Nearly five years after developers bought the old feed and supply site at 210 S. Castell Ave. in downtown New Braunfels, the 2.46-acre property remains largely untouched, and the team behind the planned Co-Op Marketplace is now asking the city for five more years to finish the job. The New Braunfels Economic Development Corp. considered a five-year extension to the project's performance deadlines during a meeting on September 15, though the item was for discussion only and will come back before the board at a future meeting.
The stalled timeline has been building for a while. As Community Impact reports, project sponsors cited tenancy issues, project redesigns, and rising capital and construction costs as the reasons behind the request. If approved, the extension would push the deadline for completing public improvements from December 31, 2026, to December 31, 2031. Jeff Jewell said no incentives have been paid out to the project so far, according to the same report.
The delay has been visible on the ground for months. Reporting from MySA in January found that no visible construction had begun at the site, with only lease signs and renderings posted on the 2.5-acre property, despite earlier plans that had targeted a 2023 construction start and a 2024 opening.
A Redesigned Floor Plan Sends Plans Back Through Permitting
Part of the delay traces back to the drawing board. Developers redesigned the market floor, a change that required a second pass through the city's permitting process, per the Community Impact report. Mike Myers, one of the Co-Op Marketplace project investors, said the original layout allocated significant public market ground-floor space to storage and back-of-house functions rather than space the public could actually use.
To fix that, developers added a mezzanine and moved storage upstairs, freeing up the ground floor to convert into leasable, publicly accessible market space. The project has also stuck to a self-imposed rule of excluding national and chain tenants, a restriction that developers say has made tenant recruitment slower but more selective. Hopper Bar has no tenant, and an operator is still being sought.
The Site's Deep Agricultural Roots
The property has a long history tied to the region's agricultural economy. It became Producer's Co-Op Feed & Supply in 1945 and served as the site's active feed and supply hub until 2021, according to background compiled by the Co-Op Marketplace. That same year, new owners purchased the site and announced plans to rehabilitate the historic buildings into a mixed-use development.
The project is associated with Chris Snider, son of the late downtown champion Ron Snider, as well as Myers and developer Fred Heimer, according to reporting from CultureMap. The Snider family also operates Krause's Cafe + Biergarten nearby. San Antonio-based Mogas + Gonzalez Architects is assisting with the development, and plans call for converting a 65-foot-tall grain silo into a landmark entrance, preserving the site's industrial character rather than demolishing it.
What The $4.5 Million Incentive Deal Requires
The New Braunfels City Council approved the $4.5 million incentive agreement in 2024, tying the funding to a list of required public improvements. Those include a public lawn, a splash pad, a stage, exhibition space, restrooms, and pedestrian connections, all of which the development is designed to include on more than one acre of open-air space. Public amenity plans posted by the Co-Op Marketplace also describe 4,000 square feet of artificial turf and shade structures intended to make the pavilion a permanent host site for the New Braunfels Farmers' Market.
The overall project is being built in phases; MySA reported in December 2024 that Phase II of the Pearl-style development carried an estimated budget of $3.5 million on its own. The site is also intertwined with the city's broader ambitions for the corridor. It borders municipal properties governed by New Braunfels' 2018 South Castell Visioning Plan, an initiative aimed at redeveloping surrounding blocks with civic center updates, hotels, multi-family housing, and improved pedestrian boulevards, with South Castell Avenue designated as a key catalyst zone for downtown growth.
The stakes around the timeline are heightened by how fast New Braunfels itself is growing. U.S. Census Bureau estimates reported by Hoodline in August showed the city's population surged 35.5% from 2020 to mid-2025, reaching 122,492 residents. That growth is fueling pressure on the city to expand downtown retail and public gathering space, which is precisely what the Co-Op Marketplace was designed to help deliver when developers first pitched a plan to accommodate 20-30 independent retail and food vendors.
For now, the extension request remains unresolved. The New Braunfels Economic Development Corp. is expected to reconsider the five-year extension at a future meeting, leaving the project's public amenities, and the $4.5 million in incentive money attached to them, in limbo until board members decide whether to give the development until the end of 2031 to deliver on its downtown promise.
