H-E-B opens first store in mixed-use development

H-E-B’s newest Houston location is growing the retailer’s footprint in the city’s inner loop. The 96,000-sq.-ft. location in Houston’s Buffalo Heights neighborhood also is the company’s first store build in a mixed-use development. 

The store is bringing shoppers various engaging food offerings, including its full line of H-E-B Meal Simple heat-and-eat offerings and curbside pick-up. It also will provide home delivery of groceries through partnerships with Favor, Shipt and Instacart. The location also will feature a wide range of H-E-B Organics options and H-E-B Select Ingredients products, which are free of high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors, alongside local product and a full-service seafood department. 

In addition to a full-service pharmacy, the store includes The Roaster Coffee Kitchen, an in-store café from Houston-based operation The Roastery by Four J’s, which is led by chef Jason Giagrande, who recently relocated to Houston.

The Buffalo Heights store is the first from the San Antonio-based retailer — and only the second in Texas — to receive the Environmental Protection Agency’s GreenChill Partnership gold-level award for green refrigeration technology.

“H-E-B is proud to join this cutting-edge initiative, which further signifies our commitment to be strong environmental stewards, providing our customers with more than just a great place to shop. We want them to know we’re actively protecting the state we proudly call home,” said Winell Herron, H-E-B group vice president of public affairs, diversity and environmental affairs. 

The store’s general manager will be a 28-year grocery industry veteran, Donna Theriot, who has been with H-E-B for 13 years. She has received H-E-B’s Hal Colett Great People award. 

“I have always believed in the importance of people and relish the opportunity to serve and work with the Washington corridor community,” Theriot said. “While each H-E-B is special, my team and I have collaborated to create a truly unique store from its aesthetics to its contents. I believe the Buffalo Heights H-E-B shopper will find exceptional variety and phenomenal service here, not to mention a grocery source close to home.

The company also donated $10,000 to Houston's Buffalo Bayou Partnership in honor of the opening. The organization is focused on transforming and revitalizing Buffalo Bayou.