,’ and if Chuy’s is too busy, they’ll go somewhere else.”

Lalani said business at his 88-suite Hilton product is getting better after a slow start he blamed on the economy. He said he remains optimistic because he likes the hotel’s location and visibility.

Another group has bought land on which to build a Marriott Springhill Suites, but Banks said construction has not begun.

Besides pursuing an assisted-living center, Cawthron said he is working with a local dentist who has bought a tract in Legends Crossing and wants to build 40,000 square feet of medical office space.

mcopeland@wacotrib.com

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