Drive north on Preston Road at seven on a Friday and you'll pass a Chipotlane pickup line, a Torchy's patio, and the framing for a Bojangles. Turn east into town ten minutes later and you'll find the same neighbors you saw at the drive-thru now standing on brick pavers under string lights, buying peach jam from a farmer they know by first name. Celina isn't one downtown anymore. It's growing two, and August 2026 is the month the split becomes hard to miss.
For anyone who's lived here since the last H-E-B groundbreaking, this is the useful frame for the next four weeks. Preston Road is where the national brands land. The Square is where the town keeps being itself. Both are worth your calendar.
The Preston corridor did most of its opening while you weren't looking
If it feels like every commute now passes a soft-open sign, that's because it does. Four national restaurants have opened along South Preston in the last five months, and one big-box anchor is a few weeks out.
| What | Where | When |
|---|---|---|
| Torchy's Tacos | 3505 S. Preston Rd., Ste. 120 | Opened April 15, 2026 |
| Mo' Bettahs | Celina (Preston corridor) | Opened March 2026 |
| Chipotle (Chipotlane) | 3520 S. Preston Rd. | Opened July 7, 2026 |
| Bojangles | 3615 S. Preston Rd. | Summer 2026 |
| Costco | Preston corridor | August 26, 2026 |
The Chipotle location is worth a closer look because it tells you what the rest of the corridor is going to look like. It sits inside the Crossing at Moore Farm, a 37-acre mixed-use development at the southeast corner of Preston and Ownsby that anchors what the developer calls the southern gateway of Celina. The Chipotlane pad was purpose-built for the digital pickup lane that defines the brand's suburban model, positioned next to the Lowe's and the coming Costco. In other words, the intersection you drive through without thinking is quietly turning into the retail spine of south Celina.
Torchy's put it plainly in its own opening release, calling Celina one of the fastest-growing communities in North Texas and the country and noting that the Preston store is now the northernmost Torchy's in the chain. That's the shape of the corridor: brands treating Celina as the new edge of DFW's suburban footprint, and pad sites clustering to catch the same drive-time traffic.
The Creeks at Celina is the version of this you'll actually want to sit down at
Not everything on the west side of town is a drive-thru. At the northwest corner of the Dallas North Tollway and Frontier Parkway, Weitzman is finishing a 28,000-square-foot dining and lifestyle district called the Creeks at Celina, designed around a six-acre pond with restaurant end-caps that open onto roughly 900-square-foot waterfront patios. The developer's language for it is a "social porch" for west Celina, positioned as a daily-needs hub for Light Farms and Sutton Fields and a half-mile east of the new H-E-B.
The first two anchors say a lot about who the district is for. Haraz Coffee House brings a Yemeni coffee program that has been drawing a following across DFW. Capo's Pizza & Pasta gives the district a sit-down Italian option that Preston Road's pad sites can't match. If you've been driving to Frisco for a real evening out, that pattern is about to change.
What actually fills the Square in August
Preston is where the openings happen. The Square is where the town shows up. The city's own event calendar counts more than 25 special events a year on the Downtown Square, drawing over 100,000 attendees in aggregate, and August is one of the busier months.
Two dates locals should have in their phones:
- Friday, August 7 — Celina Friday Night Market. Six to nine on the Downtown Square. Live music, local farmers, cottage bakers, artisans. It's the version of a farmers market where you actually see your neighbors.
- Friday, August 21 — Movie Night at Old Celina Park. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie starts at seven. Bring a blanket.
Both events are free. Both are the kind of thing that doesn't show up in a relocation brochure because they don't scale. That's the point. This is what a Friday night looks like when the town is still small enough to walk.
The Friday Night Market repeats on October 9 and November 6, which matters if August's forecast pushes you indoors. The Square keeps a steady rhythm all fall.
August 26 is going to be a strange day
Circle it. Celina Watch, the independent permit tracker that monitors commercial builds in town, has verified an August 26, 2026 opening date for the new Costco, with the exterior complete, permanent signage installed, and interior stocking underway.
Costco opening days in growth suburbs tend to produce a specific pattern. Traffic on Preston backs up past the intersections that feed the school zones. The Chipotlane line spills into the parking aisle. The Torchy's patio fills by eleven. If you have a Saturday errand that requires being anywhere near Preston Road that morning, plan around it. If you were going to try Haraz or Capo's at the Creeks for the first time, that's the day to do it. The tollway side of town will be quiet.
Two years ago, "downtown Celina" meant one place. This month, it means two, and they serve entirely different purposes.
Looking past Labor Day, because you're going to want to
The Square doesn't slow down in the fall. A few dates worth blocking now:
- Saturday, October 3 — Celina Oktoberfest, on the Downtown Square. The city runs a proper keg tapping, a Dachshund Derby, and a brat-eating contest.
- Saturday, October 24 — Beware! of the Square. Celina bills itself as the Halloween Capital of North Texas, and this is the reason. Trick-or-treating, a haunted house, and a pumpkin decorating contest.
- Wednesday, December 2 — Christmas on the Square. Tree lighting, parade, and the start of a month of holiday programming.
If you're new to town, put Oktoberfest at the top of the list. It's the event that will introduce you to the largest cross-section of your neighbors in one afternoon.
Two more openings to keep on the radar
A couple of restaurants in the pipeline are worth watching if you like knowing what's next:
- Thai 360, opening near the Prosper-Celina border. Red curry, chicken satay, Thai noodles.
- Desi District, an Indian restaurant and grocery combination that had been targeting an early 2026 opening. A grocery-plus-restaurant format is genuinely new for Celina and worth a first visit.
Neither has firmed up a public opening date at the time of writing, so treat these as bookmarks rather than plans.
The useful takeaway for people who already live here
The shorthand version of the next month looks like this. If you want convenience and a national menu you already know, the Preston corridor between Ownsby and Frontier is your side of town, and the Costco opening will make it the busiest stretch of road in Collin County the last Wednesday of August. If you want a slower evening with better coffee, better pizza, and a patio that isn't in a drive-thru's shadow, the Creeks at Celina and the Downtown Square are the answer, and the Friday Night Market on August 7 is the easiest way in.
Celina is going to keep splitting into these two social geographies as the population keeps growing. Knowing which side of town to point out-of-town guests toward is a small but real skill, and it starts with knowing where the openings are landing this year.
At The Bracchi Group, we spend a lot of time in both halves of Celina, whether we're helping longtime residents think through what a growing corridor means for their home's value or introducing new arrivals to the Square. If you'd like to talk through what any of this means for your household's plans, we'd love to hear from you. Contact Us.
