Business
BY JACQUELYN BURRER & COLBY FARR
Grocery stores surge in North Texas
Zooming out
New grocery stores are opening due to pop- ulation growth and active competition, Palmer said. The first Dallas-Fort Worth location of H-E-B debuted in Frisco in 2022. Since then, more stores have opened in McKinney, Plano, Prosper, Alliance and Allen. “For the last three or four years—almost exclu- sively—the growth in the retail market has been grocery-anchored centers,” he said. “That’s H-E-B coming into our market in a big way, and that’s Kro- ger following suit and Tom Thumb following suit.” John Votava, corporate affairs director for Kroger, said Kroger officials consider growth when determining sites for new stores. Kroger wants to meet demand for grocery services in growing neighborhoods. “We’re just following the rooftops—where you see communities springing up out of the dirt,” he said. Kroger officials also examine demographics when determining what products the stores serve. For instance, 42% of the community surrounding a new Kroger store at 9617 Coit Road in Plano is Asian, Votava said. As a result, officials decided to increase the number of products that cater to the Asian demographic, he said. The new Plano store opened in January with 123,000 square feet and serves as an anchor store for the Coit Marketplace. It’s one of two stores opened by Kroger in 2025. The second opened in Fort Worth. More Kroger stores are under construction in Little Elm, Anna and Sendera Ranch, a neigh- borhood located in north Fort Worth, Votava said. Another Kroger store, located along the Prosper-McKinney border is expected to start construction in 2026.
experienced significant population growth, including Prosper, Celina and Frisco. David Palmer, Weitzman’s executive vice president of development, cited optimism about continued grocery store growth. “Grocer-anchored retail shopping centers are some of the most valuable retail real estate in the market when it’s done because of the stability,” Palmer said. “It’s the bedrock of the growth of retail in DFW.”
Grocery store development continues to surge in 2025 as grocery chains follow population growth in the North Texas area. H-E-B, Kroger and Tom Thumb accounted for nearly half of all new retail construction in 2024, according to a retail report from Texas-based real estate firm Weitzman. The same report projected those retailers to continue driving much of the new retail construction in 2025. Grocery stores are opening in cities that have
Tracking grocery store development in 2025
75
289
Open Coming soon Closing
Celina
5
35
377
A
G
B
A Costco B H-E-B C Kroger D Sprouts
B
D C
Prosper
B
A
380
Denton
C
H
380
E Trader Joe's F Tom Thumb G Walmart H Whole Foods Marketplace
McKinney
E
E
B
H
Frisco
A
Allen
C
75
C
35E
121
Plano
B
35W
289
F
B
Alliance
C
DNT TOLL
114
PGBT TOLL
PGBT TOLL
B
C
377
97
635
N
MAP NOT TO SCALE
NOTE: THIS LIST IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE. SOURCE: TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF LICENSING AND REGULATION/COMMUNITY IMPACT
Total population growth in Dallas-Fort Worth-area counties, 2020-24
Looking ahead
Tarrant County Denton County
Collin County
“In the late teens and first couple years of this decade, there weren’t many new grocer-anchored centers that developed, but population continued to grow,” Palmer said. Since 2020, Collin, Denton and Tarrant counties have seen increased population growth. Collin County has grown by nearly 17%, Denton County by just over 14% and Tarrant County by more than 5%, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Nakia Rohde, Trader Joe’s public relations manager, said in a statement to Community Impact that since opening its first Texas store in 2012, the company has grown to 23 locations statewide, with two more potentially planned in McKinney and Frisco. Palmer said the Dallas-Fort Worth area’s population growth and continued migration will keep driving grocery store development as retailers work to “catch up” with demand.
+5.41%
500K 0 1M 1.5M 2M 2.5M
+16.64%
+14.28%
2021
2022 2023 2024
2020
SOURCE: U.S. CENSUS BUREAU/COMMUNITY IMPACT
29
FRISCO EDITION
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