Sales taxes put about $2.8 million in city coffers annually, and Hewitt has relied exclusively on its day-to-day operating budget to make capital improvements to infrastructure, Thomas said.
“We have way more projects on the list than we have funding sources,” he said.
Commerce Park at I-35 and Alliance Parkway has become a drawing card, its 143 acres developed to create a setting suitable for industrial and commercial growth. Atwoods took almost 9 acres there, said real estate agent Pat Farrar, who marketed the site with colleague Raynor Campbell.
Farrar said negotiations with Atwoods lasted longer than a year.
At 63,000 square feet, Hewitt’s Atwoods location will boast about 12,000 more square feet than the 51,721-square-foot version in Lacy Lakeview, according to information provided by the McLennan County Appraisal District.
A manager at the Atwoods in Lacy Lakeview, who did not want to give her name as she is not a spokesperson, said stores employ about 50 people.
Thomas said the store will draw people in.
“It’s a farm and ranch store, meaning it will serve a lot of folks beyond the city of Hewitt, much as Walmart has,” Thomas said. “We’ll have additional traffic in the community shopping at that particular store.”
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