Location of the land owned by H-E-B in Oak Cliff. Google Maps
In an effort to bring a quality grocery store to Oak Cliff, a local organization, A Better Oak Cliff, is pushing to have an H-E-B built on land the Texas supermarket chain owns in the Bishop Arts District.
A Better Oak Cliff is a group of individuals with the goal of bettering the community. Fredrick Terry grew up in Oak Cliff and started the organization alongside several concerned neighbors.
“I moved away back in the late 90s — I hadn’t lived in Dallas for 25 years — and then I moved back,” Terry said. “There wasn’t a quality grocery store when I left in the late 90s, and there’s still not a quality grocery store.”
After hearing on the news that H-E-B was building a location in Plano, Terry wondered why Oak Cliff did not have one.
“We are having to drive further than other people to get quality food,” Terry said. “In October, I made fliers and started walking around my neighborhood and talking to people and putting them in their doors and mailboxes. I asked people if they had the same issues, and everyone said yes.”
From there, Terry collected contact information and the organization began to grow. Now, the group has about 200 people.
H-E-B has owned land at 623 N Beckley Ave. in the Bishop Arts District since 2017, but the company has not shared any official plans to build on the lot.
Terry said the group is planning a day where its members will call the customer relations department in San Antonio in mass and ask that they build on the land they own in Bishop Arts.
“We want to flood their phone lines,” Terry said. “This is truly grassroots and just regular people who are interested in getting a great grocery store here.”
In April of 2023, the Advocate reported that a Central Market, a grocery store chain owned by H-E-B, could potentially be built in that space, but there were no official plans to move forward.
A spokesperson from H-E-B confirmed to the Advocate they do not currently have any plans to share at this time.
