H-E-B announced a massive plan to expand its operations on San Antonio’s Eastside, a push that comes with a major price tag and is expected to add more than 1,000 jobs.
The San Antonio-based grocer said they’re investing $700 million to expand its supply chain, adding an anticipated 720 jobs by 2028 and totaling more than 1,200 full-time jobs in the next decade. While the plan isn’t finalized, a potential location for the expansion is H-E-B’s more than 2 million-square-foot Foster Road warehouse on the Eastside — the company’s largest.
“For the project, preliminary plans include construction of a state-of-the-art bakery, refrigerated warehouse, transportation building, and additional facilities as well as an expansion of its existing manufacturing plant,” a press release reads. “These efforts will complement existing operations and support the company’s growing supply chain operations across the region and state.”
Since purchasing the 870-acre Foster Road site in 2018, H-E-B has already poured more than $445 million into it, the press release states. The expansion would make the warehouse H-E-B’s biggest manufacturing and supply chain investment, as well as putting it among the largest industrial investments in the area.
According to the press release, construction could start as early as this year and facilities could become operational as early as 2028. However, things are still in the planning stages.
H-E-B, the largest privately-owned employer in the state, is asking Bexar County for a $15 million tax break in order to expand the facility, according to the Express-News. A meeting agenda shows that the Commissioners Court will vote next week on whether to allow staff to negotiate a 10-year, 85 percent property tax abatement agreement, as well as giving H-E-B an exception to Bexar County’s tax break requirements.
Companies seeking county assistance for facilities are required to pay all full-time employees a living wage — $20.18 an hour — and 70 percent of full-time employees an “all-industry wage,” which is $21.34 per hour. H-E-B, the state’s largest privately-owned employer, currently has a base hourly wage of $18.23, which would rise to $24.55 after the 10th year of the agreement, according to the Express-News.