Oak Hill's "Y" Is Gone. What the Corridor Kept, What Changed Hands, and What's Still Being Finished

"The timing for this investment is perfect now that this major project is substantially complete." Terry Montesi, CEO of Trademark Property Company, said that in August. Trademark and its partner Cohen & Steers had just bought Oak Hill Plaza, the shopping center on the northwest corner of US 290 and SH 71.

The highway took about five years of construction. Now that it's open, the next change at the old Y will come from whoever owns the buildings along it. For anyone who lives in Oak Hill, the useful questions have changed. You no longer need to ask which lane is closed this week. You want to know what the road was built around, which places held on through the construction, and what the new owners plan to do with the corner they bought.

What Five Years of Construction Actually Delivered

TxDOT says the Oak Hill Parkway officially opened in September. It calls this the finish of a project that took three decades of planning, construction and community input. Officials celebrated the opening on September 24, according to a release from Fluor, which built the project in a joint venture with Balfour Beatty. Fluor put the cost at $677 million for roughly seven miles of US 290 and SH 71. The project took the highway from two mainlanes in each direction to three.

On the ground, the old Y has been replaced by a single-point urban interchange. Direct-connect flyovers now link US 290 and SH 71, and new US 290 overpasses cross William Cannon Drive. The nonstop route came first. In April, KXAN reported that westbound US 290 drivers could pass over the William Cannon intersection without stopping at a light. Drivers headed to William Cannon, SH 71, Convict Hill Road or RM 1826 were sent to exit onto the frontage road before Patton Ranch Road.

That split is how the corridor works now. Through traffic stays on the mainlanes, and local trips use the frontage roads. TxDOT's project history says separating the two was a design goal from the start. The same page lists Texas turnaround U-turns, so local drivers can reverse direction without waiting through a signal. The plans also call for 14 miles of shared-use path and 1.5 miles of sidewalk along the corridor.

The Design Bent Around a Few Old Things

The roadway changed a lot, but the landmarks around it were treated with care. TxDOT's project history lists what community input changed in the design, and several items are named landmarks rather than traffic fixes:

• Avoiding or limiting impacts to the Grandmother Oak, Grandfather Oak and Nieces Oaks near William Cannon Drive
• Preserving the Beckett Grove Tree, which locals knew for years as the Taco Bell Tree
• Realigning William Cannon Drive to avoid large trees
• Putting natural treatments at Williamson Creek in place of a concrete culvert, and taking a large amount of existing concrete out of the creek by building new bridges
• Lowering the US 290 mainlanes under the cross streets at Circle Drive, Scenic Brook Drive, RM 1826 and Convict Hill Road

TxDOT's own wording on the trees is "avoid or limit impacts," which is a commitment, not a guarantee. In 2021, as clearing began, Community Impact named the Beckett Grove Tree, the Grandmother Oak, the Grandfather Oak and the Nieces as the trees TxDOT said it would not remove. With landscaping still underway, the finished state of the ground around these trees is still taking shape.

The oldest building at the Y has its own long record. The J.A. Patton Store, better known as the Old Rock Store, dates to 1898 and sits at 6266 US Highway 290. A City of Austin historic-resources survey lists it alongside Beckett's Grove and the Williamson Creek bridge as recorded historic resources in the corridor. Many longtime residents remember it as Austin Pizza Garden. Texas Highways reported that the restaurant closed in January 2021 after 27 years in the building. The most recent public report on the store came from the Austin American-Statesman in April 2024. At that point, DuFrane Watches was in the building, and the owning family was looking for a new tenant after Madrone Coffee closed.

So the design worked around the trees, the creek and the stone store. The stores and restaurants along the frontage roads had to get through the construction on their own.

The Places That Waited It Out

In mid-2025, while construction was still well underway, Community Impact talked with businesses along the corridor. Staff at Sweet Treets Bakery and Graze Craze said the work made them harder to find. At Graze Craze, shifting traffic patterns complicated both customer and delivery access to the Oak Hill Centre entrance. In the same story, staff at Oak Hill Social said the new bridge right in front made it easier for nearby residents to cross over, and they were seeing more people.

Same project, opposite experiences, and the difference was location. A storefront behind a moving lane closure lost visibility. A bar facing a new crossing gained foot traffic. Now that the lanes have stopped moving, here is where the corridor's familiar stops stand, based on the latest reports:

Kerbey Lane's 45th anniversary and Via 313's reopening both happened in the middle of the construction years. Via 313 closed in April 2025 for a renovation and reopened in time for its tenth anniversary. That means the owners put money into the space while the highway out front was still torn up.

The Picklr is the clearest newcomer. Community Impact reported its plans in July 2025 with a target of spring 2026. By this fall, its Oak Hill page was booking courts and leagues. It's also a tenant at Oak Hill Plaza, which takes the story back to the corner where the next change is starting.

Oak Hill Plaza Is Where the Next Change Starts

Oak Hill Plaza is a 116,000-square-foot neighborhood center on the northwest corner of US 290 and SH 71. Trademark's August 27 announcement listed its tenants as Wells Fargo, Pluckers, Dollar Tree, AutoZone, Jim's Restaurant and The Picklr. Trademark will manage and lease the property, and says it plans to upgrade both the center and its tenant mix.

The announcement ties the purchase directly to the highway. It says the parkway "will greatly improve regional mobility and access to the property," now that all the mainlanes, frontage roads and ramps are open. Tommy Miller, Trademark's managing director and CIO, called the area "underserved" for retail and described the corridor as "an increasingly important gateway to the Texas Hill Country." The company says it wants to add local and regional retailers and restaurants that "capture the authentic spirit of Austin."

No incoming tenants have been named. For Oak Hill, the useful detail is the playbook. The release says Oak Hill Plaza joins Great Hills Market & Station in Trademark's Austin portfolio. For Cohen & Steers, it's the second Austin shopping center purchase this year, after 1890 Ranch in Cedar Park. Montesi said Trademark's research flagged Oak Hill Plaza as a high-potential center years ago, and the company bought it once the parkway reached substantial completion.

Jim's Restaurant and Pluckers are the anchors many Oak Hill households already know, and both were on the tenant list when the center changed hands. Upgrades and new tenants will tell the neighborhood what the new owners think the corner should become.

What's Still Being Finished Through December

The parkway is open, but work is still going on. By the time this post goes live in November, these items are still on the schedule:

1. Landscaping. A TxDOT spokesperson told Community Impact that crews will keep working on pending tasks like landscaping through the end of the year.
2. Paving and striping. Fluor lists both alongside landscaping, with final completion expected by year's end.
3. The shared-use paths and sidewalks. Trademark's August release said work would continue through the fall on the 14 miles of bike and pedestrian paths and 1.5 miles of new sidewalk.

The paths will likely change daily life near the Y the most. A shared-use path that runs the length of the corridor puts places like Oak Hill Social, the Oak Hill Centre shops and Oak Hill Plaza within walking or biking distance of each other, without a car trip. TxDOT's project page posts lane and ramp alerts as the last work is scheduled. Check it before planning a late-evening drive through the interchange.

If you're wondering what the new interchange, the Oak Hill Plaza upgrades or the new paths could mean for your own home's value, Roots Residential Group can walk you through it with a complimentary home valuation or market consult, built street by street around Oak Hill.