If Councilman Jerry Allen is right and the city’s HUD loan application gives grocers the confidence to sign on to the Town Center project, who is the most likely candidate?
Jean Smith of United Commercial Realty says that yes, Sprouts is still interested, but that’s all he was willing to say this week.
We have a call in to Tom Thumb and are waiting to hear back about its plans.
The most recent rumblings we’re hearing, all off the record, are that HEB has examined the Town Center as a potential site. Other than its Central Market stores, including the ninth and newest opening at Preston and Royal in a couple of weeks, HEB doesn’t have a presence in DFW. However, real estate types say that the Texas company has been circling the wagons, and it’s only a matter of time.
In last February’s cover story about the possibility of coveted companies such as HEB opening in Lake Highlands, neighborhood resident David Shelton of UCR Urban said that if HEB decides to expand into Dallas, Lake Highlands won’t be first on their lists, but “would be on their radar and be in their market at some point in time.” In general, real estate types agree that HEB would roll out a number of DFW stores at once because that would be optimal in terms of distribution and marketing.
An Austin American-Statesman article this week states that the company operates more than 335 stores in Texas and Northern Mexico, and is in the midst of a statewide expansion. COO Craig Boyan is quoted as saying that “business continues to be strong, and so this year, we’re making some huge investments in Texas.” The investments mentioned in the story, however, are focused in Central Texas, and a couple of years ago, Boyan said in a different Austin American-Statesman article that the company’s expansion around DFW into places such as Burleson and Waxahachie was not indicative of expansion into Dallas: “It really is to serve Central Texas better. If you were going to go into Dallas, you’d put a warehouse in Dallas.”
I called Leslie Sweet, HEB North Texas spokeswoman, and she echoed that “the company is not actively looking at going inside the DFW metroplex.”
Perhaps the rumblings are just rumblings, or perhaps we’ll see HEB or another off-the-radar grocer emerge as the Town Center anchor.
