Several new businesses are now open at a development along Denton’s southern boundary off Interstate 35E — a sign, some say, that business in Denton is still prevailing.

“We are getting a lot of traffic,” said Bob Shelton, developer of Unicorn Lake, a multimillion-dollar mixed-use development. “People are just discovering us and realizing we have different things to offer.”

The Fourth of July weekend sparkled with the opening of a workout facility, an ice cream shop, a real estate brokerage firm and a Chinese restaurant at Unicorn Lake.

A Denton Curves location, a new Beth Marie’s Old-Fashioned Ice Cream and Soda Fountain, and Cafe China moved into the first building at Market Square, part of Unicorn Lake.

Despite a difficult year for realty sales, a real estate office relocated to Unicorn Lake Boulevard in mid-June.

RE/MAX North Associates relocated from Teasley Lane to 3111 Unicorn Lake Blvd., Suite 110.

In the past month, two hair salons opened in different areas of Unicorn Lake — Studio One Salon at 2735 Wind River Lane and Salon LaPage, next to Curves. Curtis Mortgage and Total Eye Care opened earlier this year and will soon have a new neighbor at the corner of their building: Cafe Du Luxe, owned by David Carles.

Shelton said people are enjoying the atmosphere.

“We have restaurants, dining and a theater, so you have a combination of a lot of things with projects of this nature,” he said.

That combination includes a women-only workout center at the new location for the Denton Curves franchise. Sisters-in-law JoAnn Shelton and Shirley Butler bought the business in January from previous owner Christy Blankeneau, when Curves was located on Dallas Drive.

Butler and Shelton moved it to Unicorn Lake, at Suite 146 in Market Square.

“We bought it to move over here,” said JoAnn Shelton, wife of Bob Shelton. “The plan was never to stay.”

Loyal customers have followed Cafe China over to Unicorn Lake.

Since opening Monday, restaurant owner and manager Peiling Burrus said she’s seen plenty of people.

Much of her clientele remembers when she had her restaurant close to Loop 288.

“We closed in 2004, and now we reopened,” she said.

Burrus said she signed a letter of intent when Bob Shelton announced the Unicorn Lake development several years ago and just waited for the space to be available.

While she waited, she worked at La Madeleine in Lewisville but kept getting phone calls from regulars who wondered what happened to her business and when it would open again.

So when her new restaurant opened in Suite 130 at Market Square, regulars brought flowers and said they were happy to see her back.

“About 200 people stopped by in 2 1/2 days,” Burrus said.

KARINA RAMIREZ can be reached at 940-566-6878. Her e-mail address is kramirez@dentonrc.com.