Retail and Pad-Site Construction at Hillside and Bell Street

Dirt, curb cuts and a utility letter come before any wall goes up on a Bell Street pad, and the owners who open on time are the ones who settled those three items first. We build retail pads, small shop buildings, restaurants and neighborhood office space around Hillside Road and Bell Street in southwest Amarillo, and we run the early site work as carefully as the shell, because it decides the tenant's opening date.

The corridor mixes old and new retail. A JLL report from February 2020 on the sale of Westgate Mall described a 511,566 square foot enclosed regional mall on 93.7 acres, built in 1982 and last renovated in 2017, about 80 percent leased at that time, with Dillard's and Beall's among its tenants. Elsewhere on the corridor, a KFDA report from November 2018 described Greenways Village near Hillside and Coulter, with 15,000 square feet of retail and 33,000 square feet of office around a planned 5-acre park, and a Chicken Express planned on Bell Street near Hillside.

Those items are a few years old and we use them as context, not as a current leasing report. What they show is a corridor where a big box, a small strip and a drive-through restaurant all compete for the same traffic, and where a builder has to be fluent in each format.

The most important public fact for a retail owner here is road work. The Ports to Plains Alliance lists the Loop 335 and I-27 Interchange Phase II, extending from I-27 to Bell Street in Amarillo, as a new roadway project programmed for fiscal years 2026 to 2029 at $29.1 million, with construction expected to begin by 2027 and Loop 335 described as Amarillo's primary reliever route. A reliever route changes where drivers choose to shop, and a retail pad's value follows the traffic.

That has two implications. First, a pad purchased today may have different frontage or access in three years, so we read the road plans before we draw the driveway. Second, construction itself can disrupt a shopping center; a tenant that opens during roadwork needs clear signs and a safe path. We build those into the site plan, and our Ports to Plains and I-27 corridor page explains the larger program.

Retail work divides into three packages. A pad site is a single building, often for a restaurant or a bank, with its own parking, drainage and utility service. A strip center is a shell with demising walls, storefronts and a shared parking field, delivered to tenants in white-box or vanilla condition. An existing center is a series of tenant improvements, where each store is finished on its own schedule. We price each package separately and describe the options on our retail shopping center construction page.

Restaurants are the most demanding tenant, with grease interceptors, hoods, makeup air and walk-in coolers all affecting the structure. Our restaurant construction page explains the process. For owners looking at a former department store or in-line space in an older center, our renovation and adaptive reuse group evaluates structure, roof condition and the code upgrades that come with a change of use.

On a pad site, the order of work is nearly fixed. Survey and geotechnical work come first, then grading and underground utilities, then the building pad, then foundations and the slab. We aim to have the pad and utilities ready while the tenant's plans are finishing review, so vertical work starts the day the permit arrives.

The details we watch are those that tenants forget: where the grease trap sits, which way the roof slopes, how stormwater leaves the lot and whether the driveway meets the city's sight-distance rules. We also ask who maintains shared parking and detention, because a pad sold to a separate owner needs recorded agreements. A short checklist at the start prevents long calls at the end.

For retail, the largest swing is usually the allowance for tenant finishes, followed by site work. Parking, drainage and utility extensions are real costs on a fresh lot, and signage and landscaping are often cut and then restored when the owner sees the rendering. A shell that waits for tenants costs less up front but needs another construction phase later.

Wind and hail also shape budgets. A rooftop unit screen has to resist Panhandle gusts, storefront glass must survive hail, and exterior finishes should not need repainting every few years. Our retail chains page describes how national tenants set their own prototype requirements, which often add cost the developer must plan for. We ask for the tenant's prototype set during preconstruction, compare it with the shell drawings and list every difference before the price is fixed, so the developer is not surprised by a roof curb, a storefront system or a sign blocking that the tenant requires.

Developers build pads on speculation and need a price they can take to a lender. National and regional tenants build to a prototype and need a builder who can read it. Local owners build a single shop and need straight answers. Our commercial real estate developers page covers the first group, and our retail shopping center page covers the building itself.

If your tenant is moving from another side of town, compare this area with downtown Amarillo, where a retail ground floor sits under offices or hotel rooms and the construction logic is different.

Send the lot, the tenant's prototype and the target opening. We will return a site plan, a sequence and a budget with utilities and drainage on their own lines.

How long does a pad site take to open?

After design and permits, the site work usually takes a few weeks and the building takes a few months, depending on the tenant. The longest items are often utility service, tenant equipment and inspections. We start the utility requests first and give a schedule in which each approval has a named owner.

Will the Loop 335 interchange project affect my lot?

Possibly. The Ports to Plains Alliance lists the Loop 335 and I-27 interchange Phase II to Bell Street as programmed for fiscal years 2026 to 2029, with construction expected by 2027. We review current plans before we draw driveways and plan signage for the construction period.

Should I build a shell or finish the tenant space?

A shell with an allowance lets tenants choose their finishes and keeps your first cost lower. A finished space leases faster for some uses and costs more. We price both and show the difference per square foot so you can decide with your broker.

Can an older retail center be repositioned?

Often, yes. A mall or center that was renovated in 2017 and about 80 percent leased in 2020, as the Westgate report described, may be a candidate for splitting large spaces, adding pads or changing uses. We survey the roof, structure and utilities first and then price the partition and code work.

What does a restaurant add to a retail building?

Grease interceptors, a kitchen hood and exhaust, makeup air, gas service and often a larger electrical panel. Walk-in coolers and a trash enclosure also need space. We coordinate those items with the restaurant's equipment package so the building is ready before the fixtures arrive.