Eagle's Long-Empty Corner at Edgewood and Highway 44 Finally Filled In

"The reason this development has sat vacant for eight years is because we've been waiting for the premier operators to come into this city and into this development," developer John Rennison told the Eagle City Council in 2024, as reported by the Idaho Press. At the same meeting, the project's attorney, Deborah Nelson, predicted that landing a Chick-fil-A would bring other tenants with it.

Two years later, that prediction looks right. East End Marketplace sits on the 15 acres bounded by State Highway 44, S. Edgewood Lane and E. State Street. It went from an empty lot to six food brands in about twelve months. The first restaurant opened in late September 2025. The sixth opened in late September 2026.

For Lexington Hills, that timing is worth a closer look. The neighborhood was built between 1992 and 2004. It was finished long before this east-end corner had a plan anyone agreed on. What finally got built there was shaped by a traffic argument that is still visible in the parking lot.

Eight Years Empty, Then a Lawsuit

East End Marketplace was first approved in 2016. The site sits just north of the Eagle Tennis Club, and that location kept causing problems. The Idaho Statesman reported in March 2024 that busy roads ran along nearly every side of the parcel. That worried both the council and neighbors about the load that drive-thru restaurants would add. At the time, State Street and Edgewood Lane met without a stop light. Drivers heading east onto Highway 44 had to wait for a gap to turn left.

In April 2024, the council voted 2-2 and Mayor Brad Pike broke the tie to approve the project, BoiseDev reported. At the next meeting, the council reversed itself over traffic and the building's design. The developer sued. Months later, the council approved a revised application, and Pike broke another tie to do it.

The revised plan is the one you drive through today. The Idaho Press listed what changed:

• Three drive-thrus instead of five
• Some retail space converted to offices
• More landscaping along Highway 44
• A projected 30% drop in traffic, a figure Nelson attributed to the Ada County Highway District and the Idaho Transportation Department

Nelson also said about $1.4 million had already gone into the project, mostly into improvements on the surrounding roads. The two anchors named in that approval were Chick-fil-A and Panera Bread.

Twelve Months, Six Openings

Once the anchors committed, the rest of the tenants arrived quickly.

Panera opened its first Eagle store on Sept. 25, 2025, and the Idaho Statesman noted then that Chick-fil-A was expected in 2026. Mo' Bettahs held a public preview on Feb. 5 and officially opened on Feb. 6, 2026. Its Eagle location page lists hours of 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. It is closed Sundays.

Ahead of the Slice House opening, the Statesman was already calling East End Marketplace a "fledgling dining and retail district." Zao Asian Grill, a Utah-based chain that builds bowls, salads, tacos and wraps at an assembly-line counter, opened in new construction with indoor seating, a modest patio and a drive-thru. The same story reported that Chick-fil-A, Panera and Mo' Bettahs had all "recently opened." It also spotted a "coming soon" sign for Handel's Ice Cream in the suite next to Zao.

That sign turned into an actual opening. CBS2 covered the line at Handel's on opening day, Sept. 24, 2026. The doors opened at 11 a.m. at 1581 E. State Street. The Handel's Eagle page lists hours of 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily and marks them as subject to change.

The Pizza That Needed Three Opening Dates

Slice House by Tony Gemignani was the last of the six to open. Its route there says something about how hard it is to open a restaurant on this corner.

The Eagle restaurant first planned to open in August. When August passed, it announced a mid-September date, then backed off days before launch. Its third release set the opening for 11 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26. The Idaho Statesman wrote that it asked the brand's spokesperson for a pinky swear before believing this one.

"I pinky swear!"

That was the reply the Statesman printed. The restaurant's Eagle location page now shows it open for dine-in, takeout, delivery and catering.

Here's what Eagle got:

• The chef. Gemignani is a 13-time world champion pizza maker. He opened Tony's Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco's North Beach in 2009, and Slice House became a national franchise in 2022. Eagle is the 36th location.
• The local owners. The opening release named Steve Cutter and Clark Morton as owners and operators. They also run the Meridian Slice House, which opened in October 2025.
• The crusts. New York, Sicilian, Grandma and Detroit styles, sold by the slice or as whole pies, plus wings, salads, and gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian options.
• The Idaho-only pie. The Huckleberry Pie comes with purple and baby red potatoes, mozzarella, applewood-smoked and maple bacon, Larchwood Farms huckleberry jam, green onions, chili flakes, Romano, oregano and garlic oil, with sour cream on the side. It is sold by the slice only.
• The room. Indoor seating for 61, plus a shared patio that seats 20.

Gemignani has cooked in the Treasure Valley before. During the pandemic in 2020, he ran Tony G's Pizza, a smaller operation out of the Crave Delivery ghost kitchen in Meridian that has since closed.

Check the hours before a late Friday visit. The opening release listed a 10 p.m. Friday close. The location page now shows 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday.

Getting In Is Still the Hard Part

The 2024 debate was mostly about access, and that question still decides how the corner works on a weeknight. In 2024, Rennison described the site plainly to the Idaho Statesman:

"It's a challenging site … Access is tough to say the least. It's not a problem getting out of the development, it's a problem getting into the development."

To get there, the developers secured access from both State Street and Edgewood Lane and rebuilt the Edgewood and State intersection. The site plan the Statesman published that spring sent exiting traffic onto McGrath Road on the east side or onto East State Street on the north. The council later approved a revised plan, so the final layout may differ from that drawing. Still, the basic shape held: you come in from Edgewood or State and leave toward McGrath or State, with Highway 44 along the south edge behind a landscaped buffer.

In practice, the drive-thru lanes the council fought to limit are the most crowded part of the lot, and the patios are the calmer choice. Zao has a modest patio, and Slice House has room for 20 people outside. A pizza, then a Handel's cone a short walk across the lot, never puts you in a drive-thru line.

The Corner Isn't Finished

The tenant list is likely to keep growing. In the weeks before Slice House opened, the Statesman described Slice House's building as still made up of unoccupied suites. It also reported workers and "mountains of dirt" on the empty lots directly across from the new restaurants. The same writer wondered how many quick-service restaurants one corner can support.

A parcel that sat empty for eight years, through a reversal, a lawsuit and two tie-breaking votes, filled six storefronts between September 2025 and September 2026. The remaining suites in the Slice House building are the next thing to watch on Edgewood Lane.

If you're curious how new commercial corners like East End Marketplace connect to everyday life in Lexington Hills and the rest of old Eagle, Georgie Pitron follows these changes block by block and is glad to talk them through over coffee. Schedule your personal consultation.