Construction began Thursday at the Westpointe Village shopping center — soon to be home to the city’s second H-E-B.
Perched on the southwest corner of Loop 337 and State Highway 46, developers said the future grocery store and retail center could welcome shoppers by late summer or early fall 2010.
“We are really excited about the project,” said Wade McGinnis, vice president of shopping center developer Barshop and Oles. “We really see it as a regional store that’s going to benefit not only New Braunfels, but also people in western Comal County.”
Including H-E-B, McGinnis said the 50-acre shopping center would ultimately boast nearly 200,000 square-feet of retail space. He said it could be filled with a wide array of tenants — everything from restaurants and wine stores to dry cleaners and banks.
“We’re about to see a lot more retail growth on that end of town,” said Greater Chamber of Commerce President Michael Meek. “When you look at how Creekside has boosted retail on the North end of New Braunfels, I think Westpointe Village has the potential to be that strong retail bookend as people come into town from State Highway 46.”
The completion of Westpointe Village is expected to coincide with the first phase of the Texas 46 widening project.
TxDOT is expanding the street into a six-lane highway from Kerlick Lane to just past Oak Run Parkway, and McGinnis said the new lanes at the intersection should be done just as the doors are set to open at H-E-B for the first time.
Also providing traffic flow to the site are the extensions of Oak Run Parkway and Independence Drive, which were both completed this year.
The timing wasn’t an accident. The City of New Braunfels and Comal County both agreed to a $6 million tax-incentive deal with the site developers in December to have the two roads finished before TxDOT began its work at the intersection.
“In the end, we think the traffic flow is just going to be tremendous when you consider all of those roadway improvements,” McGinnis said.
McGinnis has said previously that the grocery store would likely not be a Central Market, but more of a full-service H-E-B. A better picture of the shopping center’s tenants and a firm completion date should be available in the spring, he said.
