H-E-B on South Congress officially reopens Wednesday. Here's a look inside the new store

H-E-B officially reopened its newly constructed South Congress Avenue store Wednesday morning.

The multilevel, 145,000-square-foot building replaces the longest-standing H-E-B in Austin and more than doubles its size.

The Texas-based grocery chain has maintained a presence in the South Congress area for more than 80 years, moving to its location at the corner of South Congress Avenue and West Oltorf Street in 1957.

H-E-B demolished the roughly 70,000-square-foot store in 2022 and began construction on a new store designed to better accommodate the rapidly growing neighborhood. A temporary store, about 22,000 square feet and with limited stock, was opened at the adjacent Twin Oaks Shopping Center to serve the community during construction.

“This is a site that we've been serving for a long time, and the growth in this area outpaced the store that we had here,” H-E-B Central Texas Regional Vice President Cathy Harm said. “So, we hung onto that store for as long as we could, but we just couldn't serve the community anymore because there's so much growth. … We're going to be able to offer everything in this new store.”

On Tuesday, H-E-B hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony and party to celebrate the reopening of the South Congress location. The party included access to the new store, its True Texas BBQ eatery, a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a performance by Ray Benson and his band Asleep at the Wheel.

“Marking this milestone, we're incredibly proud to unveil this new store that honors our roots in this iconic community and will continue supporting this amazing community for many, many years to come,” H-E-B's Winell Herron, group vice president of public affairs, environmental affairs and diversity and inclusion, said Tuesday evening.

The new South Congress store features a three-level parking garage; indoor and outdoor dining on the ground level; H-E-B’s in-house barbecue restaurant True Texas BBQ; an expanded beer and wine selection; and local art displays focused on the legacy of the South Congress neighborhood.

H-E-B has announced 12 major projects for the greater Austin area, including the South Congress location. Half of those projects are plans for new stores and the rest are renovations. The company expects to add more than 4,000 jobs to the local economy.

In a press release from last week, H-E-B publicized that it expected the property it owns in Del Valle to “be sold back to the developer.” Residents in the area have previously called for better access to food and for the grocery chain to develop the land it owned. Del Valle residents organized for a community-owned food cooperative this year to better serve their community.

Harm said Tuesday that the decision to rebuild the South Congress store and develop others over potential plans for a Del Valle store was made because the South Congress neighborhood grew too rapidly and needed an expanded store to better serve the community that H-E-B had already helped foster.

Stephen Butt, president of Central Market and member of the Butt family behind the grocery giant, said Tuesday that the South Congress store is an important part of H-E-B’s history in Central Texas, and the new facility is a product of 10 years' worth of planning, designing and constructing.

Last week, H-E-B announced it was donating $1 million to Austin Habitat for Humanity to support two affordable housing projects in East Austin. H-E-B is helping to fund construction on the 126-unit Persimmon Point project and the ongoing Whisper Valley development that will have more than 70 new homes constructed by the new year.

Affordable housing "is an issue in the city of Austin,” Harm said. “Any opportunity that we have where we can impact challenges that the communities that we're serving have — we want to be there any chance that we get. We saw this as an opportunity with our recent donation to Habitat for Humanity to help with the affordability issue in the city of Austin.”

The new store opened its doors Wednesday morning at 6 a.m. The first several hundred customers will receive an H-E-B gift bag and other prizes to celebrate the opening.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: H-E-B reopens South Congress location Wednesday. Here's a look inside