For four years, when someone asked what to do in Allen on a Saturday, the answer started at The Farm. The Hub anchored it, Chicken N Pickle rounded it out, and the boardwalk around West Lake Park did the rest. That answer changed on July 20, when The Hub closed. Six miles east, on the opposite corner of the city, Bravo Park at Sloan Corners was three weeks away from its own grand opening.
The shorthand most residents still use for Allen's amenity story is out of date. There are now two poles, they are being built by different developers with different instincts, and they specialize in different things. If you live here, the practical question for the rest of 2026 is which one earns which weekend.
Two poles, two personalities
Both developments sit at highway interchanges, both call themselves mixed-use, both have pickleball. That is roughly where the similarities end.
| The Farm | Sloan Corners | |
|---|---|---|
| Location | SH 121 & Alma | US 75 & SH 121 |
| Developer | JaRyCo + Johnson family | Billingsley Company |
| Size | 135 acres | ~480 acres, ~$3B at buildout |
| Signature open space | 2.5-acre lake, 16-acre Watters Creek greenbelt | 30-acre wooded park (5 acres open) |
| Anchor amenity now | Chicken N Pickle | Bravo Park |
| What just changed | The Hub closed July 20 | Grand opening Aug. 1 |
| Next up | High 5 Entertainment, Home2 Suites | Mexican Bar Company, City Futsal Allen |
Read left to right and the contrast sharpens. The Farm is a decade into a defined build-out with commercial tenants and townhomes already sold. Sloan Corners is a fresh 480-acre canvas leading with parkland and letting the buildings arrive later.
What actually changed at The Farm in July
The Hub was the reason most Allen residents learned to think of SH 121 and Alma as a destination rather than a commute. When founder Brad Zeitlin confirmed the closure, he noted the venue had welcomed more than half a million visitors during its roughly four years of operation. The site is not going dark for long. A new dining and entertainment venue is set to debut in the space in early 2027, and JaRyCo has described the buyer as a nationally recognized food and entertainment operator with similar facilities around the country, expected to renovate the existing facility and add new dining and entertainment options.
Everything else at The Farm is still moving forward, and quickly. High 5 Entertainment is expected to break ground in the next eight weeks, offering a miniature golf course, bowling, axe throwing, dining options, and an adults-only upper level. Construction on the 124-suite Home2 Suites by Hilton is set to begin in October. Alta Preserve, a 311-unit multifamily project, is expected to welcome residents in July 2027, joining Alta at The Farm and Alta Magnolia as the third phase of Wood Partners residential development on the property. Chicken N Pickle, which opened in May 2025, is doing the heavy lifting as the day-to-day anchor while all of that comes together.
"The exciting new ownership group brings deep expertise and capabilities to the property," Zeitlin said in a LinkedIn post about the Hub transition. "The Hub team expressed deep admiration for the new ownership group."
For residents, the practical translation is this: The Farm remains the walkable-food-and-games pole, but for the next six to nine months, the food side of that equation runs almost entirely through Chicken N Pickle and whatever pop-up programming the developer schedules on the lake and lawn.
What Bravo Park gives you that The Farm doesn't
Sloan Corners is doing something Allen has not seen at this scale before. It is leading with the park.
The City accepted the donation of approximately 9.5 acres of parkland within the Sloan Corners development at U.S. Highway 75 and State Highway 121, adding Bravo Park to Allen's park system, and while the City now owns the land, Sloan Corners will continue to maintain, manage and program the park at its own expense through a perpetual maintenance agreement. That structure is unusual. Sloan Corners will be responsible for all maintenance, operations and programming costs in perpetuity while maintaining the property at or above City park standards, meaning residents gain access to a high-quality park and recreational amenities without creating additional maintenance costs for the City.
What is open right now is the first slice of something much bigger. Bravo Park is a 30-acre signature green space, with 5 acres now open, thoughtfully designed to anchor the Sloan Corners masterplan. The current phase includes four pickleball courts, separate dog park areas for large and small dogs, walking trails winding through mature trees and several pieces of public art. One of those pieces is a statue of a bear reading a book, and the Allen Public Library is inviting individuals to help name it, with name suggestions accepted online through Aug. 31.
The grand opening on Aug. 1 is the event most residents should have on the calendar. Billingsley Company is hosting the celebration from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 785 Bravo Park Drive, with a ribbon-cutting, food trucks, a DJ, lawn games, pickleball and live entertainment, and the first 200 guests will receive a free burger.
Food at Sloan Corners is arriving in phases. Mexican Bar Company is opening an Allen location this summer at the Sloan Corners development. Owner Brian Dunne runs an existing location in Plano on W. Park Blvd., and the Allen restaurant will have a patio overlooking a two-acre pond and multi-acre park, which Dunne called the best location he has had in his 41 years in the business. City Futsal Allen is expected to join later this summer.
Watters Creek is quietly having its own year
The two-pole framing leaves out a third node that has been steady all along, and 2026 is adding to it. The Melting Pot is set to open its newest location at 935 Watters Creek Blvd N. in summer 2026, marking the cheese chain's 94th restaurant in North America and its third in Dallas-Fort Worth. The Allen franchise is run by Tracie and Dan Greene, residents of nearby Lucas transitioning into hospitality after careers in other sectors, with Tracie most recently CFO and part-owner of a marketing agency and Dan bringing experience in HVAC and commercial remodeling.
Two additions worth walking to if you have not yet: Vaqueros Texas Bar-B-Q at Watters Creek Village serves family-inspired favorites from James Beard-nominated Chef Trey Sánchez, honoring recipes from his father's barbecue restaurant, and Bread Winners Café & Bakery is at Watters Creek Village with items like Warm Cinnamon Rolls, Caramel Pecan Rolls, and the Breakfast Club sandwich. Over at The Village at Allen, First Watch is now serving seasonal specialties and classic breakfast favorites, and Paris Baguette is a French-style bakery and coffee shop serving fresh baked goods, sandwiches, salads and Lavazza coffee.
A weekend actually built from the current map
For the next few weekends, this is where the calendar is dense:
- Aug. 1, 11 a.m.–4 p.m. — Bravo Park grand opening at 785 Bravo Park Drive. Ribbon-cutting, food trucks, the free-burger promotion for the first 200 guests.
- Aug. 2 — Toy and collectibles expo at the Courtyard by Marriott Dallas Allen, with more than 130 tables of vintage and modern toys, games, and memorabilia including Hot Wheels, Pokémon cards, action figures, comics, video games, and rare collectibles.
- Aug. 8 — Local authors and bookish vendors at The Grove at The Village at Allen, with food, drinks, and new reads.
- Aug. 15 — Punjabi singer, actor and entertainer Ammy Virk at Credit Union of Texas Event Center.
- Aug. 20 — Plant Bingo at Chicken N Pickle, with more than 10 prize plants and every guest taking home a plant by the end of the night.
- Aug. 31 — Deadline to submit a name for Bravo Park's Reading Bear statue via the Allen Public Library.
- Concerts by the Creek — Live music on the Village Green at Watters Creek Village with patio dining and open-air seating, concerts are free and seating is first-come, first-served.
A version of this weekend that used to run entirely inside The Farm can now stretch across three nodes without repeating itself.
What is coming that changes the map again
Two data points to hold in the back of your mind. Groundbreaking for Katy Trail Ice House Ranch is expected in 2026, according to Community Impact's coverage, arriving at The Ranch development anchored by Hines office buildings. And the successor to The Hub is due back at The Farm in early 2027. By this time next year, Allen's weekend map will have shifted again — probably back toward The Farm, but with Sloan Corners now a permanent second pole rather than a rumor at an intersection.
For residents who have watched Allen grow from an SH 121 exit into a genuine destination, the useful frame is not which project wins. It is that the city now has enough concurrent projects that no single closure or opening rewrites the whole story. That is a mature amenity market.
If you are thinking about how any of this affects your own street, your home's position relative to these amenity nodes, or a move within Allen or into it, the team at TLC Realty TX works these corridors every week and is happy to talk through what is shifting. Request a personalized consultation when the timing feels right.
