H-E-B’s Central Market Advances Uptown Dallas Development

Central Market is headed uptown.

H-E-B’s long-planned Central Market flagship store at the corner of McKinney and Lemmon avenues would bring the San Antonio-based upscale grocery brand into one of Dallas’ hottest neighborhoods for multifamily and commercial real estate, the Dallas Business Journal reported.

Central Market parent company H-E-B is seeking a zoning change to build a 60,000-square-foot store, with early renderings showing outdoor seating, a stage for live music and an open-concept cooking school. The site at 3524 McKinney Avenue previously housed an Albertsons that closed in 2015.

The grocer said it hopes to begin construction next year, and a typical buildout takes about 15 months.

The move comes after nearly a decade of neighborhood anticipation and signals another step in Uptown’s transformation into a luxury-living, walkable enclave.

The move positions Central Market to become Uptown’s most high-end grocery anchor, joining a short list of in-neighborhood options that includes Whole Foods, a Tom Thumb in Victory Park and several boutique food retailers. The closest Central Market location for Uptown residents is on Lovers Lane, a 15-minute drive away.

The project fits into a broader trend in Uptown, which has become Dallas’ premier destination for finance firms and high-rise luxury living. The submarket’s office vacancy rate is outperforming the broader metro, and a pipeline of luxury multifamily development — including branded condos and hospitality-driven mixed-use towers — is drawing wealthier residents to the city’s urban core.

Other developers have proposed different uses for the McKinney and Lemmon site in recent years, including a $295 million high-rise concept from KDC that was later scrapped.

Texas’ retail development boom is largely driven by grocery stores. They accounted for almost half of all retail space delivered last year, according to Weitzman.

H-E-B, Kroger and Walmart have the busiest construction pipelines among grocery stores in Texas.

— Judah Duke