Mike Copeland: Splendid Oaks; new Common Grounds; marinas

Splendid Oaks Chocolates owner Kevin DeVries prepares a tray of candies last year in his shop at 11th Street and Franklin Avenue. Splendid Oaks is opening a second location at 135 Estates Drive where it will start making its own ice cream.

Splendid Oaks Chocolates, 11th Street and Franklin Avenue downtown, makes chocolate candy the old-fashioned way: by hand. Some might describe owner Kevin DeVries’ creations as delicious artwork. The Baylor University graduate has seen Splendid Oaks arrive, strive and thrive since launching in 2018 and opening the downtown store in 2020. He now will open a second shop to make ice cream.

The shop has sold Graeter’s Ice Cream, a brand from Ohio, as a cold alternative to its artisan chocolates. But now a shop at 135 Estates Drive in Woodway will take the lead. DeVries said it opens this week.

“The opportunity came up and it was just too good of a spot to pass on,” DeVries said by email. “It also opened up the opportunity to begin making our own ice cream. … Rather than using a neutral base to make all of our flavors from, we are developing each recipe from scratch. There are not many places in the industry that do it this way because it’s a lot more work and you cannot achieve the same efficiency in production that way.

“But I believe it will help us to have a superior product and give us more flexibility in the types of flavors that we want to do.”

He said the chocolates at Splendid Oaks have been successful “because we use the absolute best ingredients, a high attention to details, and we pursue excellence in every step of the process without ever cutting corners. We are taking that approach to our ice cream development and so far the results are delicious.”

He said he faced a learning curve applying his chocolate knowledge to ice cream development but was surprised how much of his chocolate experience translates over. The flavor lineup will constantly change as the public, hopefully, warms to his ice cream, he said.

Logistical challenges no doubt loom as DeVries delivers chocolate candy to his Estates Drive location and ice cream to downtown Waco.

But he expressed confidence in finding a sweet solution.

A whopping number of interesting building permits were issued the past couple weeks, including one valued at $350,000 to remodel the former Whataburger A-frame building at 3401 Franklin Ave. that more recently served as a used car dealership. Blake Batson will open another Common Grounds coffee shop there sometime this fall, he told the Tribune-Herald.

Blake Batson talks about Common Grounds, the well-known coffee shop on South Eighth Street practically hugging the Baylor University campus, as he and his wife, Kimberly, prepare to open their fifth location at 3401 Franklin Ave., in a former Whataburger-turned-used car dealership.

Meanwhile, a permit modestly valued at $50,000 will allow finish-out work at 8100 Woodway Drive, where Todd Behringer plans a Union Grove food hall to complement Union Hall at Eighth Street and Franklin Avenue downtown.

Club Car Wash has secured a $50,000 permit for alterations to the Genie Car Wash location at 916 N. Valley Mills Drive.

A $500,000 permit will cover alterations to two spaces at Central Texas Marketplace, accommodating Buckle, a clothing retailer relocating from Richland Mall.

Graphic Packaging International, a Georgia-based company placing a $1 billion paper recycling mill in Waco, secured a permit valued at $20 million to erect a “paper machine building” at 2601 Gateway Blvd.

Holt Cat, meanwhile, continues to build at 2000 Texas Central Parkway, where it operates a repair and maintenance facility for Caterpillar heavy equipment. It now will spend $850,000 on a storage unit.

Last week in this space we reported The Cove, a 55-acre marina on Lake Waco, had hit the market priced at $2.5 million. Marketing material says “it is one of the larger and shallower ramps on Lake Waco,” and at one time boasted more than 100 slips, a restaurant, fuel dock, and a 15-slip RV park. Now it is operating as a marina only with 34 wet slips.

Well, real estate agent David du Menil with the Intrepid Group sent an email saying he not only is listing The Cove but also Lake Waco Marina and RV Park. It is priced at $8.25 million and offers 201 wet slips out of 457 entitled slips, 86 RV spots, and a floating restaurant undergoing renovation.

Gatesville is getting the Nextlink treatment, according to a press release. The Texas-based company said it has completed the first phase of its citywide fiber build, meaning fiber internet service is now live and available on the east side of town to almost 100 homes south of Highway 84 and east of Highway 36.

“Soon about 200 homes north of U.S. 84 and the west of Highway 36 will go live as well,” the press release says. “The entire build-out will expand to over 2,600 homes and businesses over the coming weeks.”

The company was founded in 2012 in Hudson Oaks, near Weatherford, and calls itself a rural-focused provider of high-speed internet and phone services, with plans to invest more than $1 billion in unserved and underserved communities. The press release says the company has almost 100,000 subscribers in seven states.

Richland Mall is losing Buckle to Central Texas Marketplace, but mall spokesperson Brad King said progress is being made on replacements.

He said JD Sports will take 5,227 square feet in the mall’s center court. The British company is a retailer of sneakers and sports apparel.

“The other shop I can’t divulge just yet,” King said by email.

Chase is opening its third bank branch in Greater Waco, at 720 S. Fifth St., near Interstate 35, and will host a ceremony there at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to a press release.

“Our city is thriving, and we’re excited to open this new location to serve the campus community, as well as Waco’s southern and eastern neighborhoods,” branch manager John Bauer said in the press release, referring to the branch’s proximity to Baylor University just across the interstate.

The press release says Chase is the largest bank in Texas, with 495 branches, 30,000 employees and an 18% market share statewide.

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