Potbelly Sandwich Works is now open in Hutto.

The gist: The fast-casual restaurant serves sandwiches, wraps and salads. Sandwich options include a prime rib steak, sweet heat pork bbq, Italian, veggie melt, chicken salad and more. Customers will also find chili, macaroni and cheese, chicken pot pie, broccoli cheddar soup and garden vegetable soup.

The sandwich shop is the latest business to move to the Townwest Commons shopping center, where Hooky Entertainment, Amy’s Ice Creams and Bites & Basil also recently opened.

• Opened May 5

Smiling Donuts opened a second location in Pflugerville on Wells Branch Parkway on May 1.

The gist: The shop sells doughnuts, kolaches, croissants, biscuits and breakfast tacos. Customers will also find milk tea, slushies and smoothies. The store has two other locations, one in Pflugerville on Grand Avenue Parkway, and one in Hutto.

• Opened May 1

From a Moxies in the Domain to a new business park in Georgetown, here are five of the most expensive projects filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation in the Austin metro this week.

1. Moxies ($7 million): A new Moxies location is coming to the Domain, with construction set to begin in July. 

2. Austin Ridge Bible Church ($7 million): Austin Ridge purchased the Great Hills Baptist Church facility and are working on plans for renovation.

3. Mason Phase 2 ($5 million): This project includes improvements to a single family subdivision, covering 32,000 square feet.

4. Decker Lane site work ($4.5 million): This project includes work on Decker Industrial Park for five buildings, and associated connecting roads and utilities around the building.

5. Bell Gin Business Park ($3.72 million): The project consists of constructing five 7,200-square-foot shell buildings and two 10,800-square-foot buildings for commercial office and warehouse use.

The city of Round Rock held grand openings for new recreation facilities in April. 

What you need to know: The new Joanne Land Playground, tennis and pickleball courts in Old Settlers Park are now open, with the city having held celebrations to present these new facilities to the community April 25. 

The $1.8 million project is funded through a 2023 voter-approved bond. WeBuildFun, which installed the original Joanne Land Playground in 2016, is installing the new version. The tennis and pickleball complex, which opened to the public in March, cost $17 million to build. It was also funded through the 2023 voter-approved parks bond. 

The overview: The play structure is twice the size of the original playground and will feature integrated lighting to allow for visitors after dark. It also includes rubber surfacing and plastic components designed to minimize heat absorption, according to the city. 

More than 53,000 students will be invited to join Texas’ education savings account program this week, the state comptroller’s office said May 4.

The details: Families will be notified by email between May 4-6 if they were awarded funds in the second round of the Texas Education Freedom Accounts program, per a news release from the comptroller’s office.

To date, nearly 96,000 students have been selected to participate, with these students set to receive about $820 million of the $1 billion state lawmakers allocated for the program, an agency spokesperson said. Of the 53,000 second-round awardees, over 51,000 are from low-income families. The other 2,000 students accepted this week were found to qualify for disability-related funding, the agency said.

The background: Families accepted to the TEFA program will receive state funds to send their children to private schools or homeschool them for the 2026-27 school year.

Proponents of the new program have said it will expand educational opportunities, while critics have expressed concerns that the program will unfairly benefit students already enrolled in private schools.