H-E-B buys nearly 500 acres in Waller County for distribution campus

 

San Antonio-based H-E-B LP is planning a massive distribution campus in the Houston area, where it is one of the top two traditional grocery store chains.

The company announced April 25 that it closed on nearly 500 acres in Waller County for the project. The Hempstead site is south of U.S. Highway 290 and east of Highway 6, roughly 50 miles northwest of downtown Houston.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, H-E-B said, and information about the seller and brokers involved was not immediately available.

The campus will include several distribution facilities developed in multiple phases, H-E-B said. The first phase of construction is expected to start in late 2024.

As the campus is still in the planning phase, additional details will be released as the project progresses, H-E-B said. However, the company said the campus will include facilities to support supply chain operations for H-E-B’s growing business.

“The land purchase is the first step in the development of this strategically planned campus, a project that will position H-E-B to better serve our customers well into the future,” H-E-B Chief Supply Chain Officer Carson Landsgard said in a statement. “The investment demonstrates H-E-B’s commitment to communities across Texas and will give us the opportunity to create more jobs in the Hempstead area in the coming years.”

In March, H-E-B hit 95 Houston-area stores with the opening of its Madera Run location. That 117,000-square-foot store, at 16000 Woodland Hills Drive in Humble, is in The Groves master-planned community across the street from the Pavilion at The Groves apartment complex.

Meanwhile, H-E-B Katy Park opened on Feb. 21. That store, which also spans 117,000-square-feet, is located at 24924 Morton Ranch Drive in the 54-acre The Market at Katy Park development.

Prior to the Madera Run and Katy Park locations, the most recent H-E-B to open in the Houston area was the Manvel location. That store, at 17119 Highway 6, opened in October. The 106,000-square-foot grocery store anchors the 273-acre Manvel Town Center, which will be one of the largest open-area shopping centers in Greater Houston with more than 1 million square feet of retail space and the largest project ever for Dallas-based Weitzman.

Another noteworthy H-E-B planned in the Houston area is Howard Hughes Holdings Inc.’s 11,500-acre Bridgeland master-planned community in Cypress. That location will anchor Village Green at Bridgeland Central, a 70-acre mixed-use development within Bridgeland’s 925-acre urban core.

H-E-B has more than 435 stores across Texas and Mexico. Locally, H-E-B and The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) are the top two traditional grocery stores by far in the Houston area. The Kroger Houston Division includes 108 stores in Southeast Texas and Louisiana, including 100 in the Houston metropolitan statistical area.

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