Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by pseudo3d »

architect wrote:
Side note: does anyone have any predictions for what might happen with the Grapevine and McKinney sites? Personally, I think that Grapevine would make a great Kroger location, though I doubt that HEB would sell directly to major competition.
If H-E-B sold to Albertsons, then selling to Kroger is not out of the question.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by architect »

Update on the Uptown and Northwest Highway/Midway Minyard Sun Fresh locations:

At the Uptown location, HEB has erected a wrought iron fence around the edge of the property to close off the parking lot, along with placing yellow caution tape at the entrances (I am assuming that this is only temporary to alert drivers of the new fence). In essence, this blocks off the parking lot and prevents patrons of the nearby bars/restaurants/apartments from parking in the large surface lot on the property. Since this fence appears to be semi-permanent (it is much more elaborate than a typical chain-link fence), my guess is that HEB has no immediate plans for the property and wants to prevent the store/site from falling into poor condition in the meantime. Also, the store lights are all turned on, with no signs of demo work taking place.

At Northwest Highway/Midway, no signs of work have been completed at the property, aside from removing all Minyard Sun Fresh signage. However, according to employees at one of the businesses in the shopping center, HEB hit a delay in getting permits through the city and should be starting construction soon.

Out of the remaining stores, Mockingbird/Abrams has had all signage removed and interior demo work started for some time now (this location was sold to Lincoln Property Company), Northwest Highway/Ferndale is showing no signs of activity since closing under MSF with all lights still on and signage intact, and both the McKinney and Grapevine stores appear to be on the selling block with the lights being turned off shortly after HEB announced that they were selling/leasing these locations.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by pseudo3d »

architect wrote:Update on the Uptown and Northwest Highway/Midway Minyard Sun Fresh locations:

At the Uptown location, HEB has erected a wrought iron fence around the edge of the property to close off the parking lot, along with placing yellow caution tape at the entrances (I am assuming that this is only temporary to alert drivers of the new fence). In essence, this blocks off the parking lot and prevents patrons of the nearby bars/restaurants/apartments from parking in the large surface lot on the property. Since this fence appears to be semi-permanent (it is much more elaborate than a typical chain-link fence), my guess is that HEB has no immediate plans for the property and wants to prevent the store/site from falling into poor condition in the meantime. Also, the store lights are all turned on, with no signs of demo work taking place.

At Northwest Highway/Midway, no signs of work have been completed at the property, aside from removing all Minyard Sun Fresh signage. However, according to employees at one of the businesses in the shopping center, HEB hit a delay in getting permits through the city and should be starting construction soon.

Out of the remaining stores, Mockingbird/Abrams has had all signage removed and interior demo work started for some time now (this location was sold to Lincoln Property Company), Northwest Highway/Ferndale is showing no signs of activity since closing under MSF with all lights still on and signage intact, and both the McKinney and Grapevine stores appear to be on the selling block with the lights being turned off shortly after HEB announced that they were selling/leasing these locations.
I thought that one of those stores was being sold back to Albertsons (NW Highway/Ferndale I think).
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by architect »

pseudo3d wrote:
architect wrote:Update on the Uptown and Northwest Highway/Midway Minyard Sun Fresh locations:

At the Uptown location, HEB has erected a wrought iron fence around the edge of the property to close off the parking lot, along with placing yellow caution tape at the entrances (I am assuming that this is only temporary to alert drivers of the new fence). In essence, this blocks off the parking lot and prevents patrons of the nearby bars/restaurants/apartments from parking in the large surface lot on the property. Since this fence appears to be semi-permanent (it is much more elaborate than a typical chain-link fence), my guess is that HEB has no immediate plans for the property and wants to prevent the store/site from falling into poor condition in the meantime. Also, the store lights are all turned on, with no signs of demo work taking place.

At Northwest Highway/Midway, no signs of work have been completed at the property, aside from removing all Minyard Sun Fresh signage. However, according to employees at one of the businesses in the shopping center, HEB hit a delay in getting permits through the city and should be starting construction soon.

Out of the remaining stores, Mockingbird/Abrams has had all signage removed and interior demo work started for some time now (this location was sold to Lincoln Property Company), Northwest Highway/Ferndale is showing no signs of activity since closing under MSF with all lights still on and signage intact, and both the McKinney and Grapevine stores appear to be on the selling block with the lights being turned off shortly after HEB announced that they were selling/leasing these locations.
I thought that one of those stores was being sold back to Albertsons (NW Highway/Ferndale I think).
I thought that someone mentioned that too (NW Highway/Ferndale was the location supposedly being sold back to Albertsons), but so far, I have seen no indications of that being the case. Although Albertsons would likely renovate the store before reopening (especially if under the Tom Thumb banner), the floor plan for this location is essentially identical to both the Wylie and McKinney Tom Thumb conversions, making the renovation process fairly straightforward. All I know is that someone needs to get that store back operational, as Kroger is making some serious coin just down the street in a location which is grossly undersized for the volume it is currently pulling.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by pseudo3d »

Breaking! Albertsons bought the McKinney and Grapevine stores back, but not the Northwest store....

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/reta ... cquisition

Albertsons stores are nearby both (east and south respectively)
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by architect »

pseudo3d wrote:Breaking! Albertsons bought the McKinney and Grapevine stores back, but not the Northwest store....

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/reta ... cquisition

Albertsons stores are nearby both (east and south respectively)
The sale of both of these locations is not surprising. Both of these stores hover around 50k-70k square feet, far smaller than a typical new build HEB at over 100k. Also, HEB already owns land in close proximity to both of these stores. In McKinney, HEB owns sites at both Custer/Eldorado and Lake Forest/University, with both sites already having civil drawings filed with the city showing the future store outlines along with parking and surrounding retail (these can be viewed on the City of McKinney's planning and zoning maps online). Likewise, in Euless, HEB owns property adjacent to the Glade Parks development, which is just an exit down from the Grapevine store being divested.

Also, as a update to the original story, Albertsons has announced that both stores will reopen under the Tom Thumb banner. It will be interesting to see if they reopen them with the existing Lifestyle decor, or do a full renovation while they are still closed.

Now, the question yet to be answered is what will happen with the Northwest Highway/Ferndale store? Despite rumors that the store has also been sold to Albertsons, I am assuming that they are not the buyer (or at least at this time) since it's sale was not announced along with these other two stores. My personal guess is that HEB is retaining this store as a potential HEB location down the road, but is publicly feigning a sale in order to prevent suspicion that a market entry is eminent. Also of note, this location is not listed as for sale or for lease on HEB's real estate site.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by pseudo3d »

architect wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:Breaking! Albertsons bought the McKinney and Grapevine stores back, but not the Northwest store....

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/reta ... cquisition

Albertsons stores are nearby both (east and south respectively)
The sale of both of these locations is not surprising. Both of these stores hover around 50k-70k square feet, far smaller than a typical new build HEB at over 100k. Also, HEB already owns land in close proximity to both of these stores. In McKinney, HEB owns sites at both Custer/Eldorado and Lake Forest/University, with both sites already having civil drawings filed with the city showing the future store outlines along with parking and surrounding retail (these can be viewed on the City of McKinney's planning and zoning maps online). Likewise, in Euless, HEB owns property adjacent to the Glade Parks development, which is just an exit down from the Grapevine store being divested.

Also, as a update to the original story, Albertsons has announced that both stores will reopen under the Tom Thumb banner. It will be interesting to see if they reopen them with the existing Lifestyle decor, or do a full renovation while they are still closed.

Now, the question yet to be answered is what will happen with the Northwest Highway/Ferndale store? Despite rumors that the store has also been sold to Albertsons, I am assuming that they are not the buyer (or at least at this time) since it's sale was not announced along with these other two stores. My personal guess is that HEB is retaining this store as a potential HEB location down the road, but is publicly feigning a sale in order to prevent suspicion that a market entry is eminent. Also of note, this location is not listed as for sale or for lease on HEB's real estate site.
Northwest/Ferndale is smaller than a new-build H-E-B as well, so if they want to build a new H-E-B there, it will be small. Given that they operate some far-flung stores as it is, they longer they keep it empty, the more underwhelming it will be (I've noticed that H-E-B/Albertsons conversions range from average to disappointing). Maybe they're still negotiating with Albertsons?

The two stores that ABS bought back are pretty close to existing Albertsons stores, which is why they divested them in the first place.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by architect »

pseudo3d wrote:
architect wrote:
pseudo3d wrote:Breaking! Albertsons bought the McKinney and Grapevine stores back, but not the Northwest store....

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/reta ... cquisition

Albertsons stores are nearby both (east and south respectively)
The sale of both of these locations is not surprising. Both of these stores hover around 50k-70k square feet, far smaller than a typical new build HEB at over 100k. Also, HEB already owns land in close proximity to both of these stores. In McKinney, HEB owns sites at both Custer/Eldorado and Lake Forest/University, with both sites already having civil drawings filed with the city showing the future store outlines along with parking and surrounding retail (these can be viewed on the City of McKinney's planning and zoning maps online). Likewise, in Euless, HEB owns property adjacent to the Glade Parks development, which is just an exit down from the Grapevine store being divested.

Also, as a update to the original story, Albertsons has announced that both stores will reopen under the Tom Thumb banner. It will be interesting to see if they reopen them with the existing Lifestyle decor, or do a full renovation while they are still closed.

Now, the question yet to be answered is what will happen with the Northwest Highway/Ferndale store? Despite rumors that the store has also been sold to Albertsons, I am assuming that they are not the buyer (or at least at this time) since it's sale was not announced along with these other two stores. My personal guess is that HEB is retaining this store as a potential HEB location down the road, but is publicly feigning a sale in order to prevent suspicion that a market entry is eminent. Also of note, this location is not listed as for sale or for lease on HEB's real estate site.
Northwest/Ferndale is smaller than a new-build H-E-B as well, so if they want to build a new H-E-B there, it will be small. Given that they operate some far-flung stores as it is, they longer they keep it empty, the more underwhelming it will be (I've noticed that H-E-B/Albertsons conversions range from average to disappointing). Maybe they're still negotiating with Albertsons?
Although the Ferndale store is also smaller than a typical new-build HEB, it may be the only way to break into the Lake Highlands market, as property values are much higher in the area and available land is scarce (particularly to the extent that HEB would need to build a ground-up store). HEB has actually converted several of these former 2000's Albertsons boxes successfully, including a high-traffic, high volume and upscale location in Westlake (near Austin). I do agree that many of their other Albertsons conversions (particularly in the Houston area) have been underwhelming, but much of this revolves more around demographics more than anything else (especially the Gessner/Kempwood store). The only truly awful conversion I have seen is in Clear Lake, where an early 90's Albertsons was converted while leaving the existing drop ceiling and basic fluorescent strip lighting in place. It feels extremely claustrophobic, especially when combined with HEB's typically bright, colorful decor.

I do also agree that HEB either needs to do something with this store or sell it. They are quickly loosing the enthusiasm among their potential customer base for a market entry, especially with Tom Thumb back in growth mode and so many other grocers expanding around the area.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by pseudo3d »

*Apparently* (this is from what I've been told by an H-E-B employee that has worked in the company a dozen years, so take this with a bit of salt) that H-E-B is still bound by a no-compete clause it has with Tom Thumb or Albertsons (I couldn't quite get which one), which is why they're still sitting on their D/FW sites instead of building, with it only ending if they pulled out of the market (and depending on which one, there were fairly open opportunities to take either one, but that door is now closed). I do know that there was a handshake agreement with Randalls that prevented them from entering Houston (and Randalls from Austin), with that breaking when Randalls bought Tom Thumb (though if the "trial" Pantry stores count, H-E-B broke that first).

Still, whether that actually exists or not might explain why H-E-B is making Central Market the vehicle for Dallas-Fort Worth whereas it's just a "special" grocery store elsewhere.
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Re: Breaking: HEB buys 6 Minyard Sun Fresh stores in DFW

Post by architect »

Interesting twist/update on the two Northwest Highway Minyard Sun Fresh stores: Yesterday, I drove by the former Minyard Sun Fresh at Northwest Highway/Midway and saw a sign advertising a fixture/equipment sale occurring later this week. This sign was handwritten on a bright yellow sheet of posterboard, and seemed like it was put together on short notice. As previously announced, this store is being converted into a Central Market, and I would expect that this sale is in anticipation of construction starting within the next month or two. Apparently, the opening date for this store has also been pushed back to early 2018 according to media reports.

Now, for the twist, I passed by the Northwest Highway/Ferndale store this morning, and from the road saw a similar yellow sign posted at the entrance. This move is somewhat strange, as seemingly this store was still for sale (or was also rumored to be going back to Albertsons to reopen as a Tom Thumb). If HEB was planning to sell to another grocer, I doubt that they would want to clear out fixtures and equipment prior to the sale, as this would make it less attractive to a buyer. My guess is that either HEB has suddenly developed plans for this store, or they are planning to sell/lease it to a non-grocer tenant. It will be interesting to see if there are any more forthcoming announcements pertaining to this property.
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