What's New Around Northlake In 2026: The Openings Locals Are Actually Talking About

For years the joke about Northlake was that you could buy a house before you could buy a gallon of milk without driving to Roanoke or Argyle. The rooftops arrived first. The rinks, restaurants, grocery aisles, and gathering places trailed years behind. That gap is the story of 2026, because this is the year the amenities finally show up on the same corner as the mailbox.

If you already live in Pecan Square, Harvest, Canyon Falls, or The Ridge, this is the shortlist of what has opened, what is about to, and why it matters for a normal Tuesday.

The Anchor: StarCenter Multisport Opened On March 31

The biggest change to daily life in town this spring cost about the price of a mid-sized office tower and sits just east of where I-35W meets Highway 114.

The Dallas Stars and the Town of Northlake unveiled the Children's Health StarCenter Multisport Northlake at a grand opening and ribbon cutting celebration on March 31, 2026. Located at 13850 Chadwick Parkway, the 225,000-square-foot facility features two NHL regulation sheets of ice and eight basketball courts, which can be converted to 16 volleyball courts. It features two NHL-regulation ice rinks, eight basketball courts convertible into 16 volleyball courts, and additional pickleball courts, along with a variety of training and fitness spaces.

The scale is the part that changes weekend logistics. Children's Health StarCenter Multisport Northlake is the 11th StarCenter in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, joining existing facilities in Euless, Farmers Branch, Frisco, Lewisville, Mansfield, McKinney, Plano, Richardson, and Valley Ranch. It is the first of its kind combining ice and multisport capabilities under one roof — and the first StarCenter serving southern Denton County west of I-35W. Before March, a Northlake family with a hockey kid was making the drive to Farmers Branch or Frisco. That drive is over.

The Named Spaces Inside

The facility handed out naming rights to people the community will recognize, not corporate sponsors.

• Northlake Mayor Brian Montini has a rink named after him at the Children's Health StarCenter Multisport Facility in Northlake for his efforts in bringing the center to fruition. One of the ice rinks dons Montini's name as recognition for his hard work in bringing the facility to Northlake. The other rink is named after Joe Nieuwendyk, a former Dallas Stars player and general manager.
• One of the two basketball/volleyball gyms was named after former Argyle basketball star Rhyle McKinney. Despite being born legally deaf, she played on the Argyle varsity basketball team all four years of high school. She made it to the state title all four years and won three state championships. McKinney went on to play collegiately at SMU and Texas Tech.

Food Inside The Building

If you have taken your kid to a hockey rink before, you know the concessions question matters more than the schedule does. The Shark Shack serves concession stand food and a restaurant/bar, The Shark Club, is expected to open in June. Plan on concessions through the spring, a proper sit-down option by summer.

Leagues That Now Meet In Town

The Northlake Future Stars Recreation Volleyball League will run from April 6-June 5, with at least one championship tournament game. The Northlake Future Stars Recreation Basketball League will run from the same dates as volleyball. The facility will serve as the home to TAV Alliance, an elite branch of the nationally-recognized volleyball club. Registration for the Dallas Stars Metro Hockey League covers ages 6U through 18U.

Groceries Are Finally Coming To Harvest Town Center

The second thing that changes daily life in 2026 is boring, which is exactly why it matters. It is a grocery store.

Harvest Town Center sits at the corner of FM 407 and I-35W, immediately outside the Harvest community's gates. The new shopping spot is already home to McDonald's, Chick-fil-A and Chase Bank, and a Tom Thumb grocery store is under construction with plans to open in Spring 2026. Stay tuned for updates as more restaurants and other retail stores sign up for their preferred spots near our award-winning agrihood community.

For residents in Harvest, Pecan Square, and Canyon Falls, this compresses a mid-week errand from a 20-minute round trip to Roanoke or Argyle into a five-minute stop. The everyday consequence of that shift is more meaningful than another sit-down restaurant would be.

The Everyday Restaurant Bench Has Filled In

Northlake Commons on FM 407 has been the town's slow-build restaurant row. A new sports bar and grill and bakery soon will open at Northlake Commons. The building at 1242 FM 407, Northlake, is under construction and will feature nearly 10,000 square feet. About 3,300 square feet is not leased, said Becky Compton, director of marketing and office administration for Office Equity Solutions, based in Southlake. Lambert's Sports Bar and Vanellie's Bake Shop will open at the property. Northlake Cafe operates a few doors down at 1611 Commons Circle.

Beyond the Commons, the local rotation now includes Little Joe's Farmstead, Hilltop Truck Park, Bella Italia Bistro, Tequila Ranch Cocina, Mercantile 1887, and Backporch Drafthouse. Any of them will save you the drive south on 377 for dinner.

A New Middle School Opens This Fall

If your kids are heading into Northwest ISD or Argyle ISD, the calendar item to circle is August. Families in Northlake are served by highly rated Argyle and Northwest ISDs, including 4 elementary schools, a 193-acre Outdoor Learning Center, and a new middle school to open in Fall 2026. Attendance boundaries will shift with the opening, so watch your district communications through July.

Weekend Guests Now Have Somewhere To Stay

The overnight-visitor question used to send in-laws to Grapevine or Denton. The Cambria Hotel and Northlake Conference Center, the Town's first full-service hotel and conference center, recently opened to serve this growing destination. It sits close enough to the StarCenter that traveling tournament teams have somewhere obvious to land, which is part of why the project and the adjacent StarCenter is expected to draw 1.3 million people annually, including residents from Flower Mound, Highland Village and Argyle.

What Is Opening When: The 2026 Cheat Sheet

The Bigger Picture Under All Of This

Two data points, taken together, explain why 2026 feels different than 2024 did.

The first is jobs. Governor Greg Abbott has announced MP Materials will build a rare earth magnet manufacturing campus in our community. This development is set to bring 1,500 jobs, creating new opportunities and boosting the local economy. That announcement, combined with the corporate roster already in town — some of the corporations that call Northlake home are Mainfreight, TreeHouse Foods, Volvo, Schluter Systems, Stanley Black and Decker, Crown Lift Trucks, 3M, Clorox, Incora, Walgreens, and Oldcastle Infrastructure — gives commercial developers a demand curve they can underwrite against.

The second is that the mixed-use footprints inside the master-planned communities are finally filling. Northlake Commons is a commercial component of Harvest on FM 407 and features a square with retail, restaurant, services, and municipal offices. Northlake Crossing at the intersection of Gibbs and Robson Ranch Roads in The Ridge and Pecan Plaza at the intersection of Gibbs Road and FM 407 in Pecan Square are currently under construction.

Pecan Plaza, in particular, is the one Pecan Square residents should track. When that center opens, the pattern of leaving the community to buy anything ends for a large share of the households on that side of town.

What This Changes About A Saturday

A year ago a Saturday in Northlake meant drive out for youth sports, drive out for groceries, drive out for a proper meal, then drive back in to sleep. In 2026 that day compresses. Open skate at StarCenter, lunch at the Shark Shack, grocery run at Tom Thumb, dinner at Lambert's or Northlake Cafe, coffee the next morning at Harvest's farmhouse cafe. The town finally has its own weekend gravity.

That is what has actually shifted this year, and it shows up in small ways: fewer minutes in the car, more familiar faces at the same three or four counters, a rink that has your zip code on the lease.

If you have watched these amenities land and started wondering what your home is worth now that the corner it sits on looks different than it did two years ago, Tiffany West can help you make sense of the numbers. Get Your Instant Home Valuation to see where Northlake's market has moved in step with everything else that has opened here.