Battle over a dry Heights bubbles up
Largely at stake in the proposition to allow beer and wine sales in the area is the development of a new H-E-B store.
Bill Baldwin isn’t a teetotaler. He buys wine by the case and holds regular cocktail parties in his historic mansion on one of the nicest streets in the Heights.
But when he thinks about the city potentially lifting a century-old ban on alcohol sales in his beloved neighborhood, he imagines the Heights becoming a different place — one where service stations and quickie marts litter Heights Boulevard and Yale, replacing quirky boutiques, restaurants and antique shops.
Baldwin is part of the “Keep the Heights Dry” movement, a group of individuals urging residents who live in the dry part of the Heights to vote against the city of Houston proposition that would allow the legal sale of beer and wine for off-premise consumption.
If the proposition passes
on Nov. 8, retailers like convenience and grocery stores would be able to sell beer and wine in a part of the Heights that has been dry since 1904. The change would not affect restaurants, which are able to sell alcohol by forming private clubs that their customers can join by providing their driver’s licenses.
Baldwin’s group is going up against the Houston Heights Beverage Coalition, a political action committee formed earlier this year to push the reversal of the dry law.
Largely at stake is the proposed development of a new H-E-B on a former Fiesta site at 2300 N. Shepherd.
H-E-B wants to buy the property but said it needs to be able to sell wine and beer in order for the store to be economically feasible.
“From a business proposition, if I spend $25 or $30 million building a store, I also need to make sure it can earn a fair return,” said Scott McClelland, Houston division president for H-E-B.
The San Antonio-based grocer has put more than $60,000 into the coalition, according to finance reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission.
Baldwin, who lives in the Heights but outside the dry area, said the election is not about being against H-E-B but preserving the character of the neighborhood.
His group has been urging residents of the dry area to consider the issue apart from H-E-B.
He said more service stations and convenience stores could diminish property values of the homes around them.
“This election is not about H-E-B, it’s about changing the fabric about my community,” Baldwin said.
Houston Heights Beverage Coalition chairman Steve Reilley, an attorney who lives in the dry area, said the opposition is using “fear tactics and speculation” to try to convince residents to vote against overturning the ban.
“The property values don’t vary from the dry to wet area; the crime rate doesn’t change,” he said.
The Houston City Council approved the putting the measure on the ballot earlier over the summer after collecting more than 1,700 signatures from residents on a petition. The proposition will appear only on the ballots of voters who live within the dry area.
Those boundaries are roughly Interstate 10 on the south, Loop 610 on the north, Durham on the west and Oxford on the east.
H-E-B has been looking for a site in the Heights or around it for several years, but McClelland said there’s not a lot of options in terms of available land large enough to accommodate a new store.
The company wanted to build just south of Interstate 10 at Yale but wasn’t able to secure the land. There is a Wal-Mart there now.
If the store on Shepherd is built, McClelland said he would want it to have a Heights-centric flair that would embrace the uniqueness of the area. He cited the H-E-B on West Alabama and Dunlavy in Montrose where the company worked with residents on designs.
McClelland stressed the importance of wine and beer sales in an industry with “razor-thin” profit margins.
If the company were to build a store that didn’t sell beer and wine, its nearby competition outside the dry area would have a competitive advantage.
Years ago, H-E-B had a small store at 11th and Rutland within the dry boundaries.
“It wasn’t profitable. We left,” McClelland said.
Baldwin said the dry ban has been a way to protect the character of the Heights.
He said if the provision is overturned, there could be another election in a couple of years to remove the dry ban entirely. Then, he said, major restaurant chains would flock to the area, pushing out the independents.
“Once it’s undone,” Baldwin said, “it’s never going back.”