Upscale grocery to be revamped for $10 million
Houston’s Central Market is about to get a $10 million face-lift that adds 10,000 square feet to its Highland Villagearea store.
Houston’s Central Market is about to get a $10 million face-lift that adds 10,000 square feet to its Inner Loop store near Highland Village.
The renovation of the H-E-B-owned grocery announced Wednesday will be the first major revamp of the high-end store since it opened in May 2001 at 3815 Westheimer. Stephen Butt, H-E-B senior vice president for its Central Market division, said the project is meant to keep the chain competitive as Houston’s grocery market continues to experience new construction and other renovations.
Butt said the Houston store is one of the strongest of the nine Central Markets in Texas.
“This will be an important restaging of the store for the future,” Butt said. “It’s been 15 years since we’ve invested significant capital . ... We want to stay current with products but also keep the brand current in a competitive market.”
The renovation will begin in late May and be complete next spring. The store will remain open throughout construction.
Kroger, Wal-Mart and H-EB, which control a combined 80 percent of the Houston market, all have added new stores across the region, from League City to Baytown to northeast Houston. In the Galleria area alone, Whole Foods and H-E-B have opened stores over the past two years with features such as an in-house brewery and restaurants and
special sushi stations.
One recent competitor, Fresh Market, announced this month that it would close its Texas stores, including four in the Houston area, after launching here just three years ago. Shortly afterward, H-E-B Houston division president Scott McClelland told the Chronicle that stores in high-rent areas that don’t sell a large volume of groceries can have a hard time in an environment like this.
The Central Market renovation announced Wednesday would increase the size of its produce department by a third. It also would feature an expanded specialty grocery area with international selections and a bigger dairy department.
Other new features include a new facade designed to brighten the store’s exterior, a new atrium at the entrance with vaulted ceilings and skylights, a single-laneaccess checkout area and off-site employee parking.
Meanwhile, grocery-anchored projects continue to sprout up in the region, comprising 35 percent of the retail development now underway. As many as 2.2 million square feet of retail projects could break ground this year, according to CBRE research.
The grocery store boom followed years of tremendous population and job growth in closein and in outlying areas.