Dallas Market Gaining Two HEB Central Market Locations After Mass Property Purchase [UPDATED]

DALLAS, TX — San Antonio-based HEB Grocery Co. is expanding into Dallas in a big way, with the acquisition of six locations at which it plans to build stores, according to a published report.

The Dallas Morning News reports that the grocer has purchased four Dallas stores in Uptown, Lake Highlands, Lakewood and Northwest Dallas. The properties targeted for purchase have been operating as Sun Fresh Market stores for barely a year, the newspaper noted.

Another two Sun Fresh stores are located in McKinney and Grapevine, and company officials are in the process of closing them, according to the report.

"We're thrilled to have these properties," HEB spokeswoman Mabrie Jackson told the paper.

After this article originally ran on Dec. 31, Jackson contacted Patch with an update. She said the sites had always been considered for future Central Market stores, not HEB-branded stores. Of the sites, two will be used as new Central Market store locations at Lemmon/McKinney and Midway/Northwest Highway.

"The other leases will be transferred to other retailers," Jackson said. "Central Market had to purchase all six locations to acquire these two properties we originally desired," she added.

The four stores in Dallas formerly were Albertson's locations while the McKinney and Grapevine sites served as Tom Thumb locales, the newspaper reported.

The Central Market concept specializes in high-quality gourmet offerings.

It will be several months before the stores re-open under the Central Market banner. All told, the sites the company purchased in order to build the two Central Market stores are located at:

• McKinney - Hardin Boulevard and El Dorado Parkway;
• Grapevine - State Highway 121 and Hall Johnson Road;
• Dallas - McKinney Avenue and Lemmon Avenue;
• Dallas - Northwest Highway and Midway Road;
• Dallas - Northwest Highway and Ferndale Road;
• Dallas - Mockingbird Lane and Abrams Road.

The Dallas Morning News noted that HEB has been buying up land in recent years, but the latest acquisitions represent the first time the company has purchased already-built structures, with one exception. A few years back, the company bought the former Borders Bookstore at the southeast corner of Preston Road and Royal Lane in Preston Hollow and converted it into a Central Market, the newspaper noted.

Additionally, HEB owns about 20 parcels of land in the North Texas region, including in Allen, Carrollton, Corinth, Dallas, DeSoto, Fort Worth, Frisco, Grand Prairie, Mansfield, McKinney, Murphy and Plano, according to the report.

The grocer currently operates two Central Market stores in Dallas and one each in Plano, Southlake and Fort Worth. The H-E-B stores are south of Dallas and Fort Worth in Burleson, Cleburne, Corsicana, Granbury, Ennis and Waxahachie.

>>> Read the full story at Dallas Morning News

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