SAN ANTONIO, TX – Last week, H-E-B received unanimous approval from the Historic and Design Review Commission to build a 12,000 square-foot grocery store in downtown San Antonio, Texas.

The San Antonio Business Journal reports that this new store will be H-E-B’s smallest at about one-sixth the size of its average stores, which range between 70,000 to 80,000 square feet.

William Triplett, Senior VP of Strategic Design at H-E-B, told the Business Journal that the retailer originally considered a 6,000 square-foot store, but opted to go a bit bigger. 

“Everyone always likes a bigger store because it allows us to increase our variety and offerings,” Triplett said. “We tried to make (the downtown location) as big as we could with the land available after a reasonable amount of parking, space for truck docks and the gas station.”

The Texas-based retailer is now learning how to operate this new small store format, specifically in regard to delivery methods and stock.

Triplett tells the Journal that he and his team are heading to Canada to meet with executives from Sobeys to learn the best practices for such a small store. Sobeys operates stores from around 30,000 square-feet all the way down to 4,500 square feet.

“We like reaching out to other retailers that are willing to share information,” Triplett added.

The new store will feature about 50 parking spaces, a gas station with four gas pumps and an outdoor dinning patio.

Construction on the new store is expected to begin in early summer and be completed by fall 2015.

H-E-B