H-E-B purchases land for new Sherman grocery store

By Michael Hutchins, Herald Democrat

Sherman will be the future site of a H-E-B grocery store. After months of speculation about the identity of a proposed grocer in south Sherman, the grocery store chain confirmed plans Tuesday to develop a nearly 20 acre site along FM 1417 into a future grocery store location.

For nearly a year, the potential recruitment of a new grocery store has been a thinly-kept secret in the city of Sherman, with city leaders teasing the announcement of a new grocery store chain last fall. Despite this, the identity of the proposed grocer remained unannounced until Tuesday.

“H-E-B recently purchased 19.809 acres located near the northwest quadrant of the intersection of FM 1417 and US 75 located in Sherman,” H-E-B Public Affairs Representative Mabrie Jackson said in a statement to the Herald Democrat. “There is no construction date set, however we look forward to serving more Texans in the coming years.”

For months, the city has said it was in negotiations with a grocer who was considering purchasing land in the Sherman Crossroads Development for a new location. This week, the Grayson Central Appraisal District updated its property maps to reflect that the property was formally purchased by H E B LP on June 13, 2025. Representatives for the company and the city of Sherman later confirmed the purchase.

“The city is very excited that this is now public and we have a couple years of infrastructure to do on that site before it is ready, but this is a big win for the community,” Sherman Mayor Shawn Teamann said Tuesday.

“It is nice now that the cat is out of the bag and they have completed that acquisition,” he added.

While the identity of the proposed grocer was not public until now, there were multiple signs that a grocer was coming to Sherman. During the annual mayor’s roundtable discussion in September, former Mayor David Plyler and former City Manager Robby Hefton teased the announcement ahead of the discussion.

“So here’s a little bit of a teaser of an announcement that is a little bit confidential, so we are having to be careful here,” Hefton said.

“At Sherman Crossroads, which is on the south part of town, at (FM) 1417 (and US Highway) 75, Jeff (Harkinson) and his group have done a great job of developing that area,” Hefton continued. “There is currently under contract a 22-acre site for sale with that land to a major grocer whose name we cannot reveal.”

The signs of a grocery store coming to Sherman continued into the fall, with developers of the Sherman Crossroads petitioning the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for permission to fill a pond on the FM 1417 property in order to clear the way for a grocery store.

Teamann confirmed the removal of the pond and the creation of other stormwater mitigation features are among the projects that will need to be completed prior to the construction of the grocery store.

Last month, the city formalized an agreement for nearly $11.5 million to improve the site. City-led improvements will include a new 7.28 acre detention pond and more than 2,000 linear feet of 12-inch pipeline. A 45-foot-wide roadway will be built to serve the new development and connect the U.S. Highway 75 service road with FM 1417, among other improvements.

City officials expect that the project could be a boon for Sherman and could spur both development and interest in both for the Sherman Crossroads Development and in south Sherman as a whole. City officials previously said the grocer could draw in shoppers from outside Sherman, which would bring in sales tax revenues from outside of the community.

“The closest comparison would be to Sam’s (Club),” Sherman Community and Support Services Manager Nate Strauch said, describing the proposed grocery store in June. “Sam’s is the grocer in Sherman that people that don’t live in Sherman drive to Sherman to shop at — Walmart to some degree as well — but there is a Walmart in Denison.”

“The reason that Sherman has become the economic powerhouse of Grayson County, which really isn’t in dispute when you look at the numbers, is one reason and only reason only and that’s Town Center,” Strauch added. “The sales taxes that are generated in Town Center, over half of which come from people that don’t live in Sherman, are the biggest portion of our city budget.

“You have a city where the people who don’t live here, that come to shop here, are paying for the city services of the people who do live here, which is an incredible position to be in.”

For his part, Teamann said he hopes that H-E-B could serve a similar role for development in south Sherman by serving as an anchor for the Crossroads development. With a major attraction like H-E-B coming in, he hopes that it will attract synergistic businesses.

“With H-E-B aggressively expanding in NT our community has been rallying behind them having a location in the Texoma area and North Texas,” Teamann said. “When they choose a site like this, they will bring in other retailers that would want to surround it, sit down restaurants.”

“The possibilities are endless for what that could mean for that location,” he continued.