10 Things You Didn’t Know About Cedar Park

Whether you live in Cedar Park or just visiting, these 10 things about Cedar Park will surprise you. Let’s jump right in.

One of the Best Small Cities to Live in America

The first thing is that Cedar Park was named in the top 10 of the best small cities to live in by WalletHub in October 2020. It was actually ranked number nine. There were a couple other Texas cities on that list, but Cedar Park slid right in there. There’s been a lot of growth going on all around Austin, as you know, but especially in Cedar Park, which is really interesting because it’s not one of the communities that’s building all the new construction. It’s already done that.

Cedar Park is an established community, but it still continues to grow year after year. So, in 2010, the population increased by 60% from 2000 to 2010, but the most significant jump from consensus numbers was from 1990 to 2000, when the population grew 400%. From about 5,200 people in 1990 to nearly 26,000 in 2000, Cedar Park is seeing a lot of development regarding retail tech, food and beverage, etc.

It’s a cross between the city of Austin and the farmland north of Cedar Park, closer to Leander and Liberty Hill. Cedar Park is a good mix between those two areas. Cedar Park is really great for businesses. It’s an area where people want to move to, and it’s easy to hire good people there. One of the residents said about Cedar Park, it’s pretty much you can be whoever you want to be. You don’t have to be anyone else, and you’ll be welcome here. That is one of the coolest things that I love about Cedar Park.

Thriving Industries

The second remarkable thing about it that you might not have known is that Cedar Park is growing. We just talked about how it’s growing in residents, but it’s also growing as far as the commercial industry that’s going on there. So, leaders of Cedar Park want to position it as a fast-growing tech hotspot, and it’s definitely on its way. We’re going to talk about a few different industries that are growing in Cedar Park.

Three tech startups that are contributing to the growth in Cedar Park. One is called Firefly. They make rockets in Cedar Park. Did you even know that was happening? I had no idea. They are hiring a lot of folks. Another company called HYLIION. They’re a trucking startup company. They actually moved their headquarters from Pennsylvania to Cedar Park because of all the growth and the good hiring that’s going on here.

The third company is called Trestle. They’re a financing tech company, and they help people refinance their auto loans. They have hired a hundred people so far in 2021, and they plan on hiring at least 30 to 40 more by the end of the year.

You’ve probably heard of The Domain. It’s a mixed-use, live, work, play area, apartments, shops, restaurants, businesses, offices, all kinds of stuff there. They’re building some of those outposts all over Austin and the suburbs.

There are two that they’re building in Cedar Park. One is called Indigo Ridge. It’s a 1.5 billion community, and it will be 5 million square feet. So all the same stuff like apartments, restaurants, shops, businesses, offices, all the things that are currently the categories that are in The Domain. That will be an Indigo Ridge, and they have another one going in called Bell District. It’s only 350 million, no big deal, but it will have 16 acres of green space. These two significant developments going on in Cedar Park are going to be adding jobs, adding entertainment, and just overall contributing to the commercial success of the area.

Okay, there is lots of growth going on for food, beverage, and entertainment as well. This one is really cool. I had to look this up and see what it even was. Austin’s first Pickleball restaurant is coming, so there will be three in Austin, but the first one is coming to Cedar Park. It’s called Electric Pickle. It’s a pickleball complex, so pickleball is like a mix of tennis, badminton, and wiffle ball. I think you play it on a tennis court, indoors or outdoors. You can play singles or doubles. It sounds like it’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m super excited about all this stuff coming.

So they’re going to have pickleball courts. They will have two-story restaurants, a patio, and a rooftop bar. They were comparing it to Topgolf if you’ve been to Topgolf. But they said instead of focusing on the golf and the food and beverage being secondary, the food and beverage will be primary. They will focus it more like a food and beverage festival, and then the pickleball will be secondary. So you can play pickleball.

If you can’t tell, I love saying pickleball. It’s the most fun word ever to say. So you can play pickleball while you’re there, but really, it’s just going to be a cool place to hang out, be outdoors, relax, eat some good food, and drink some good beverages. So that is coming to Cedar Park. Also, Jack Allen’s kitchen is like a staple here in Austin. They are opening another location, and they’re going to be moving into Cedar Park. It will be up in that ranch 1890 area where Gold’s Gym, Target, and Office Depot are. That is one of the anchors of Cedar Park.

Round Rock Donuts, so obviously, is typically in Round Rock. They are expanding into Cedar Park. If you come to Austin and don’t have Round Rock Donuts, it’s like you were never even here. Make sure that you get Round Rock donuts when you’re here. Right now, you’re going to have to go to Round Rock, but soon, you’ll be able to get famous Round Rock donuts in Cedar Park, which will be amazing.

Another exciting startup in Cedar Park is called Momentum Extraction. They’re a hemp extraction startup company. They are starting in Cedar Park. They’re setting up shop this year, and they hope to create 65 jobs by 2025. So they are going to extract the hemp and then put it into CBD form because the CBD market is crazy out here and get into the hands of all those people.

Awesome Schools

The third thing that you need to learn about Cedar Park is it’s awesome for education. So there are 17 schools in Cedar Park. 11 are ranked a seven or higher from greatschools.org. If you’ve seen any of my other blog posts where I talk about schools, you know that I love that resource. Go ahead and check out greatschools.org. Cedar Park is in the Leander Independent School District, so you can look that up, or you can look up Cedar Park. But anyway, the Cedar Park area is known for having phenomenal schools.

As far as adults go, 49% of adults in Cedar Park have a bachelor’s degree or higher. The average of Williamson County is 42%. So Cedar Park is bumping up a little bit higher than that average. They say it’s a very highly educated workforce that lives in Cedar Park.

During Covid, many businesses wanted to move to Cedar Park because of the quality workforce. They want people to have that work-life balance. So, having good and highly educated employees in Cedar Park is drawing better businesses. And they are trying to make friendly workplace environments so that you like going to work.

Cedar Park is Big on Sports

Number four, sports. So Austin has one pro sports team, and that’s our soccer club, the Austin FC. We have a huge stadium near The Domain. It’s brand new. You can go see all kinds of soccer stuff there, but we have two other teams that you probably didn’t know about. They both play at the HEB Center, which is just a huge stadium where they have live music shows, other stuff, events, and everything there. It’s a major event center, but you can go see the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League and the Austin Spurs of the NB A G League. So, both of those teams are playing at the H E B Cedar Park Center. There are all kinds of sports that you can see in Austin. Two of them are in Cedar Park, and like I said, the Austin Football Club is just in The Domain. It’s like 20 minutes south of Cedar Park. So if you’re in the area, there are lots of sports for you to see.

Cedar Park was Almost Bruggerhof

The thing that you didn’t know about Cedar Park is that instead of calling it Cedar Park, it was almost called Bruggerhof, which would’ve been horrible. In fact, the residents of Bruggerhof changed its name because they didn’t know how to spell it, and they couldn’t pronounce it.

So when the railroad started coming through Cedar Park, one of the mucky-mucks of the railroad company just decided to name the town after himself. But everyone that lived there kind of put the kibosh on that. That is crazy. And no one wanted for it to be called Bruggerhof. One of the pioneers of Cedar Park, who owned a lot of land and was one of the staples in the community, decided to name it Cedar Park. This was because there were tons of cedar trees, and it was beautiful and very park-like. So that’s where Cedar Park came from, exactly as you thought, just because of the cedar trees. Thank goodness everyone decided to change it, and it’s not called Bruggerhof.

Space Industry

Number six thing that I promised you didn’t know about Cedar Park. Cedar Park is going to space. So, one of the tech companies that we talked about earlier that’s bringing a lot of commerce to Cedar Park is called Firefly. They build rockets. So, obviously, they are testing to send their rockets into space. Their goal is to ferry commercial satellites into orbit. So, they are testing their first one in August.

They raised a 75 million round of funding and saw their valuation go above 1 billion, making them one of the few called Unicorns in Texas. A unicorn is a company valued at 10 figures or more, and Firefly is one of them. They’re right here in our very own Cedar Park.

So they are going to space, they’re sending their test orbit up in August, and if that goes well, they will send their official rocket up in September. So, we know that Tesla is here. They’re going to space. Firefly is sending us into space. There are a few other companies in the area that are working on all this madness, but I promise you didn’t know that Cedar Park was going into space.

Craft Breweries

There are five craft breweries in Cedar Park. One of my favorites is called Red Horn. They are a craft brewery. They brew their own beer, but they also are a coffee roastery. They roast their own coffee beans. They have amazing coffee drinks and things like that. They have been up for several years, and they’re really a staple in the community. They also have little munchies and stuff you can get. It’s like a brewery with a coffee shop vibe.

They are expanding and opening up a second location that’s going to be close to that HEB center that we talked about where you can see the basketball and the hockey and the music and all that good stuff.

They’re going to be opening another location close to the HEB center that’s going to be more brewery-focused. It’s going to be more of a production facility. It’s going to have more of a brewery vibe, and they’re going to partner with another local restaurant to do the food piece of it.

So, there are a handful of other craft breweries in Cedar Park. They’re all awesome. Red Horn is definitely one of my favorites. My second would be Whitestone. We’re going into space. We’ve got breweries. They’re doing incredible things, and they’re growing and expanding. The commercial market in Cedar Park is so robust and friendly because of all the companies that are moving here and all the quality employees that we have here where companies want to come in and make life great for their employees. So that’s what’s happening right now.

Fun Things to Do

The eighth thing you didn’t know about Cedar Park is that there are many free and cheap things for kids and families to do. I’m going to go through five awesome things that you can do for free. Four are free, one costs about $2. The first one is Brushy Creek Trail and Parks. I run on this trail a lot. There are six parks here, and one of them is Champions Park. There’s a huge dinosaur sculpture up there that you can climb on, and you can dig for Dino Bones in the sandbox. Really, really fun. There are kids out there all the time. There’s lots of shade. There’s public restrooms, water fountains, all that good stuff. The trail is gorgeous, and all the parks on it are really, really cool.

Did you know that Cedar Park had a skate park? It’s called Brushy Creek Sports Park and Skate Park. If your kids are in skateboarding or if you are in skateboarding, go ahead and head out there. Do your kickflips, do your ollies, do all your stuff. My husband was a skateboarder, and I picked up on some of the lingo. I don’t know, I really like watching it. I think it’s incredible. I’m just too scared to get on it. I don’t want to crack my coconut open. But anyway, there’s a skate park in Cedar Park that’s free.

Veterans Memorial Pool is $2 to get in. So this is the one that’s not free, but it is like a waterpark. So they’ve got splash pads, they’ve got dump buckets, they’ve got all kinds of fun stuff that you can do in the water. It’s summertime right now, so now is the best time to go and cool off and do some fun stuff. Kids are just now starting to go back to school. They’re probably very cranky about it, so it would be a good thing to take them there, get their mind off of everything, and everyone can just chill.

Brushy Creek Sculpture Garden is really cool. So that is free, and it is sculptures from local artists. That’s another cool thing that I like about Cedar Park is everything is community-focused. Everything is giving back to the people that live there. The sculpture garden is one of those factors, too. So everything that you walk through, all the art is created by locals. The last thing is Elizabeth Melbourne Park. This is a crazy park, kind of similar to the skate park. They have BMX trails, hike, and bike trails. There’s a public pool. They do the July 4th fireworks there. It’s just a superb area for all kinds of stuff to do with your family.

Cedar Park Events and Festivals

Ninth on the list of things you didn’t know about Cedar Park are its many events and festivals. So you don’t have to go down to Austin for the Pecan Street Festival or Bat Festival or Motorcycle Festival or anything like that. You can stay in Cedar Park, and you can do all the fun stuff.

So, one of the most incredible things they have is the Cedar Bark Festival. It’s like a little doggy fest. So bring your dogs, dress ’em up, and do all the fun stuff. It’s a great place to meet other people and talk about your dogs all day, which we dog people love to do. We also have Taste of Cedar Park, a food and wine festival. So, if you’ve heard of Austin Food and Wine Fest, it is similar to that, but just on a smaller scale, and all of the food and the wine and everything is local to Cedar Park or the surrounding area.

It’s really a great time to go and sample the food if you’ve been meaning to try something from a restaurant, but you don’t want to risk going there on a Saturday night and spending your money. You can taste little nibbles here and there and realize what you like, and you don’t like and then go and spend your money where you want to.

Fable Fest is a Renaissance festival in Cedar Park. It has role play and food and decorations, and everything is really excellent. Again, if you want to avoid driving an hour out to Sherwood Forest, you can do your very own Renaissance festival in Cedar Park.

And then there are holiday festivals. So there’s tree lighting Santa’s workshop, which is the coolest thing. There’s a 400-year-old heritage oak tree in Cedar Park called Old Heritage Oak Tree, and they light it with 30,000 Christmas lights, and there’s a festival for the lighting of it every year. It’s really magical. It’s so cool to just think about everyone who has been around and under this tree for the last 400 years — a reminder that Cedar Park is so much older than we are, even in Texas.

Cedar Park Winery Train

Okay, last thing, this is the coolest thing, and I promise you you didn’t know this about Cedar Park. There is a winery train where you can get on and do wine tastings for an hour while the train takes you to a winery called Wedding Oak Winery. While you’re there, you have a two-hour layover, and you go do more wine tastings, and they have snacks and nibbles for you to eat, and it’s a beautiful winery. They have tasting rooms in Burnett. The train is going to take you to the Burnett location. They also have one in Fredericksburg and another one in San Saba. But this one, you can park at Cedar Park, take the train, have your wine tastings, get to the winery, eat your snacks, have more wine, come back on the train, and have more wine. And then you’re back in Cedar Park.

It’s definitely a new experience that you need to try out at the winery. They have gorgeous views. They have a patio and a rooftop terrace. The winery is a hundred percent all Texas-grown wines. If you have yet to go out to Fredericksburg or Texas wine country, I highly encourage you to do that. That’s not part of this blog post, but just a little personal tidbit. It’s a lot of fun out there. There are wineries just lining the whole road. So this train, you can go out and have a tiny piece of it and have some good views, nibbles, and drinks while you’re out there. Also, there are a ton of nearby wineries close to Cedar Park that are an hour or so away. Marble Falls, Burnett, where this train takes you to Florence Bertram and Liberty Hill. I’m sure there’s more, but those are just the ones that are closest to Cedar Park.

So if you’re a wine lover, Cedar Park is one of the best places that you can be for local wines, out-of-the-box wines, little independent wineries, mom and pop places. Just really, really cool. So the next time you are arguing with your family about what is the coolest area to live in near Austin? Is it Lakeway? Is it Austin Proper? Is it Zilker? Is it Cedar Park? You can tell them it is officially Cedar Park because they have the wine train. Contact me for help moving to Cedar Park, Texas.