Why does the new development along New Hope Drive still look like a construction site when the Ferris wheel inside it is already turning?
Drive north on 183A Toll past Bell Boulevard and you'll see it before you see anything else: a 65-foot indoor Ferris wheel spinning behind glass, visible from the parking lot before you're even out of your car. Turn your head the other direction and you'll see steel framing, dirt lots, and construction fencing stretching across most of the rest of the site. That contrast isn't an illusion. It's an accurate snapshot of where CedarView actually stands this fall.
CedarView is the mixed-use development the City of Cedar Park has been building along East New Hope Drive for the past several years, and SCHEELS, which opened its doors on August 29, 2026, is currently the only piece of it that's finished.
What's Actually Open Right Now
The Cedar Park SCHEELS is the retailer's second Texas location and its 35th nationwide. At more than 300,000 square feet, it operates less like a sporting goods store and more like a self-contained day trip. Inside the store at 2150 Cedarview Drive, shoppers can find more than 75 specialty shops, a 16,000-gallon saltwater aquarium, Ginna's Cafe, and Fuzziwig's Candy Factory, in addition to the Ferris wheel that's already become the building's unofficial landmark.
Opening weekend drew people who camped overnight in the parking lot for a shot at pizza and merchandise from Howler Brothers, along with skydivers, a marching drumline, and gift card giveaways every 20 minutes starting at 7 a.m. Store leader Lucas Hachmeister told the Austin American-Statesman the team was "incredibly proud to be part of this community," a fitting note for a project that brought on more than 500 associates, including 100 full-time and 350 part-time local hires, before the doors opened.
That's the entire operating footprint of CedarView as of this fall. Everything else on the site is still under construction.
The Two Anchors That Haven't Opened Yet
CedarView was never designed to be a single store. It's a 118-acre development sitting between Bell Boulevard and 183A Toll, built around three anchor projects: SCHEELS, a Nebraska Furniture Mart location, and a Marriott hotel and convention center. Only the first one has cleared the finish line.
Nebraska Furniture Mart's Cedar Park store is reported at more than 1.1 million square feet, which would make it one of the largest retail footprints in the state once it's finished. As of this fall, it remains under construction next to SCHEELS with no public opening date attached to it.
The Marriott has a firmer target. As of September 2026, the hotel is set to open in April 2027 with 197 rooms, a 30,000-square-foot conference center that includes a nearly 10,000-square-foot ballroom, five restaurants, and a rooftop pool. That's a somewhat different design than the 297-room version the city and developer Great Lakes Capital first announced in 2025, but the purpose hasn't changed. It's meant to be a full-service hotel built to host business conferences and youth sports tournaments, sitting next to the retail anchors that are supposed to fill its rooms.
| Anchor | Status | Size | Target Opening |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCHEELS | Open | 300,000+ sq ft | August 29, 2026 |
| Nebraska Furniture Mart | Under construction | 1.1M+ sq ft | Not yet announced |
| Marriott Hotel & Convention Center | Under construction | 197 rooms, 30,000 sq ft conference space | April 2027 |
| JPI apartment complex | Not started | 425 units | Jan 2027–Jan 2029 construction |
Why the Empty Pads Aren't Just a Delay
The reason CedarView exists at all traces back to a specific contract, not a general growth trend. In December 2021, the Cedar Park City Council approved a Master Development Agreement offering up to $45 million in performance-based tax rebates to an affiliate of Nebraska Furniture Mart, in exchange for a minimum $400 million investment and 725 new jobs. The city's own projection puts $435 million in net tax revenue back over 25 years if the development hits those targets. City Manager Brenda Eivens described the project as the realization of what she called "a long-standing strategic goal" for the city.
That agreement is why the empty pads next to SCHEELS read more like a countdown than a delay. The rebate structure is tied to investment and job thresholds that only get hit once Nebraska Furniture Mart and the Marriott are actually operating, not once a single anchor has its ribbon cutting. A 425-unit apartment complex from Dallas-based JPI Development Group is also planned for the site, with construction expected to run from January 2027 to January 2029. The city has also flagged roadway improvements along East New Hope Drive itself, so even the street in front of the development isn't in its final form yet.
What's Actually There If You Go This Weekend
Right now, a trip to CedarView means SCHEELS and not much else, and that's still a legitimate destination on its own. The aquarium and Ferris wheel work as a stop for families with no particular interest in fishing gear or hiking boots, and Ginna's Cafe and Fuzziwig's give you a reason to stick around past the shopping. Next door, the H-E-B Center, the arena that's anchored this part of Cedar Park for years, remains the more established draw in the immediate area. It's worth remembering that CedarView was built beside it, not the other way around.
If your household already made the drive up 183A this year for the wave of new restaurant openings in North Austin, CedarView is a reasonable extension of that same corridor, just further out toward Cedar Park and Leander. One future name that's already surfaced specifically for a CedarView location is Haywire, tied to ownership group FB Society, though no timeline has been attached to it yet. Elsewhere in Cedar Park, planning conversations have floated a potential Trader Joe's, a PopStroke mini golf course, and a WorldSprings spa, but none of those have been confirmed as CedarView tenants, so they're worth filing under future possibility rather than something you can currently visit.
The Honest Timeline
If you live along this stretch of 183A and you're wondering when CedarView will start looking like the renderings that circulated back in 2025, the answer splits into two dates you can actually hold onto. SCHEELS already happened, on August 29, 2026. The Marriott's current target is April 2027. Nebraska Furniture Mart hasn't attached a public date to its opening at all. The fuller district that the original marketing described, a furniture showroom the size of a small campus, a full-service hotel, a rotating lineup of restaurants, is still a 2027 story. What you can actually drive to today is one very large store with a Ferris wheel inside it.
Cedar Park's growth along this stretch of 183A keeps shifting month to month, and it's the kind of detail that shapes daily life in Leander, Cedar Park, and Northwest Austin long before it ever shows up in a listing description. If you're trying to separate what's real from what's still a rendering in this corner of the metro, Jeff Joseph is following this stretch of development closely and is glad to talk through what's actually there.
