Galveston H-E-B Buzz: What Are Residents Really Talking About?

Of all the things Galvestonians never tire of talking about, H-E-B’s possible return to the island is no Ball High football (4-0 entering district play this week), but it’s certainly up there. By now, the saga echoes Lucy repeatedly pulling the football away from Charlie Brown.

Still, many islanders are weary of driving 14 miles to Texas City, 21 miles to Santa Fe, or 23 miles to Bay Colony in League City to get their H-E-B fix. The rumor mill resumed grinding out slivers of hope this week after the Galveston County Daily News reported that an undeveloped parcel of county-owned land in a prime location has been linked to a Houston-based developer whose website calls H-E-B a “trusted partner.”

Citing the ever-anonymous but usually knowledgeable “insiders,” the paper’s Biz Buzz column said that Lovett Commercial, which specializes in “neighborhood retail, urban redevelopment, and large grocery-anchored shopping centers,” has an agreement with Galveston County to buy the 14-acre tract for $4 million. However, nothing has been signed while county commissioners “delve into the details,” the Daily News said.

Galveston H-E-B Buzz What Are Residents Really Talking About (1)

The land in question is a large patch on the north side of Broadway between 54th and 59th streets, near the Galveston Municipal Court and Galveston County Justice Center. The location is a few dozen yards away from the end of the I-45 causeway and convenient to 61st Street, one of the island’s principal north-south thoroughfares.

According to the Daily News, the land has sat vacant for decades after some old warehouses were demolished. It has almost been sold three separate times since early 2023, most recently for an undisclosed amount to Nevada’s Amerco Real Estate Company. That deal fell through this summer, Commissioner Joe Giusti told the Daily News.

H-E-B was last said to be interested in returning to the island in December when news of the proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger was still fresh. The San Antonio-based chain left the island in 2008, when its store on 61st Street was battered by Hurricane Ike and left vacant. The building currently houses Odyssey Academy, a public charter school for pre-kindergarten through high school.

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As with this week, a rep for the chain addressed those rumors with a tersely worded, slightly open-ended sentence: “There are no plans to open an H-E-B in Galveston at this time.”

Persistently high grocery prices have emerged as one of the leading issues in the upcoming presidential election, and this week the Washington Post published a map of dominant grocery stores across the nation. Walmart controls most of Texas, Kroger the I-45 corridor from Galveston to near Huntsville. H-E-B reigns supreme in Central and South Texas, from the Rio Grande Valley to just south of Killeen.