On the morning of Wednesday, September 9, the second person in line outside the new Barnes & Noble at Huebner Oaks had been there since about 7 a.m., MySA reported. The doors opened at 10. A shopping center that MySA had once described as having slipped after La Cantera's boom in 2005 now draws a line before breakfast.
For Elm Creek households in 78230, Huebner Oaks is the big retail stop at I-10 and Huebner Road, and the 2026 version runs differently than it did a year ago. The comeback was built on the center's largest spaces: an empty Bed Bath & Beyond, the old Gap and the California Pizza Kitchen pad. One of those spaces ended up with a different tenant than the landlord's own plan showed.
Four Former Tenants, Four New Names
MySA's coverage this year adds up to a simple swap sheet:
| Space before | Tenant now | Opened |
|---|---|---|
| Bed Bath & Beyond, first half | Trader Joe's | Tuesday, November 4, 2025 |
| Bed Bath & Beyond, second half | Barnes & Noble, Suite 750 | Wednesday, September 9, 2026 |
| The Gap | Piada Italian Street Food | Late August 2026 |
| California Pizza Kitchen | Hot Spot 61, Suite 418 | Soft opening in September 2026 |
Splitting the bed-and-bath box made the biggest difference. Trader Joe's opened in November 2025 to long lines, and Barnes & Noble took the rest of the space, so one end of the center became what MySA called "a popular corner of the shopping center." The bookstore takes up 20,000 square feet with books, toys, games, magazines and a Barnes & Noble Café. It's the chain's sixth San Antonio store, joining The Shops at La Cantera, Northwoods, Alamo Ranch, San Pedro Crossing and Ingram Festival. The store was first set to open August 19 and opened three weeks later.
Piada sits at the end of that same strip, according to MySA's opening-day report. It's the Italian fast-casual chain's first San Antonio location, and MySA described the menu as quick pasta, wraps and lighter bowls, "essentially, Italian burritos with pasta inside." The grand opening was announced for Tuesday, August 25, at 11745 I-10.
Grocery, books and a lunch counter now sit side by side. That gives one parking stop more errands than the center offered a few years ago. Early Bird Coffee, which opened in 2022, and an Ulta store were already part of the mix.
The Hot Pot Restaurant That Wasn't on the Plan
Across the parking lot, the old California Pizza Kitchen space has a backstory that's easy to miss. In February, MySA reported that a state filing for the building used the name Hot Spot 61. Kite Realty Group's site plan for Huebner Oaks showed Liuyishou Hot Pot in the same space. Liuyishou was founded in Chongqing, China, in 2000, and the company says it has grown to more than 1,300 locations in places ranging from China and Canada to Dubai, Japan and Spain. At the time, a Kite staffer told MySA that the company had just secured its city permits, would begin construction soon and would likely finish in two or three months.
The sign that went up says Hot Spot 61. By September 8, MySA reported that the restaurant was in its soft opening in Suite 418, with owner Aki Yu.
Many hot pot restaurants have burners built into the tables, so diners cook their own soup as they eat. At Hot Spot 61, ordering goes like this:
- Choose your ingredients first.
- Pay $14.99 per pound, whatever you picked.
- Choose a soup base.
- The kitchen cooks everything in the back and brings the finished pot to your table.
So you don't have to manage a burner, and you set the bill by weight at the counter. If you've wanted to try hot pot without the tableside routine, this is an easier way in.
The center's Hot Spot 61 listing shows Tuesday through Sunday hours of 5 to 10 p.m., closed Mondays, with the phone number 210-290-8007. New restaurants often change their hours in the first few months, so call before you plan dinner around it.
Seven Suites Left, and All of Them Are Small
Here's the number that shows where the revival actually happened. In February, MySA counted seven units still available at Huebner Oaks, based on a Kite Realty brochure. Kite's current Huebner Oaks property page also lists seven available retail spaces:
- Suite 3: 1,103 square feet
- Suite 10: 1,198 square feet
- Suite 22: 6,391 square feet
- Suite 30: 2,223 square feet
- Suite 33b: 1,822 square feet
- Suite 44: 1,142 square feet
- Suite 48: 3,917 square feet
Together they come to roughly 17,800 square feet. The new Barnes & Noble alone covers 20,000. Every open suite at the center put together is smaller than the bookstore that opened in September. The biggest one, Suite 22, is about a third of that size, and four of the seven are around 1,800 square feet or less.
The big spaces that defined the old Huebner Oaks have been filled. What's left is room for a boutique, a service counter or a small café. Whatever goes into those suites next will change the details of a stop rather than the reason for making it. Trader Joe's, Barnes & Noble and the two new restaurants now set the center's traffic.
Compare that with the tenant list MySA used to show how far Huebner Oaks had drifted. In the early 2000s it was the back-to-school stop, home to Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle and Old Navy. By 2026 the lineup had shifted to Ross, Talbots, Chico's, Ann Taylor and Eddie Bauer. This year's openings didn't bring back that mall. They gave the center destination tenants that pull people in for errands they would have run somewhere anyway.
Planning a Weekend Stop Around It
Of the new arrivals, Barnes & Noble is the one most likely to have a reason to visit on a particular day. The Huebner Oaks store, number 3599 in the chain's system, posts storytimes and other events on its store events calendar. As of early November, that calendar had events on Saturday, November 14, and Saturday, November 21, plus Friday, December 4, and Saturday, December 5. Check the calendar before you go, since event names and times show up there as they're posted.
From there, the rest of a weekend loop is easy to piece together:
- Morning: Early Bird Coffee, which has been at Huebner Oaks since 2022.
- Midday: Barnes & Noble for the calendar event, then Trader Joe's next door for the week's groceries.
- Lunch: Piada at the end of the same strip.
- Dinner: Hot Spot 61 across the lot, after confirming the evening hours by phone.
All of it is at one address, 11745 I-10, and most of it is in the corner that used to be a single empty box.
At Evoke Realty, we track the openings, swaps and empty suites at the centers Elm Creek households use for everyday errands, because those details are part of what living somewhere is like. If you'd like to know how the Huebner Oaks changes fit with the rest of the 78230 picture, reach out and we'll walk you through it. Contact Us.
