San Antonio-based HEB has broken ground on a store in McKinney as the grocery chain prepares to expand into North Texas. HEB currently has stores in Burleson, Weatherford, and Waxahachie; stores in Frisco and Plano should open later this year.
The location near Custer & Eldorado Pkwy in McKinney should open in late 2023.
"We're kind of a big company now," HEB's Mabrie Jackson said. "We started, really, quite small, but now, we have more than 400 stores, and we're located in Texas and in Northern Mexico."
Jackson says the store will add 500 "partners" to its workforce of 145,000. The company is partially owned by employees, and employees are called, "partners."
The U.S. Census says Collin County was the 9th fastest growing county in the country from 2010 to 2020, adding 289,728 people for a total population of 1,072,069. Mayor George Fuller says, as the county grows, HEB is tapping into a growing market.
"There's not much empty land. This piece has been vacant for a while," Fuller said. "I can tell you the moment it was announced what would be here would be an HEB, this community has just rallied in excitement."
At the groundbreaking, HEB announced it would donate $10,000 each to five non-profits in Collin County: Citychurch, Community Garden Kitchen, Hugs Cafe, Love Life Foundation and Seed Project Foundation.
"I go to a lot of meetings, companies that are considering coming to McKinney," Fuller said. "I can tell you I never, never have meetings where most of the meeting is spent asking me, 'What are the organizations that are engaged and involved in McKinney that we can help?'"
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