WOODWAY, Texas – The popular downtown Waco food court Union Hall announced this week they would open a second location at 8100 Woodway Drive – the former site of the Backyard and Patio Store.

They settled on the location because they saw a majority of their business coming from families.

“Families like this concept,” Shane Turner of Turner Behringer Real Estate, the company that owns Union Hall, said. “It has so many choices and such a variety that they can come with their two or three kids and everybody gets what they want.”

Turner says one of the reasons the company created the hall was to help locally-owned small businesses. They have been able to thrive in Union Hall, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“One of the biggest obstacles for new restaurants to open is the amount of money to open a restaurant,” Turner said. “With this food hall, it lowers the threshold to get into business.”

Two of those businesses are Po’Boy Place and The Salad Stand, and owner Leo Spann is considering a second location for both at the new hall in Woodway.

“Being able to build our dream to another part of this town that has been so supportive of us would be super awesome,” Spann said.

Union Hall’s owners chose Woodway for expansion not only because the new building has more space than the downtown location, but also because the families they are targeting will be able to visit more often, as it is close to home.

“Here, we average about one and a half to two visits a month,” Turner said. “If you look at restaurants in the Woodway area, most of the successful restaurants out there are getting about six visits per month, and those are the families out there that are going to those restaurants more frequently.”

Turner estimates the new location will be open in ten to twelve months.