H-E-B plans to build a new supermarket on a dormant landfill site in Buda, Texas, through an agreement with local government agencies under which the grocer will receive more than $20 million in incentives to help cover the cost of making the location safe for development, according to a Wednesday announcement.
Under the newly finalized arrangement, the grocery chain will invest in remediating the land in addition to paying for roadway improvement in the area around the new store. Sales and property taxes rebates generated from the project will fund the 30-year incentive package.
H-E-B plans to begin constructing the new store this year. The announcement did not provide a timeframe for when it will open.
H-E-B has also agreed to redevelop the site of its existing store in Buda, a city of approximately 18,000 people located about 15 miles south of Austin, Texas. Within 18 months of opening the new location, the grocer will repurpose a minimum of 60% of the property where its current store is located for businesses that generate sales tax.
In addition, the retailer has promised to create at least 50 full-time-equivalent jobs within a year of opening the new store and will purchase construction supplies locally, according to the announcement.
Buda and the city’s economic development corporation will jointly cover up to two-thirds of the estimated $30 million cost of remediating the land designated for the new store, with a cap of $12.1 million. Hays County and the county’s emergency services district will each provide up to $4 million for the effort to transform the site, which the announcement said has been “vacant and underutilized for decades,” into a retail center.
“This is a defining moment for our community,” Buda Mayor Lee Urbanovsky said in a statement. “By taking land that once symbolized limitation and turning it into a source of jobs, commerce, and community pride, we are writing the next chapter of Buda’s story.”
The Buda City Council approved a zoning modification to allow H-E-B to use the site for a new store in December 2025, local news site MySA reported. H-E-B has long wanted to expand its presence in Buda and considered using the landfill site for a store about two decades ago, but decided against moving ahead at the time because the cost of remediating the site was too high, according to MySA.
