Pecan St. Station Deli & Grill will close Oct. 11 after 26 years in business. 

The details: Brian Hernandez became the owner of Pecan St. Station in July, taking over for Paul Prestridge, who decided to retire. Hernandez worked at the deli for 18 years previously. 

According to a post on Facebook, Hernandez purchased the business without owning the building, which he stated was “a risk.” The building is currently up for sale.

Hernandez said in the post his goal “was to keep the restaurant running, keep our employees working, and continue serving the customers and community who have supported us for so long.”

Looking ahead: Hernandez told Community Impact he hopes to relocate. 

“It’s definitely something we’re thinking about, but this all happened all at once,” Hernandez said. “The news came on Saturday for us, that our last day would be the 11th.”

Hernandez is also opening a restaurant in Round Rock soon. 

• 1005 W. Pecan St., Pflugerville

More homes sold year over year in August in Hutto, but they sat on the market longer, according to data from Unlock MLS. The opposite trend was observed in Pflugerville.

A data center in Hutto, additions to the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter and a Dick’s Sporting Goods in Bastrop are among the five most expensive projects filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation in the Austin metro this week.

1. Skybox Hutto 4 ($550 million): This project involves site improvements and construction of a new core and shell building with a future use as a data center.

2. Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter addition ($14 million): New additions are coming to the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter, including first floor kennels second floor office space.

3. Menchaca Apartments ($13 million): This project involves the construction of a clubhouse for apartments in Austin.

4. Dick's Sporting Goods ($11 million): A 55,000-square-foot store is coming to Bastrop.

5. Gringo's Tex-Mex ($5 million): The Tex-Mex franchise is coming to Kyle.

Austinites will now have access to information on local transportation projects that could impact commutes through a mobile app. City leaders celebrated the official launch of CTXGO on Oct. 1, a new tool from the Construction Partnership Program.

Some context: Participating CPP agencies include the city of Austin, Austin Transit Partnership, CapMetro, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Texas Department of Transportation.

How it works: CTXGO operates as both a free mobile app and website. Users can select from a variety of map layers to see real-time roadway information, including traffic congestion, incidents such as stalled or abandoned vehicles, and what electronic roadway message signs are currently displaying such as estimated travel times. The work zone map displays lane closures with expected start and end dates and times.

The local impact: Austin Mobility officials said more than $20 billion in transportation and infrastructure projects across multiple agencies are planned in Central Texas over the next several years.

The average annual insurance premium for a Texas homeowner rose 79% in six years, from less than $2,000 in 2020 to more than $3,500 this year, Texas Insurance Commissioner Amanda Crawford told state lawmakers Oct. 5.

The overview: The rise in home insurance costs has been caused by severe weather, high inflationary costs impacting home repairs and "the concentration of risk" in the insurance market, Crawford said.

Experts said hardening homes against severe weather could help reduce expensive losses from disasters, resulting in lower insurance premiums.

Zooming in: Proponents of home-hardening incentives have pointed to their success in other Gulf Coast states, such as Alabama. Texas consumer advocacy groups and the insurance industry backed proposals to create a similar grant program last year, according to previous Community Impact reporting, but those measures did not pass.

"Resilience helps homeowners long before it shows up in an insurance bill because a stronger home holds up better when the storm comes," said Chelsea Stallings, a regional vice president for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies.