At its hometown headquarters in San Antonio, H-E-B is making a big investment to create a state-of-the-art tech center.
H-E-B announced Wednesday it plans to add 500 new jobs in San Antonio and build a 150,000 square-foot, five-story building in downtown San Antonio. The building will have the capacity to eventually house 1,000 employees.
Construction is set to begin next summer with plans to open by the summer of 2022.
The building will accommodate the growth of H-E-B Digital, which includes its product, design, technology and e-commerce teams, according to a news release.
“Our success starts with our people, who provide exceptional hospitality to deliver world-class shopping and digital experiences,” Craig Boyan, H-E-B President, said in a news release. “We’re committed to hiring more people, adding the necessary skills to become both a better tech company and even stronger brick-and-mortar retailer.”
H-E-B already has more than 1,000 employees in San Antonio on its H-E-B Digital team. And it recently added several hundred more at its Eastside Tech Hub in Austin, which opened in June. Altogether, H-E-B has more than 5,500 employees who are part of its H-E-B Curbside and Home Delivery teams.
“H-E-B continues to have an outsized impact on our community. One of our region’s greatest strengths is our willingness and eagerness to serve others, and H-E-B consistently leads the way in this respect,” Graham Weston, co-founder of Rackspace and Geekdom, said in a news release. “These 1,000 Partners will be digitally innovating from right here in downtown San Antonio, serving Texans everywhere. Another thing we do exceptionally well as a region is to celebrate. Today, we should all celebrate H-E-B. 500 new tech jobs in our community is the type of commitment that sets us on an entirely new path.”
San Antonio-based Lake Flato Architects will design the project, which will be similar to its Eastside Tech Hub with an open floor plan and areas for collaboration throughout, according to a news release.
“The San Antonio tech center will be become part of the new front door to our Arsenal campus, just as H-E-B Digital is creating a new front door for our customers online and via mobile shopping experiences,” Jag Bath, H-E-B Chief Digital Officer, said in a news release.
“The H-E-B tech center employing 1,000 people will be a quantum step in making San Antonio a center for technology,” Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said in a news release.
H-E-B also recently announced plans to launch a trial of driverless cars delivering groceries in the Olmos Park area, a suburb just north of downtown San Antonio. And the company acquired Favor, an on-demand delivery startup based in Austin, last year, which prompted the expansion there with its Eastside Tech Hub.
