Austin to Get a Chinatown

7/16/2006-- Austin is joining the likes of New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles with the introduction of a new Chinatown Center which is set to open at the end of the month.

It may be quite smaller than those cities for now but Tan International Group is building The Chinatown Center on North Lamar near 183. It will include a 70,000 square foot grocery store, around 40 retail stores and 7 restaurants all catering to the Asian community.

Alex Tan, with the group, says the Asian population in Austin has tripled in the last 15 years and now they will have a central place in Austin to fulfill some of their needs as opposed to before when they had to travel to Houston's Chinatown or Dallas.