TX: H-E-B Opens Lake Austin store, Its First Multi-Level Location in Austin, Creating 300+ Jobs

H-E-B recently opened its long-awaited Lake Austin H-E-B store, introducing the vibrant Austin community to a shopping destination that offers some of the most modern amenities, innovations and features H-E-B offers. 

The 97,000-square-foot Lake Austin H-E-B store is the first multi-level location for the retailer in the city and also offers a True Texas BBQ restaurant, SouthFlo Pizza, Lake Austin’s Coffee Spot, and underground parking.  As the largest privately held employer in Texas, the Lake Austin H-E-B store will employ more than 300. 

Lake Austin H-E-B showcases a world-class shopping experience that offers top-notch customer service and an expansive selection of fresh foods and quality products at everyday low prices. Located at 2652 Lake Austin Blvd., the store has a two-story porch and include features and innovations that make it a community gathering place.

Construction on Lake Austin H-E-B began in Oct. 2019. The project was interrupted due to pandemic-related delays.

“This is a special store that the community has waited for with great anticipation, and we are excited to provide the dynamic shopping experience our loyal and deserving customers will be proud of for decades to come,” said Jim Smith, Top Store Leader at the Lake Austin H-E-B.

On the first floor, the location showcases H-E-B’s critically acclaimed SouthFlo Pizza restaurant and the Lake Austin’s Coffee Spot, a coffee shop that serves specialty coffee, breakfast tacos, and pastries and baked goods made daily at the store’s in-house bakery. Lake Austin’s Coffee Spot  is open daily from 7 a.m. -9 p.m. for coffee and 7-10:30 a.m. for tacos. Open daily from 11 a.m. – 9 p.m., SouthFlo Pizza serves NY-style, made-to-order pizzas made from the freshest ingredients that start with artisan dough and finish off with a special herb/cheese blend.

On the second level accompanying the sales floor is a True Texas BBQ restaurant, which was named best barbecue chain by Texas Monthly. This location, which includes a full bar and indoor and outdoor seating, is the third True Texas BBQ restaurant in Austin. Along with mouthwatering Texas barbecue from the restaurant, the restaurant’s bar serves a range of Texas craft brews, including beers from several Austin breweries, and cocktails that include draft cocktails such as Old Fashioned and Margarita and frozen cocktails. The True Texas BBQ bar has happy hour from 3-7 p.m. Monday – Friday. The restaurant is open daily from 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.

As the #1 beer and wine retailer in Texas, the store will have a selection of more than 1,000 beers and over 2,000 wines along with a sampling station

Structured underground parking will ensure the store has a welcoming, pedestrian-friendly perimeter with wide sidewalks to encourage walking and biking to the store as well as street-level landscape that softens the store’s impact on the neighborhood. With a second-level sales floor, customers will have access to three elevators, open stairway, and multiple escalators and cart escalators.

The H-E-B Design team, which planned the store, introduced design elements that complement the neighborhood such as vine-covered walls; plenty of natural lighting; pitched roofs that relate the building’s scale to the surrounding neighborhood; and textured materials like limestone, wood, D’Hanis brick and metals. The store also will incorporate several environmental sustainability elements such as energy-efficient refrigeration with condensation capture for landscape irrigation as well as rooftop solar panels and EV chargers, which will be installed soon after the store opens.

In celebration of this grand opening, H-E-B made donations totaling $35,000 to local nonprofit organizations and surrounding schools. H-E-B donated $5,000 each to the Central Texas Food Bank and Treefolks. Pop-up Birthday, a nonprofit that provides birthday celebrations for children in foster care, and nearby schools Casis Elementary School, Mathews Elementary School, O. Henry Middle School, and Austin High School received $5,000 each in H-E-B gift cards.  

As part of its long-standing support for environmental sustainability, H-E-B announced late last year a $1 million gift to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation to support the 100th anniversary of Texas State Parks. To further showcase and celebrate the Texas State Parks centennial, the Lake Austin H-E-B will temporarily display nearly a dozen art pieces selected from The Art of Texas Parks collection. For the collection, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department commissioned Texan artists to paint scenes from their parks. Many of the paintings are on display at the Bullock Museum in Austin.

The largest privately held employer in Texas, H-E-B has more than 430 stores and 154,000 Partners in Texas and Mexico, and the retailer continues to be an economic driver as it expands across the state. As a multi-format retailer, H-E-B operates Central Market stores throughout Texas, as well as Joe V’s Smart Shop and Mi Tienda store formats in Houston. H-E-B also owns Favor Delivery, a fast and convenient delivery service that serves cities across the state.