On Friday, Sept. 18, crews hung the H Mart letters on the store at Loop 820 and North Beach Street in Haltom City. The store behind those letters still had no opening date. Around it, Uncle Tetsu, Wooga Korean BBQ by Chodang Village and two claw machine arcades were already open for business.
Most people still call this the H Mart center. The name describes a store that hasn't opened. The 50-acre development at 3920 NE Loop 820 is H Mart Plaza, and it has spent 2026 turning into a destination on everything except its anchor.
The Crowds Came First
Haltom City tracks visitors with an artificial intelligence platform. By the city's count, the plaza draws 6,000 to 8,000 visitors a day to the businesses that opened this year. Its estimated total is 634,000 visits as of late September. Robert Briggs, the city's economic development director, gave those figures to the Fort Worth Report in a story published Sept. 21. All of that traffic arrived without a single grocery cart.
The tenant count shows how much is still missing. The plaza has 45 restaurants and stores and is 100% leased. As of Sept. 21, 22 tenants were operating, including three in soft opening, and 23 had yet to open. So the regional pull the city measured comes from fewer than half the planned businesses, with the largest one still dark.
Once the center is fully open and stabilized, the city projects $1.1 million a year in gross sales tax from it. Briggs called the center "a catalyst for development" and said interest in other Haltom City sites is rising.
What Is Carrying the Plaza Right Now
The open roster reads less like a strip center and more like a dessert district with a few dinner anchors. Here is the Sept. 21 list grouped by occasion:
Sit-down dinner
- Wooga Korean BBQ by Chodang Village, server-grilled Korean barbecue
- Hanabi, Japanese ramen and izakaya
- Kin Pho, Vietnamese pho and Lao-Thai dishes
- The Kickin' Crab, Cajun-style seafood boils
- It's KBBQ & Shabu Shabu, all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue, in soft opening
- Tasty Pot, Taiwanese individual hot pot
- Yindee Thai Eatery, in soft opening
Late night
- Dal Pocha, a late-night Korean pub
Sweets and drinks
- Uncle Tetsu, Japanese soufflé cheesecakes
- 85°C Bakery Cafe, Taiwanese bakery and café
- Hui Lau Shan, Hong Kong mango desserts
- Bambu, Vietnamese dessert drinks and boba
- Cafe BomBom & XO Corndog, Korean corn dogs and boba
Browsing and play
- Teso Life, a Japanese lifestyle store
- Bandai Gashapon, Japanese capsule toys
- Claw Mania Kingdom and ClawZania Fort Worth, claw machine arcades
The center also has errand businesses: a McDonald's, the Our Hair salon and head spa, Dia Dental Studio, Flossophy Dental Studio and SolidSight eye care.
Teso Life gives the clearest sense of the place. The Fort Worth Report spotted Lay's Fish & Chips-flavored chips on its shelves. Uncle Tetsu began its soft opening on Sept. 2. Tasty Pot's timeline depends on which paper you read. The Star-Telegram reported in mid-August that it had officially opened. The Fort Worth Report later listed a Sept. 24 to Oct. 1 soft opening and an Oct. 2 grand opening. Either way, the restaurant now lists its Haltom City location and hours on its own website.
Most of the open tenants serve a dessert, a drink or a small purchase. That suits a plaza people visit for an hour, which is how Kevin Martinez describes it. Martinez is the chef at the Fort Worth Club's athletic center, and he expects people his age, 42, and younger to make up the core crowd. "You can go to the shop and pick up a small amount of this, a small amount of that," he told the Fort Worth Report. "You can go up there and have lunch."
Why the Anchor Is Arriving Last
A shopping center normally opens around its grocery store. This one was built that way and opened in the reverse order. In April, H Mart said supply chain issues had delayed the Haltom City store. The Fort Worth Report's April 9 story traced the delay to fixtures and equipment sourced overseas. It added that H Mart would need more time after construction to stock and equip the store.
The current target depends on who you ask. A Haltom City spokesperson told the Star-Telegram in mid-September, "We know they'll be open before Thanksgiving; however, it could be sooner depending on how quickly everything progresses." H Mart's own email to the paper on Sept. 15 said, "We do not have a confirmed timeline yet." A few days later, Briggs said H Mart remained "very confident" about opening before Thanksgiving.
As of Oct. 4, no firm date or grand-opening event has been announced. Thanksgiving is Nov. 26, so the city's target is a little under eight weeks away. Until H Mart sets a date, treat it as the city's goal and not the company's commitment.
The Second Half of the Roster Changes the Mix
The 23 tenants still marked coming soon in late September go beyond more dessert counters. They add new kinds of visits to the plaza:
- More full meals. Mensho for Japanese ramen, CoCo Ichibanya for Japanese curry rice, Maht Gaek for Korean home-style cooking, bb.q Chicken, Nigori Sushi & Grill, Korean Seafood, Momo & Bun for Nepalese dumplings and Tu Chilito for tacos.
- A reservation-style dinner. Suka Omakase, a sushi omakase.
- Morning coffee. Trung Nguyen for Vietnamese coffee and Ten Thousand Coffee for specialty coffee.
- Indoor activity. Bada Golf, an indoor golf simulator, plus the Potobox self-serve photo booth.
- Retail with staying power. Kinokuniya, the Japanese bookstore, and Miniso.
- Still more sweets. Somisomi, Sulbing, Eiswelt Gelato, Hey Yogurt, Tsaocaa, Chicha San Chen and R&B Tea.
A few of these are partway along. Kinokuniya's official store page now lists a Fort Worth store at 3930 NE Loop 820, Suite 300. It gives daily hours of 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and a phone number, (817) 661-0027. No news report has confirmed an opening day, so call ahead before you plan around it. Somisomi's website still labels Haltom City "Coming Soon." Mensho's U.S. locations page doesn't list Haltom City yet.
Coffee, a golf simulator, a bookstore and a grocery store are reasons to show up in the morning, stay longer or come back during the week. The plaza's first half runs on afternoons and evenings. The second half should fill in the rest of the day.
A Drive That Used to Run East
Hao Tran owns Hao's Grocery & Café on Fort Worth's Near Southside and is preparing to open Hao's Duong DeVille in White Settlement. She described the gap the plaza fills. "We've been wanting it, we've been needing it for our own community. We've always had to drive to Carrollton or Richardson," she told the Fort Worth Report.
Tran doesn't see the center as competition for her business. She sees it as a second hub for the region. "We're talking about two concentric circles," she said. "One is around Dallas, one is around Fort Worth."
Martinez thinks the supermarket will matter to Fort Worth kitchens. H Mart carries a different range of fish than traditional supermarkets. Chefs could also buy small amounts of an ingredient "and don't have to sit on a whole case of something." If he's right, the grocery's effect could reach restaurant menus across Tarrant County, not just the Loop 820 corridor.
Planning a Visit This Fall
These weeks before H Mart opens are the last stretch when the plaza runs on restaurants and shops alone. The city reports thousands of daily visitors already, so expect company. A visit built on the open roster could look like this:
- Start with something to share at Uncle Tetsu or 85°C Bakery Cafe.
- Browse Teso Life and Bandai Gashapon, and check Kinokuniya's posted hours before counting on it.
- Sit down for dinner at Hanabi, Kin Pho, Wooga or The Kickin' Crab. Go to Tasty Pot if you'd rather have your own hot pot.
- Finish with mango dessert at Hui Lau Shan or a drink at Bambu. On a late night, Dal Pocha is the Korean pub option.
The anchor's soft opening, grand opening and first weekend will probably bring new traffic on top of the crowd already coming. Check the latest from the Fort Worth Report or the Star-Telegram before planning a trip around H Mart itself.
Haltom City's economic development director says this center is already drawing interest in other development sites nearby. If you own land, a commercial building or an investment property near the Loop 820 and Beach Street corridor and want to know how a regional draw like this could affect it, Social Living Real Estate can walk you through the commercial and land side of that question. Schedule a consultation.
