Hulking New H-E-B to be Built to Withstand Future Floods

A hulking new H-E-B is making its way to Meyerland Plaza — with a unique double decker twist. H-E-B’s motto has always been, “Here, everything’s better.” It looks like here just got a lot bigger. And hopefully, more flood resistant.

To help ensure that’s the case, the new two-story grocery store will be built on stilts, with the raised structure providing more protection from future floods and giving H-E-B more space to work with in a crowded, existing shopping center.

This new Meyerland Plaza H-E-B comes on the heels of Hurricane Harvey flooding the nearby South Braeswood/Chimney Rock store. The historic storm marked the third flood in three years at that devastated store, which is permanently closed.

“H-E-B is committed to Meyerland and stands by this community as it rebuilds from Hurricane Harvey’s devastating floods,” H-E-B public affairs director Cyndy Garza Roberts said in a statement. “We look forward to serving our Meyerland neighbors in a bigger and better way.”

The new, souped-up supermarket will be erected just two miles from the old location and stand a full five times the size of its 19,000-square-foot predecessor. Construction on the 95,000-square-foot, two-story building is scheduled to start in first-quarter 2019. The new H-E-B will be built at the site of the former BBVA Compass Bank at Beechnut and Endicott in the northwest corner of Meyerland Plaza.

The double-decker building will include a parking garage and a BBVA Compass banking center — with the actual grocery store shopping area on the second floor. A sky bridge will connect to the plaza’s JCPenney. All in all, the project will take up a sizable portion of the 950,000 square-foot outdoor shopping center that already includes a Target and a Best Buy.

Eager grocery shoppers will have to wait more than a year to check out the new Meyerland H-E-B, but a few special features could make it worth it. The double-decker H-E-B will feature a kosher bakery, sushi options and a large beer and wine department.

For the area’s large Jewish population, the kosher bakery is a natural amenity that the previous H-E-B did not have.

This is a forward-thinking grocery store in more ways than one.