KILLEEN, Texas — For several years, folks living in Downtown Killeen have been traveling across town to do their grocery shopping.
The building on Gray Street in Killeen was once an H-E-B but its doors closed in 2019.
Since it was the last grocery store in that side of town, the area has become a food desert.
Many residents say it was hard to watch the store they grew up close.
”Being a kid that shopped at the H-E-B when I was a young boy, I was born and raised in Killeen, knowing how important that was to my family and friends throughout the community," said Executive Director of the Killeen Food Care Center, Raymond Cockrell.
Cockrell says the numbers at the Food Care Center have jumped more and more every year since the H-E-B on Gray Street shut down.
”We ended our fiscal year in Sept. 30, and we served 121,374 people —AAn all-time record in our 36 year history and the first time we went above 100,000," Cockrell said.
H-E-B told the city they were closing because they were losing tens of thousands in profits every month — one of many hurdles for a new store.
”With a company like that losing $40,000 a month, it’s difficult to bring other grocery stores because they need to make money,” said former Mayor and current Killeen City Council Member, Jose Segarra.
H-E-B also threw their own wrench in the city’s plans.
Due to a clause that H-E-B put in their contract for this building another grocery store cannot be put in the same location for 55 years.
The city has been working to put one here on this lot on the corner of 38th and Rancier.
”If it was just working with one person, then it would be easy,” Segarra said.
“You’ve got to remember that you have the business, you have the land developer, and then you have the surrounding community. It’s a combination of a lot of things that have to come together to make this happen.”
While they work to figure that out, the Food Care Center is working to pick up the slack for people who can’t make it to the other side of town — these are efforts that can’t last forever.
”Groceries are going to cost us more this next fiscal year than they ever have, and we can’t sustain that in the long run,” Cockrell said.
“We’ve got to have options for people to be able to shop and buy groceries for their families on the north side of town.”
Segarra said a deal on the new grocery store depends and a company, the city and the developer agreeing on everything.
Tulsa-based company Oasis is asking for a letter of intent from the city to give incentives before they release financial reports to the bank or to Killeen Economic Development Corps.
25 News will provide updates as they become available.
