The Home Depot, Academy Sports + Outdoors and Costco Wholesale all opened on South Preston Road in late August 2026, within about a week of one another. Coverage of those openings treated the week as Celina's retail moment arriving. By that point, though, the stretch of Preston Road near Ownsby Parkway had already been filling in for eight months. The big stores were the last major piece of an errand district that now handles nearly a full day's worth of stops. The one part still missing is the morning, and the dates for that are now on file.

What follows covers what's open, why it showed up in this order, and what's scheduled to open over the next several months.

The Order Things Actually Opened

The corridor sits inside two developments. The Crossing at Moore Farm is marketed and leased by SHOP Companies. The Village at Ownsby Farms is home to Academy, according to the Celina EDC. Here is how 2026 unfolded there, in order:

1. January 23: Lowe's opened at 3540 S. Preston Road, with about 94,000 square feet of retail space and 30,000 square feet of outdoor garden space.
2. March 20: Mo' Bettahs opened at 3505 S. Preston Road.
3. March 24: Pickleman's Gourmet Cafe opened at 3515 S. Preston Road, Suite 100.
4. April 13: PNC Bank opened at 3605 S. Preston Road.
5. April 15: Torchy's Tacos opened at 3505 S. Preston Road, Suite 120.
6. May 29: Panda Express opened at 3530 S. Preston Road.
7. June 23: Bojangles opened at 3615 S. Preston Road.
8. July 7: Chipotle opened its first Celina location at 3520 S. Preston Road.
9. August 19: The Home Depot opened at 3245 S. Preston Road. Its grand opening followed on August 20.
10. Late August: Academy Sports + Outdoors opened at 3525 S. Preston Road. Community Impact reported an August 23 opening, and the Celina EDC lists August 28 as the official date.
11. August 26: Costco Wholesale opened at 3445 S. Preston Road, at the corner of Ownsby Parkway, with a gas station on site.

Most of that activity sits in the 3500 block. Academy, Lowe's, Torchy's, Mo' Bettahs, Pickleman's, Panda Express and Chipotle all have addresses between 3505 and 3540 S. Preston. The Home Depot sits to the south, at 3245, and Costco is in between at 3445. A stop at Lowe's and lunch at Torchy's are a few address numbers apart, which is why the corridor already worked as a single errand trip before the August openings.

The Road Went In Before Any of It

The sequence started with pavement. In 2022, the City of Celina signed an agreement with Costco that included commitments for infrastructure improvements. The Celina EDC describes building and expanding Ownsby Parkway as the critical piece supporting Costco "and future commercial development along the Preston Road corridor." Ownsby was built out to six lanes. Utility relocation added three months and $140,274 to the project, and the city reported construction complete in January 2025.

That's nearly 20 months between a finished road and an open Costco. The quick-service restaurants and Lowe's got there first. The EDC frames its infrastructure spending in exactly those terms, saying the investments were "intended not only to support one retailer, but also to help create an environment where additional commercial development could follow."

The financial reasoning is stated plainly. According to the EDC, Celina residents have historically traveled to nearby communities for much of their shopping. Bringing big retailers home captures those purchases locally and builds the city's sales tax base, which in turn supports city services. The incentives behind that strategy were negotiated store by store:

• The Home Depot: a Chapter 380 agreement approved in December 2024 provides up to $1.4 million in sales tax grants over 10 years, split between the city and the Celina Economic Development Corporation. At the time, the city projected it would earn back the investment in five years.
• Lowe's: a performance-based agreement approved in September 2024 caps reimbursement at $1.8 million, also split between the CEDC and the city.
• Costco: the 2022 agreement, which included infrastructure commitments. The EDC says it put funding toward the related public improvements.

Two Home-Improvement Stores on One Stretch of Road

Until this year, Celina had no big home-improvement store. Since August it has had two on the same corridor, Lowe's at 3540 and The Home Depot at 3245. Both were recruited with incentives, and they opened seven months apart.

The Home Depot's store manager offered one explanation for why a growing city can support both. Rachel Sutton, who started at the company 18 years ago as a part-time cashier, now oversees 149 associates in Celina, 124 of them new to The Home Depot. She told Community Impact she expects a mix of do-it-yourself shoppers and professional contractors.

"There's a lot of growth in this area, and so we do believe that the pro part of our business will be huge at this store."

Lowe's made a similar pitch when it announced the Celina store. It said it chose the city because Celina is among the fastest-growing cities in the U.S., and it highlighted self-service paint kiosks and Buy Online Pick Up In-Store zones. With active homebuilding nearby, both stores are betting on contractors as much as on weekend projects.

For a homeowner, the practical change is distance. A paint match, a replacement filter or a pallet of mulch is now a South Preston errand. The same goes for the other two anchors. Costco covers groceries, pharmacy and automotive services in a warehouse of about 158,000 square feet. Academy's roughly 64,000-square-foot store carries youth and team sports gear, including what the EDC calls Bobcat sporting gear.

The Missing Piece Is the Morning

Look at what's open and a pattern shows. Tacos and queso at Torchy's, handmade sandwiches and pizzas at Pickleman's, Chinese at Panda Express, fried chicken at Bojangles, and Chipotle's counter-service menu: the 2026 restaurant openings are almost all quick-service lunch and dinner concepts. The two projects aimed most directly at mornings, a dedicated coffee bar and a breakfast-and-lunch restaurant, are still in progress. Here is what has been filed or reported:

The Firehouse Subs and Luna Grill dates come from Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation project filings. You can look them up through the state's TDLR project search, which makes them more dependable than marketing timelines. Black Rock's timeline has already slipped once. A January 2024 announcement targeted summer 2025. Brunch Factory, described by Community Impact in September 2026 as a planned breakfast-and-lunch restaurant in the Celina West development, is targeting spring 2027. That matches its state filing.

In the meantime, 1418 Coffee opened in late July farther up the road at 565 S. Preston Road, Suite 100, serving coffee and pastries. Its Celina Chamber ribbon cutting is scheduled for October 27, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Blaze Pizza was announced in 2025 for 3515 S. Preston Road, Suite 130, with a 2026 target. The state's newer filing for that same suite belongs to Luna Grill.

The Roads That Shape the Next Round

SHOP Companies' leasing page expects the high-volume anchors to bring more traffic to Preston and Ownsby, though it gives no traffic counts. Two road projects will decide how people reach the corridor from outside Celina.

The NTTA's Dallas North Tollway Phase 4A extends 13.7 miles north from US 380 to FM 428 and is scheduled to open in late 2027. Phase 4B, from FM 428 toward the Grayson County line, has no opening date. Frontier Parkway is planned as a four-lane concrete road from Preston Road to Custer Road, with sidewalks and underground drainage. As of May 2026, its plans were 60% complete and had been sent to TxDOT, where they were waiting on funding with no timeline set.

Lowe's is a useful reminder of how these schedules move. In 2024 its Celina store was projected for spring 2027, and it opened on January 23, 2026, more than a year early. Black Rock's coffee bar went the other way and is now well past its original target.

If you're weighing a home near this stretch of Preston Road, or wondering how the new corridor might affect a sale you're planning, the team at Patton International Properties watches Celina's openings and road projects closely and is glad to talk through what they mean for your own address. Let's Connect.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.