A commercial center is planned on 8.7 acres near the bustling Belterra community, another spot for businesses to flock on the road between Austin and Dripping Springs.

Long View Equity LLC and Endeavor Real Estate Group LLC have partnered to develop Ledgestone East, which will have both retail and office space, at the corner of Ledge Stone Drive and U.S. Route 290. The center will span 58,000 square feet. It is slated to break ground in May and open in the third quarter of 2023.

An average of 32,000 vehicles per day pass the site on U.S. 290, according to retail research.

It exemplifies the continued march of commercial development into the Hill Country. The strip center will be across the street from Belterra Village, a 93-acre retail hub home to Torchy’s Tacos, an Evo Entertainment movie theater, a UPS Store and much more. Belterra Village was also developed by Endeavor. Additionally, H-E-B LP is building a grocery store just east at Nutty Brown Road, expected to open in spring 2023.

Deanna Sheffield, director of investor relations for Long View Equity, said the land was purchased from three sellers, and that all three transactions closed Feb. 22. The sellers’ identifies were not disclosed, but public records indicate the land was previously owned by entities including 290 East Bush Inc. and Sunnyvale LandCo LLC. No financial terms were disclosed.

The new development is part of the wider Ledgestone master-planned community, according to a March 16 announcement. Dan Frey, Endeavor Real Estate principal, and Daniel Campbell of Longview Equity are co-developers on Ledge Stone East. Adam Zimel and Evan Deitch with Endeavor are the leasing agents.

According to the announcement, Ledge Stone East is 25% leased. Signed tenants include two dentistry offices and a rejuvenation clinic. An Asian-American bistro and a burrito chain have both signed letters of intent, according to marketing materials provided to Austin Business Journal. There is a total of 37,200 square feet still available.

“One of our principals built out Belterra when he was at Endeavor,” Campbell, Long View Equity’s managing director, wrote in an email. “Therefore we knew the demand in the area and so pursued land acquisition to try to meet that need.”

Long View Equity, founded in 2010, has been busy acquiring retail sites around the Austin metro. The company announced in 2021 its purchase of a roughly 9,500-square-foot retail center in Leander and the nearly 48,000-square-foot Parmer McNeil Plaza in Northwest Austin. But it is also active in other asset types: In San Marcos, Long View Equity has secured approval for a 302-apartment community, Virtual Builders Exchange reported in November.

Over the past decade, Dripping Springs’ population grew faster than all but two other cities in the Austin metro. That has placed extra strain on the city’s infrastructure, especially wastewater capacity, and Dripping Springs in November put in place a moratorium on new development. The moratorium has been extended to May 21, although exceptions are considered on a case-by-case basis.

Ledge Stone East received some pre-approvals prior to the moratorium, Frey said. This project does not use city of Dripping Springs wastewater, so it was able to obtain additional approvals needed to move forward.

Triple-net average retail rent was $25.52 per square foot in Hays County in the last quarter of 2021, according to a report from NAI Partners.