Three years ago, Sprouts was “fully focused” on being the grocery store that would anchor the Lake Highlands Town Center at Walnut Hill and Skillman. Nothing ever came of that.
Then, this past March, the city approved its certificate of occupancy at the former Skillman-Abrams Tom Thumb. But we’ve seen no progress since.
So we called Jean Smith, the chief operating officer and partner at United Commercial Realty, who has worked with Sprouts Farmers Market to open 11 stores in DFW and also two more coming soon to Arlington and Hurst. He was the one who told us three years ago that Sprouts wanted the Town Center to be the site of its 12th DFW store. But according to our most recent conversation with Smith, Lake Highlands may not even be in the running for store no. 14.
Smith acknowledges that Sprouts has been “looking for a long time” in what he calls the “Lake Highlands trade area,” but he couldn’t confirm that Sprouts has any plans to open a store here. When we asked whether Sprouts still wants a store in Lake Highlands, Smith would say only that the grocer hopes to have ” a store that would serve that market.” Of course, from a corporate standpoint, Preston Hollow or Lakewood might be considered a location that would serve the Lake Highlands market.
So thus far, our neighborhood is still not reaping the benefits of grocery activity that has been “off the charts” in DFW over the last four years, Smith says. We now have more grocers per capita than anyone, with the possible exception of Phoenix, he says. Companies such as The Fresh Market and WinCo have entered the market and will continue opening other DFW stores, Smith says, adding that HEB is ” laying bank to a bunch of sites” in DFW (though not in Dallas proper) and he expects it will open a few stores around here in the near future. HEB is “pretty particular” about its sites, plus usually requires 6-10 acres, which is tough to find in urban Dallas, he says.
Would HEB be interested in the 13 acres at Northwest Highway and Skillman that used to house Steakley Chevrolet? Smith says several grocers and Costco have looked at it, and he could certainly see a grocer on that site, but has “no idea what’s happening there.”
Or what about the Town Center, which was announced to great acclaim in 2007 but in seven years has seen no action except an apartment complex, as Christina Hughes Babb noted yesterday? The entire site is 70 acres, so even with park and the Haven, there’s still plenty of room.
Since Sprouts seems to be retreating, and the Town Center as mixed-use mecca still hasn’t materialized, here’s hoping that some desirable grocer has our neighborhood in its sights.
