If you've been sleeping on what's happening south of Austin along the I-35 corridor, it might be time to wake up. The mini-city project taking shape out in Red Oak near Lockhart is actually moving — like, putting-shovels-in-the-ground moving — and the people behind it are already eyeing Seguin as their next stop on the Texas small-town development tour.
For those not tracking it closely, the Lockhart project has been pitched as a kind of self-contained community — think housing, retail, and the kind of mixed-use amenities that used to be exclusive to the Domain crowd but are now creeping further out as Austin pricing pushes people down the highway. Red Oak sits in that sweet spot where land is still (relatively) affordable and the drive to Austin is doable if you don't mind the commute.
Progress on the Lockhart site reportedly hit some real milestones recently, which is notable given how many Texas mega-developments get announced with fanfare and then quietly stall for years. This one seems to be threading the needle between ambition and execution — at least for now.
Meanwhile, Seguin is being floated as the next candidate for this kind of treatment. Located about 35 miles east of San Antonio and within reasonable range of Austin's orbit, it fits the profile: affordable land, existing community infrastructure, and a town that probably wouldn't mind the economic activity.
Whether this is the start of a broader strategy to seed mini-cities across Central Texas small towns or just opportunistic development chasing post-pandemic sprawl is still an open question. But if you've got family or friends wondering where to plant roots outside Austin proper, these corridors are worth watching. The map of where 'close enough to Austin' starts and ends keeps getting redrawn.