The background
According to a March 26 news release, leaders with H-E-B have sent the city of Alamo Heights preliminary plans for the renovation project, which will provide updates to the store’s exterior façade, and a remodel of the shop’s interior.
Inside the Broadway Street building, the project will include repositioning select departments, increasing the number of energy efficient fixtures and equipment, growing the cafe seating area, improving the breakroom and administrative spaces, and streamlining work areas for employees.
Regarding the store exteriors, the project will have new design elements meant to complement the neighborhood, with additional windows allowing more natural lighting, and incorporating materials and textures such as wood, metals and D’Hanis brick.
There will also be parking lot upgrades, new sidewalks and pedestrian paths, and construction of a produce loading dock on the building’s upper level.
A closer look
H-E-B officials said the first of two project phases will start this spring and wrap up in late 2024. The second phase of renovations will start immediately after the completion of the first phase and is expected to be finished by mid-2026.
According to the news release, the overall renovation project will provide welcome updates to a structure, which H-E-B leaders opened as a regular grocery store in 1951 before turning it into an H-E-B Central Market.
Stephen Butt, H-E-B’s president of shareholder relations and Central Market division, said the Central Market is a fixture in the Alamo Heights community.
“With a commitment to strengthen that bond well into the future, we are announcing plans for a significant re-investment in Broadway Central Market. This major project will take time to complete,” Butt said in a statement. “When our work is finished, the newly renovated Broadway Central Market and our friendly partners will be well equipped to continue serving our customers with the freshest and best specialty products the world has to offer, for many years to come.”
