A second H-E-B could be coming to Leander, company official says

The Texas-based grocery store chain held an informal meeting Oct. 9 at Pat Bryston Municipal Hall with residents in the nearby Ridgmar Landing subdivision to discuss the possibility of building a grocery store at the rural corner. H-E-B plans to purchase the property, but the company has made no commitment to building on the site, said Leslie Sweet, H-E-B director of public affairs for Central Texas.

“It all depends on the growth in that area,” she said. “H-E-B does not have the luxury of buying properties when we need them—the cost would be exorbitant if we did that—so we count on our real estate team to buy land in advance.”

The city had no involvement hosting the meeting, City Manager Kent Cagle said, and no city staff attended. Store officials are expected to come before Leander's Planning and Zoning Commission in the near future, Cagle said and Sweet confirmed.

“We go through and make sure we're able to build a store there, if so desired. That means going through all city development codes and ordinances,” Sweet said. “That can be confusing when folks see a store going through council and think it might be built immediately, but that's not the case on this property.”

The company opened an H-E-B Plus superstore—Leander's first grocery store in city limits—in February 2007 at the corner of Old FM 2243 and US 183 where the company purchased land between 2000 and 2005. Sweet said the company has waited as long as 15 years or more before building a store at an H-E-B–owned property. And, in some cases, a grocery store is never developed on purchased property, she said.

H-E-B does not determine the size and scope of a project—including whether a new store will be dubbed an H-E-B Plus superstore—until later in the process.

A development deal on a second Leander grocery store, a Randalls, was approved Oct. 11 and gives the company until early 2016 to build a new store at the corner of Lakeline Boulevard and Crystal Falls Parkway.