The Applebee's on State Highway 152 closed on April 28, 2025. It had been in Mustang since 2013. Seventeen months later, the same building at 1020 E. State Highway 152 is being rebuilt as four storefronts. Three of them are spoken for: 7-Brew, Mo' Bettahs and Wingstop. A few blocks north, a new Dunkin' at 331 N Mustang Rd went into an existing building through a remodel permit, not new construction.
Most of the new food and coffee coming to Mustang this fall is moving into buildings that were already there. From the street, that kind of change is easy to miss. Construction fencing and fresh slabs are going up somewhere else in town, along Symes Lane, and they're going up for tow yards, pest control and auto shops. The clearest record of what's coming to the places where residents eat is the City Manager's report the city publishes every few weeks.
How One Empty Building Became Four Storefronts
When Applebee's closed, the city had no new tenant lined up. Melissa Helsel, the City of Mustang's Community Development Director, told the Mustang Times that the property hadn't changed hands and that no business license had been filed for a new restaurant. For the time being, the paper reported, the space would sit vacant.
The building doesn't appear in the business activity sections of the city reports dated January 2, January 30 and February 27, 2026. After that, the city reports show how it changed:
- May 29, 2026. The city issues a permit for interior demolition and a "white box" rebuild at 1020 E. State Highway 152. Each future tenant still needs its own finish-out application.
- July 2, 2026. The building is permitted for reconstruction as four separate tenant spaces, and 7-Brew is issued a permit for one of them.
- July 31, 2026. Mo' Bettahs and Wingstop join 7-Brew with finish-out permits of their own.
- August 28, 2026. 7-Brew's footings are poured and its plumbing rough-in is complete. Mo' Bettahs and Wingstop are in partial rough-in inspections.
- October 2, 2026. Same status for all three, with framing listed as 7-Brew's next step.
Two things are still unknown. None of the city reports gives an opening date for 7-Brew, Mo' Bettahs or Wingstop, so any date you hear is a guess. And the fourth space in the building has no named tenant in any city report so far.
The tenant mix fits the building. 7-Brew is a drive-thru coffee chain, and Mo' Bettahs serves Hawaiian-style food, according to the city's descriptions. One full-service restaurant is turning into several smaller, faster counters and a drive-thru, right next to IHOP and Zaxby's.
The Same Pattern Shows Up on Mustang Road and Farther East
The Dunkin' at 331 N Mustang Rd followed the same steps. In April the city reported a commercial remodeling permit with interior demolition underway. By May, demolition had moved to the exterior. The October 2 report called the store complete and listed an expected grand opening of October 3, 2026, which was yesterday. We haven't seen confirmation that it opened on schedule. Next door, H2 Physical Therapy finished remodeling its space at 321 N. Mustang Rd.
Farther east on 152, the July 2 report noted a business license application from Chrome Pony Bar. It's a neighborhood bar planned for the former Silver Stallion building at 1433 E. State Highway 152. That's another reused building, and this one even keeps the horse theme of its old name.
The new construction is happening on a different street:
| Business | Address | Status in the October 2, 2026 report |
|---|---|---|
| Broncho Towing | 508 S. Symes Ln | Construction finished |
| Champion Pest Control | 324 S. Symes Ln | Open |
| Smitty's Garage | 501 S. Symes Ln | 6,000 sq ft shop, slab poured |
| Reign Athletics | 600 E. SH 152 | Final occupancy for cheer and gymnastics building |
| Jets Plus | 1700 E. SH 152 | Escrow office open |
Three of those five are on Symes Lane, and they're trades and service businesses. Reign Athletics sits behind Chicken Express and Freddy's, off the highway frontage. The coffee, wings and poke are going into existing restaurant buildings that already have visibility from the road.
The Road Work Is Timed Around the School Calendar
If the storefronts are filling up, getting to them is the next question. The city's October plans for its roads answer it the same way it handled the buildings, by working with what's already there.
Clear Springs Road between Southwest 89th Street and State Highway 152 is getting resurfaced. The project had been postponed because of manpower and equipment availability. The city then moved it into Fall Break to keep it out of school traffic, with work starting October 14, 2026. No end date has been published.
The bigger change for anyone heading to the old Applebee's building is the traffic signals. The city won a $560,000 grant through the ACOG 2026 Air Quality Grant Program, covering 80% of the cost to replace controllers, conflict monitoring equipment and vehicle detection at every intersection along State Highway 152. City staff expect the finished project to cut congestion delay on SH-152 in Mustang by 20% to 30%. Staff are still choosing the new signal system, and equipment replacement is expected to start later this fall. That's new equipment on existing poles at existing intersections. The roads aren't getting wider.
Below the pavement, one project is already finished. Contractors have completed a 16-inch waterline along State Highway 152 from just west of Mustang Road to Clear Springs. It was funded partly by American Rescue Plan Act money and Community Project Funding requested through Congressman Frank Lucas' office.
The work that does add something new is scheduled for 2027. ODOT awarded both the Mustang Multimodal Phase 1 sidewalk project and the Mustang Trails Project to Redlands Contracting, and both are expected to start construction in early 2027. The trail will connect State Highway 152, on the west side of Fire Station #1, to the existing trails in the southwest corner of Wild Horse Park. The SW 89th and Mustang Road intersection is expected to begin construction in Summer 2027.
What You Can Count On This October
The storefronts on 152 don't have dates yet. Town Center does. These October events all have confirmed dates for 2026, and all of them except the library's are at 1201 N Mustang Rd, the same campus as Wild Horse Park:
- Flick N Treat, Friday, October 9. Food trucks and activities start at 6 p.m., and Hocus Pocus starts at 7 p.m. on the Town Center front lawn. Admission is free.
- Wildhorse Gardens and Market harvest, Saturday, October 17, 1:30 p.m. It's the market's last public event of the 2026 season. Families dig sweet potatoes and peanuts and take the harvest home. The date is tentative and depends on weather, and questions go to [email protected].
- Spooktacular, Saturday, October 24, 5:30 to 8 p.m. More than 50 carnival games with candy prizes, life-size Monopoly, inflatables and food trucks, according to the city. The Parks & Recreation listing adds train rides and places the event at Wildhorse Park.
- Boo Bash at Mustang Public Library, Thursday, October 29, 5 to 7 p.m. A come-and-go Halloween program with crafts and stories.
For more ideas around town, our guide to weekends in Mustang covers the parks and dining spots that were here before this round of construction. The Mustang neighborhood page has the wider picture.
The next City Manager report should show whether 7-Brew has framing up and whether the fourth space at 1020 E. State Highway 152 has a name.
Wondering what a filled-in storefront down the road means for your own home's value? At Gina Underwood, we follow the same city reports and pair them with current sales data, so you get a clear, specific answer. Get a Free Home Valuation and we'll walk you through what's changing near your street.
