Two years ago, a Saturday errand run in Forney usually meant driving to Rockwall or Mesquite. A Saturday night out meant deciding between the same handful of downtown spots. In 2026, those two halves of the week have finally split into two different Forneys, and residents are starting to plan around it.
The short version: the Villages at Gateway at North Gateway Boulevard and U.S. Highway 80 is a 120-plus-acre retail project anchored by Target, Home Depot, and H-E-B, and it has quietly become the regional shopping stop for everyone east of Lake Ray Hubbard. Meanwhile, downtown has stopped chasing that traffic and leaned harder into its Friday-and-Saturday-night identity. Both pulls are real. Knowing which side of town has what has become a genuinely useful piece of local knowledge.
The US-80 corridor grew up this year
The most-searched question in Forney this winter was probably some version of "when does H-E-B open." Here is the answer, cleanly: the new H-E-B at 11700 US-80, near U.S. 80 and Gateway Blvd., opened Wednesday, February 4, 2026, after a short delay from the original January date. The nearly 140,000-square-foot store includes a full-service H-E-B Pharmacy with drive-thru, curbside and home delivery, a Wellness Primary Care clinic, and a True Texas BBQ restaurant with drive-thru.
Home Depot beat H-E-B to the corridor. It opened at 11350 E U.S. Highway 80 in November 2025, and if you have driven past on a Saturday morning you already know the parking lot fills up fast. Costco is next. Building permits show a warehouse of roughly 161,000 square feet with a separate fuel station at 140 FM 460, targeting completion in mid-2026.
Here is what that clustering actually changes about a Saturday:
| Errand | 2024 default | 2026 default |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly groceries | Kroker/Kroger in Forney or Rockwall | H-E-B at 11700 US-80 |
| Lumber, paint, mulch | Home Depot in Mesquite or Terrell | Home Depot at 11350 E US-80 |
| Bulk household | Costco in Rockwall | Costco at FM 460 (mid-2026) |
| Quick lunch after errands | Fast food along US-80 | True Texas BBQ inside H-E-B |
The corridor is not a destination. It is a chore hub. That distinction matters because it frees downtown to be something else entirely.
Downtown stopped competing on convenience
Look at the fall event calendar and the pattern is obvious. Brews on Bois D'Arc, a free downtown gathering with local craft beer, live music, and food trucks, returns September 26, 2026. Forney Falloween, which the city launched in 2025, is booked for October 17, 2026 around Bell Park and includes more than 40 candy booths, Halloween games and crafts, hourly contests, a family movie in the park, and a downtown market. The holiday season opens with the downtown tree-lighting ceremony at Bell Park in early December, with Christmas music, free hot chocolate, and a Santa appearance.
None of that would work at Villages at Gateway. All of it works at Bell Park. That is not accidental.
Two Forneys, two functions. The corridor absorbs the errands so downtown can hold the evenings.
The Spellman Amphitheater is the other half of the downtown-and-parks story. The 5,000-seat Spellman Amphitheater at Forney Community Park hosts theatrical productions and local, regional, and national concerts, plus seasonal special events. Juneteenth at the Spellman ran June 20, 2026 from 4 to 9 p.m., free, with the city encouraging lawn chairs and blankets alongside live music, food vendors, and family-friendly activities. If you moved here in the last two years and have not been, the amphitheater is worth one summer evening just to calibrate the scale.
For the shorter-run stuff, the Forney Chamber of Commerce events calendar is the most reliable single page in town. Ribbon cuttings, luncheons, community listings. It updates faster than social media does.
Where the food scene actually is right now
The restaurant conversation in Forney has moved. Two years ago it centered on chain arrivals along US-80. In 2026 the interesting places are either downtown or tucked into non-obvious spots that reward locals.
A few that keep coming up in current reviews:
- Red's on Main and Hudson House — downtown-adjacent, the kind of places people actually make reservations for
- Sauce & Vine — one of the newer names dominating recent "best new restaurants" lists
- Cajun Bay Seafood & Bar, a recent opening offering a fusion of Cajun and Asian flavors with crab wontons and pot stickers alongside classic seafood boils
- Mo' Bettahs Hawaiian Style Food, serving generous Hawaiian plates with teriyaki chicken, steak, and katsu chicken
- Pizza Grand, a family-owned pizza spot that has been quietly at it for over four decades, where a large pepperoni runs about $18
- Bearded Monkey Sports Bar & Grill, a regulars' hangout with live music on weekends and outdoor games like giant Jenga
The pattern here is worth naming. Forney's most-recommended food in 2026 skews owner-operated and small-format. There is a full breakdown of current favorites in Restaurant Observer's 2026 Forney list if you want a longer look.
One quiet development that most residents still have not walked through: The OC at 680 Innovation Blvd is a shopping-dining-services space that partners with Forney ISD to create real-world learning opportunities for students while offering products and services to the community. It is not a food hall in the Dallas sense, but it is genuinely different from anything Forney had before, and it is where a lot of the new small-business energy is landing.
A weekend you could not have had last fall
Put the pieces together and the practical shift is easy to feel. Here is a Saturday that did not exist in Forney twelve months ago:
- 8:30 a.m. Groceries at the new H-E-B on US-80, breakfast tacos from True Texas BBQ on the way out
- 10:00 a.m. Mulch and a new hose bib from Home Depot two exits down
- 11:30 a.m. Home, unload, sit on the porch
- 4:00 p.m. Downtown for Brews on Bois D'Arc on the September 26 date, park once, walk everywhere
- 7:30 p.m. Dinner at Red's on Main or Hudson House
- 10:00 p.m. Walk back through Bell Park
Every one of those is a real, named, dated thing. The old Saturday routine involved at least one trip out to Rockwall or Mesquite. The new one does not.
What this means if you are the one giving the tour
If family visits in October, take them to Falloween on the 17th. If they visit in September, Brews on Bois D'Arc. If they visit any random Tuesday, take them to The OC first, then whichever downtown spot has a table, then a walk around Bell Park to explain why the town feels different from other US-80 suburbs. Lake Ray Hubbard is about five minutes from Forney, and the John Bunker Sands Wetland Center, more wildlife-oriented with tours available, is about 20 minutes away, so a slower Sunday has options too.
For the fuller city calendar with event details and locations, Forney's official special events page is the source of truth. For the downtown and parks context around it, the Forney EDC's community entertainment page covers the parks, amphitheater, and downtown festivals in one place.
The takeaway for anyone who already lives here
Forney did not add a bunch of new stuff in 2026. It sorted the stuff it had. The US-80 side got the boxes and the pharmacies and the drive-thrus. Downtown kept the sidewalks, the amphitheater seats, and the events that only make sense in a place small enough to run into three neighbors at. If you moved here from a bigger metro and have been waiting for the town to "grow into" one thing or the other, the answer is that it decided to be both, on opposite sides of the same highway.
If you are thinking about the housing side of any of this, whether it is a first move within Forney, a jump from Dallas or Mesquite, or a sale you have been circling for a year, Jeanie Marten Real Estate knows this corridor and this downtown the way only a local team can. Call Jeanie — Let's find your forever home.
