"We're not finished by any means, and so we continue to add more and more to our development, and we'll continue to see more and more people come here."
That's Mike Wethington, general manager of UnCommons, talking to Fox5 this past May about the mixed-use campus a few minutes up Durango Drive from West Park. He was announcing the project's fifth and final office building. It sounded like a wrap-up. It wasn't. If you live in West Park and you've been half-tracking the headlines about what's supposedly landing near you this year, here's the thing nobody says out loud: the announcements have been arriving faster than the actual grand openings for a while now.
That's not a complaint. It's just the pattern, and once you see it, you'll plan your weekends around it a lot better.
The Space That Sat Empty For Two Years
Start with the story everyone's been repeating: Stix Asia, the Hawaii-born food hall taking over the old Sundry space at UnCommons. Twelve stalls, Japanese to Vietnamese to Korean, table service, the whole thing designed to feel like a street market in Waikiki. It's a genuinely good story and it's been treated as imminent for over a year.
Here's what the timeline actually looks like. Sundry closed suddenly in June 2024. Stix Asia was announced not long after as its replacement, and coverage through early 2025 kept describing an "early 2026" opening. Construction on the 18,000-square-foot buildout didn't actually begin until late April 2026, when the Review-Journal photographed cranes and framing on site. The current target is fall 2026.
Do the math on that. From the day Sundry's doors closed to the day Stix Asia is realistically expected to open, that space sits dark for somewhere north of two years. Not because anyone was slow-walking it on purpose. Restaurant build-outs in a market this hot get stuck in permitting queues, contractor schedules, and buildout costs that shift the longer everyone waits. But if you'd been planning a dinner there based on last year's "early 2026" headlines, you'd have shown up to a construction fence more than once.
That gap is the whole lesson for anyone living in this corridor: the press release date and the ribbon-cutting date are two different calendars.
What's Announced vs. What's Actually Under a Crane
Here's how four of the corridor's biggest stories stack up right now, as of mid-August 2026.
| Project | What Was Announced | What's Actually True Today |
|---|---|---|
| Stix Asia (UnCommons) | "Early 2026" opening, per initial reports | Construction started April 2026; fall 2026 opening now expected |
| UnCommons final office/retail building | Announced May 2026 as the campus's last phase | Still in planning; developer targets completion by early 2028 |
| Durango Casino & Resort expansion | $385 million project adding a bowling alley and movie theater | Groundbreaking set for January 2026, roughly 18 months of construction, landing around mid-2027 |
| Ainsley apartments (next to Durango Casino) | Announced by The Calida Group | Framing visibly underway as of July 2026, no public completion date yet |
Two of these four have real completion windows you can actually circle. Two are still "under construction with no promised date." That split matters more than any single opening, because it tells you which parts of this corridor are locked in and which are still just renderings with a groundbreaking photo attached.
Three Things Actually Moving On Schedule
Not everything here is running behind. Some of the bigger, less glamorous investments are tracking almost exactly as promised, which is worth knowing because it says more about the neighborhood's staying power than any single restaurant opening does.
The Durango Casino & Resort expansion is the clearest example. When Station Casinos opened Durango in December 2023, it was notably missing two things most of its sister properties have: a bowling alley and a movie theater. The $385 million second-phase expansion is built specifically to add both, along with more gaming and dining space, all on the property's north side. Construction began in January 2026 and is expected to run about 18 months, which puts a realistic finish line around mid-2027. That's a specific, funded, groundbreaking-confirmed project, not a rumor.
The Ainsley apartment complex, going up next to the casino under The Calida Group (the developer behind the Elysian brand), was still visibly under construction as of a Review-Journal photo from July 2026. No opening date has been published yet, but the framing is real and the crews are on site, which puts it ahead of where Stix Asia was at the same stage a year ago.
And UnCommons itself, even with its final building still two years from completion, already has more finished square footage than most people give it credit for. The campus currently carries more than 350,000 square feet of completed office space and 385 luxury residential units, on top of a working roster of restaurants that includes All'Antico Vinaio, AMARI, Blue Bottle Coffee, Salt & Straw, Rare Society, SunLife Organics, Todo Bien, and Wineaux. That's a lot of open doors sitting quietly next to the one everyone keeps asking about.
What This Means For Your Weekend, Not Your Mortgage
If you live in West Park, the practical takeaway isn't to wait for Stix Asia before you drive up Durango. The corridor already has plenty open right now, and there's a recurring event worth actually putting on the calendar: Market in the Alley, a monthly vendor market at UnCommons featuring local artisans in food, beverage, and retail. The 2026 dates are set through the end of the year.
- September 5, 5 to 10 p.m.
- October 3, 5 to 10 p.m.
- November 7, 5 to 10 p.m.
- December 5, 5 to 10 p.m.
That's four more chances this year to walk the campus, grab something from one of the already-open restaurants, and see the Stix Asia construction progress in person instead of through a press photo. UnCommons sits at 6880 Helen Toland St., across Durango Drive from the Durango Casino & Resort and across the 215 from IKEA, so it's an easy loop even on a weeknight.
The honest version of this story is that the southwest valley's growth is real, funded, and mostly on track, but the timeline you read about in February is rarely the timeline you get in practice. Stix Asia will open. The casino will get its bowling alley. The final UnCommons building will get built. Just don't set your calendar by the announcement. Set it by the crane.
If you're the kind of person who tracks a neighborhood this closely for fun, you already know more about what's actually happening near West Park than most agents bother to learn. When the day comes that you want someone who tracks it just as closely on the real estate side, that's what The Richardson Group is built for. Get your free selling strategy call whenever you're ready to talk.
