Supermarket move

H-E-B carts out opening date for 100,000-square-foot South Austin store

H-E-B is opening its newest Austin store in 2022.

Photo courtesy of H-E-B

An H-E-B grocery store is on track to open next year on the Southwest Austin site of the Nutty Brown Amphitheatre.

Documents filed with the State of Texas show San Antonio-based H-E-B plans to break ground in the spring of 2022 on a $25.8 million, 105,689-square-foot store at Nutty Brown Road and U.S. Highway 290 West. The store will be built on the 65-acre Nutty Brown property, which H-E-B bought in 2015. Completion of the project is set for October 2022.

“At the moment, it is premature for H-E-B to comment on potential plans for this location given the early stage of this proposal. We look forward to sharing additional details as the project develops,” company spokeswoman Felicia Peña says.

Mike Farr, owner of Nutty Brown — located between Dripping Springs and Southwest Austin’s Circle C Ranch — announced in 2014 that the outdoor music venue would relocate to Round Rock. That plan has been delayed twice; an economic incentive deal for the project expires at the end of 2021.

The new venue will not carry the Nutty Brown name. The $10 million Round Rock Amphitheater is slated to be built on a more than 18-acre site that used to be McNeil Park. Brad Wiseman, director of planning and development services for the City of Round Rock, says performances at the amphitheater could start by this fall, if not sooner.

Farr “is working on a scaled-down version of the project due to the impacts of COVID-19, with the plan of growing it over time as things get back to normal,” Wiseman says.

Farr couldn’t be reached for comment.

shopping

share the road

Texas races to the bottom in new list of best states for cyclists

Photo by Justin Wallace on Unsplash

If you've ridden your bicycle in Austin, you already know how true this is.

In what will come as no surprise to cyclists around Austin, the state of Texas is not a good place for bicycle riding. According to a new report of the "Most Cycling-Friendly States in the U.S.," Texas comes in at No. 47 — meaning that only three other states are worse.

The report, from Philadelphia personal injury law firm KaplunMarx, examines all 50 states based on six metrics: Air quality index, the number of cyclist deaths per one million residents, bike routes per square mile, local government actions supporting cycling, federal funding for cycling projects, and bicycle laws.

Texas musters a mere 31 points out of 100 for its "cycling friendly score."

The most cycling-friendly state in the U.S.: Minnesota, which earned 84 points to claim the title.

According to the report's findings, there have been 15 local government actions per capita in Texas that integrate pedestrians and cyclists in transportation projects. Texas' has a 41 air quality index value, and there are approximately 1.2 bike routes per 1,000 square miles in the state.

On cyclist deaths, Texas does a little better, with three cyclist deaths per one million residents in Texas — about nine percent lower than the national average.

According to KaplunMarx founding partner Ted Kaplun, there is an average of 857 cyclist fatalities in the U.S. every year. He adds that every measure or community effort to improve cyclist-friendliness is beneficial for all Americans.

"It's crucial for all states to continually assess and enhance their cycling provisions, learning from both high-ranking peers and their own experiences," he says.

Top-ranking Minnesota has only one cyclist death per one million state residents. It also has about 27.2 bike routes per 1,000 square miles.

After Minnesota, the remaining top five best states for cyclists are Massachusetts (No. 2), Rhode Island (No. 3), Washington (No. 4), and Iowa (No. 5).

At the bottom of the list are Nevada (No. 48), Arizona (No. 49), and Utah (No. 50) — all of which performed far worse than Texas to be declared the three least cycling-friendly states.

The entire country still has areas for improvement when it comes to creating a safer environment for cyclists, regardless of where each state landed on the list, according to Kaplun.

"With over 53 million Americans riding bicycles regularly, the importance of cycling-friendly infrastructure and safety measures cannot be overstated," said Kaplun in the report. "This isn't just about rankings – it's about enhancing the quality of life, promoting sustainable transportation, and most crucially, saving lives."

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