Central Market Finally Lands in Uptown Dallas

A long-stalled grocery store in Uptown Dallas is finally moving forward, with city officials signing off on plans to bring a Central Market to one of the neighborhood’s most visible vacant sites.

The Dallas City Council approved the site plan for the high-end grocer on Wednesday, clearing the way for parent company H-E-B to redevelop the former Albertsons at 3524 McKinney Avenue, at Lemmon Avenue. The Dallas Business Journal reported that the vote marks the final major hurdle after the City Plan Commission backed the project last month.

The approval ends a yearslong effort to plant San Antonio-based H-E-B’s upscale Central Market brand in Uptown, where demand for a full-service grocery option has grown alongside a wave of multifamily and office development, according to the outlet. The company called the project “a long time in the making,” signaling it’s ready to move into construction.

Plans call for a significant overhaul of the shuttered store, which has sat vacant since 2015. H-E-B will expand the existing 48,000-square-foot building by roughly 11,500 square feet and add an 86,500-square-foot parking garage.

The site has long been eyed as a catalytic redevelopment opportunity, according to the publication. Central Market was once slated to anchor the base of a $295 million mixed-use tower proposed by KDC, but those plans fizzled, leaving the property in limbo for nearly a decade.

Its revival now comes as Uptown continues to mature into one of Dallas’ most active live-work-play districts. The addition of a premium grocer is expected to reinforce the area’s retail and support nearby residential density, according to the outlet.

Central Market will enter a competitive but undersupplied niche. Existing options nearby include a Whole Foods on McKinney Avenue, a Tom Thumb downtown and a Walmart further afield, but none occupy quite the same specialty-focused, experiential lane as H-E-B’s flagship concept.

The Central Market brand, which H-E-B launched in Austin in the 1990s, has built a reputation as a destination for high-end, organic and international foods — a draw that often translates into higher foot traffic and longer dwell times.

— Eric Weilbacher