What’s next for H-E-B in North Texas?
Now that HEB has started building its first two stores in Dallas-Fort Worth, what’s next?
The company announced in March that it was making the big leap to Dallas-Fort Worth. In autumn 2022, the company will open its first two branches – one each in Plano and Frisco. It also announced a store in McKinney that will open in the spring of 2023.
HEB didn’t say much beyond that, but we know it will be years before it opens stores across D-FW and in your neighborhood.
We have compiled an updated map of the properties HEB owns and what we know about the company’s property plans.
Shops on the way
Plano: HEB is selling a long lease for a 1.27 acre pad in its parking lot across Spring Creek Parkway next to the first HEB in Plano. That’s big enough for a building with a drive-through. Rent starts at $ 135,000 per year for the first five years. The supermarket is under construction on the southwest corner of Preston Road and Spring Creek Parkway.
HEB’s first Plano store will open in the fall of 2022 on 6200 Preston Road at the intersection with Spring Creek Parkway.(Halkias, Maria)
Plano and Frisco: Both shops will have petrol pumps in the parking lots. The Frisco Store will be built on the northeast corner of Legacy Drive and Main Street. Many of HE-B’s largest stores have leased interiors for facial baths, banks, jewelry dealers, and other services. It could soon start offering Plano and Frisco front-of-store leases. Last month, James Avery opened in an HEB in League City. (For the 100th anniversary of the grocer in 2004, the jeweler from Kerrville created an HEB shopping trolley charm.) The more shopping centers close and are redeveloped, the more demand the space in front of the supercentres and supermarkets will be.
McKinney: It is not yet known if the third store announced will have gas pumps or EV charging stations. This McKinney store will be on the northeast corner of Custer Road and Eldorado Parkway.
Still decide
When HEB targeted D-FW 20 years ago and stepped in with its Central Market stores, it started buying land in North Texas. It decided to prove its new food specialty concept in this market and was successful with six of the 10 central markets in D-FW, where the concept is headquartered.
The next two examples illustrate how HEB methodically makes new store decisions and has changed its mind, and likely will again.
Grand Prairie: HEB bought lots in Grand Prairie early on, and the 18 acre lot at 5325 Lake Ridge Parkway was part of it. The property on the southwest corner of Camp Wisdom Road had a contract that required HEB to start building a store within five years. It no longer has it.
Mansfield: HEB pushed plans in Mansfield 2018 but then postponed its development project in the southern suburb of Tarrant County. It now has two separate lots there, about 5 miles apart on US 287.
At the moment, HEB appears to be focused on building new businesses on vacant lots, rather than refurbishing existing buildings, although this has been done twice in Dallas. It opened Central Market Stores in a former Borders bookstore in Preston and Royal and a former Albertsons on West Northwest Highway in 2018. It owns another vacant building in Lake Highlands.
Lake Highlands: HEB owns a 62,645 square foot vacant store in the northeast Dallas neighborhood of Lake Highlands, but put it up for sale after purchasing it in late 2016. The store at 10203 E. Northwest Highway in the Northlake Shopping Center was an Albertsons for many years, then became a Minyard Sun Fresh Market that was abandoned. It was in a series of 168 stores in eight states that the Federal Trade Commission had to sell as part of the Albertsons and Safeway merger. HEB also controls the empty supermarket and pumps on the corner of the store on Ferndale and East Northwest Highway.
What’s next?
When developers start putting together new residential projects, collecting zoning permits, and hiring tenants, HEB is a great name to drop.
Frisco: Last week, a building application for Four Corners, a 100-acre mixed-use development on the southwest corner of US Highway 380 and FM 423 in Frisco, included property owned by HEB. So far, one section has a CVS and apartments built on it. The grocer declined to talk about the location across from the large Windsong Ranch housing estate, saying only that it has “a real estate portfolio across North Texas in Dallas, Denton, Tarrant and Collin counties.” HEB owns another vacant lot in Frisco on Lebanon Road and FM 423. The two lots cover a large area of Frisco and are approximately 15 km northwest and 8 km southwest of the business it is currently building in Frisco.
We can probably expect HE-B’s locations to be mentioned more frequently as new neighborhoods are built and the San Antonio grocer is still buying local property and strategically looking for new roofs.
Forney: This year it bought a lot in Forney near the intersection of US Highway 80 and FM1641. Kaufman County led the D-FW area with 40% population growth over the past decade and was the leading residential construction market in North Texas last year.
How about a Joe V?
After all, the largest Texas-based grocery chain has no plans to just add HEB and Central Market stores here. While it hasn’t announced specific locations for its other two brands, the company has announced that the expansion will include them. Mi Tienda and Joe V’s Smart Shop could land in your neighborhood too.
Twitter: @MariaHalkias
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