Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to show that the council delayed approval of the zoning request.
A zoning change landowners are seeking from the city of Waco would open up options for multifamily development on land running nearly to Kendrick Elementary School from New Road.
The Waco City Council on Tuesday delayed action on a request to rezone tracts covering 52 acres next to and behind the QuikTrip convenience store at 2350 S. New Road. That is near Interstate 35 and a growing concentration of restaurants, convenience stores, hotels and entertainment venues. Along New Road, the land runs from QuikTrip to the Tuscany Ranch apartments completed in 2016.
Waco Plan Commission voted unanimously, 9-0, to recommend that council members approve the zoning changes ownership sought. The council is expected to take up the item at its Feb. 20 meeting, Mayor Dillon Meek said.
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The rezoning would cover four tracts, including a 6.5-acre tract fronting New Road that would become a C-2 community commercial district, meaning it would allow stores, restaurants and other commercial uses dominating the area of New Road near the interstate. In that area can be found IHOP, Hooters, a Pilot Flying J travel center, Northern Tool & Equipment, Spec’s Wines, Spirits & Finer Foods, self-storage buildings and apartments.
Three tracts covering 45.2 acres, and now zoned R-1B single-family residence district, would become R-3C multiple-family residence district. The R-3C designation “is intended to provide for development of multiple-family dwellings in urban locations which have close proximity to centers of employment, major transportation corridors or major educational institutions,” according to Waco’s zoning ordinance.
The land use designation for the area envisions housing ranging from single-family to multi-family, as well as offices. The property lies within the Kendrick Neighborhood Association and is bordered by Kendrick Elementary on the north. The existing Kendrick Elementary School is being demolished to be replaced by a new Kendrick included in a $355 million bond issue.
The 52-acre site is being marketed by Jim Leatherwood, a managing partner and broker at Silver Oak Commercial Realty in Southlake. Leatherwood declined Wednesday to comment on the site but said he was involved in bringing the QuikTrip to New Road next door.
A promotional brochure on the Silver Oak website touts the location specifically and the Waco market generally, mentioning Baylor University, Magnolia Market, Central Texas Marketplace and development along Interstate 35. It also mentions Cinemark Theatre, Topgolf and Main Event, which populate the nearby mixed-use entertainment venue.
McLennan County records show the property in question was bought in 2022 by High Five Trust, which requested the zoning change. High Five’s trustee is listed as Mark Allsup of Fort Worth.
Mark Allsup is the son of Lonnie and Barbara Allsup, who founded the Allsup’s convenience store chain that opened its first Waco location last fall on University Parks Drive. Mark Allsup took over the company from his parents, raised the average store size and the merchandise mix, and in November 2019 agreed to sell the company and its 304 locations to Yesway, a Fort Worth-based convenience store chain now with more than 420 stores in nine states.
Leatherwood confirmed the Mark Allsup involved with High Five is the same Mark Allsup whose name is on the convenience store chain, but said there are no plans for an Allsup’s store on New Road.
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