Austin\u2019s hip South Congress Avenue district has lassoed a U.S. flagship store from the Wrangler westernwear brand.<\/p>\n
Wrangler<\/a> will open a roughly 1,600-square-foot store at the former site of adjoining restaurants Vespaio and Chapul\u00edn Cantina. Both eateries closed<\/a> earlier in 2026; Vespaio spent nearly 30 years at the site and was one of the landmark properties on South Congress as it evolved into something much more modern and corporate. <\/p>\n Wrangler officials say the store will open in early 2027, but a press release from real estate developers Quannah Partners<\/a> and Fortum Ventures<\/a> indicates a fall 2026 opening.<\/p>\n Wrangler will be one of four retail tenants in the 6,800-square-foot, first-phase redevelopment of the building that Vespaio and Chapul\u00edn Cantina shared. Wrangler\u2019s other stores are in Fort Worth and Greensboro, North Carolina.<\/p>\n Scott Baxter, chairman, president and CEO of Wrangler\u2019s owner, says the Austin location \u201cwill be a terrific store in an incredible Wrangler [market] for our products.\u201d<\/p>\n The three other occupants of the 1612 S. Congress Ave. development will be Alberta Boot Co.\u2019s and Cody & Sioux\u2019s first U.S. stores \u2014 and the brands\u2019 U.S. flagship locations \u2014 and Astrid & Miyu\u2019s first boutique in Texas.<\/p>\n Alberta Boot<\/a>, which sells handcrafted western boots, and its western apparel sister brand, Cody & Sioux<\/a>, will occupy about 4,000 square feet. Jewelry purveyor Astrid & Miyu<\/a> has leased about 1,200 square feet.<\/p>\n \u201cEach of these brands has a strong identity and an authentic story, and together they reflect the quality, craftsmanship and originality that define South Congress,\u201d Quannah CEO Doug Wiley says. \u201cWe believe they\u2019ll be a meaningful addition to one of Austin\u2019s most vibrant retail destinations, and we\u2019re proud to continue investing in the long-term success of this iconic corridor.\u201d<\/p>\n The second phase of the project will kick off early next year, adding a new building with almost 4,000 square feet for one or two more tenants, the developers say.<\/p>\n Quannah and Fortum bought the SoCo property in December.<\/p>\n On the same block as the under-construction retail hub are the new duo of the Butcher\u2019s Daughter vegetarian restaurant and Only the Wild Ones wine and cocktail bar, along with the South Congress Hotel, which will debut in January as a Hyatt Standard property.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin\u2019s hip South Congress Avenue district has lassoed a U.S. flagship store from the Wrangler westernwear brand. Wrangler…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,5718,110,423,808,43370,5720],"class_list":["post-407090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-boots","tag-development","tag-openings","tag-shopping","tag-south-congress","tag-western-wear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}