At rally, Gonzalez pushes for solutions to north Killeen food desert

Killeen Daily Herald
By Paul Bryant | Herald Staff Writer
October 26, 2022

About 30 people attended an informational rally on Wednesday evening in which Killeen City Councilwoman Jessica Gonzalez, standing in front of the former H-E-B building on North Gray Street, explained how officials have not given up on efforts to bring a grocer to the area.

“As we all know ... we lost two very important staples here — IGA and H-E-B,” the District 1 representative said. “It’s caused our citizens to have to travel up to 20 minutes to get to a grocery store” on Trimmier Road in Killeen, West Stan Schlueter Loop in Killeen or in Harker Heights.

“We need to have quality food,” Gonzalez said. “Our stores also serve as economic drivers.”

The H-E-B store on North Gray Street closed in October 2019, leaving a “food desert” in north Killeen.

In August of that year, the IGA Foodliner on East Rancier Avenue closed its doors as well.

While residents in that part of the city have longed for a new grocery store, efforts to bring one have produced nothing.

‘They loved it’

“The council was actively engaging partnerships with local developers,” Gonzalez said. “We started out having conversations with our city manager, and the investors came down here. We showed them the city, and they loved it. But they couldn’t overcome logistics.”

Earlier this year, negotiations between the Killeen Economic Development Corporation, a developer and an unnamed grocery chain to bring a new 60,000- square-foot grocery store to an empty lot near Rancier and North 38th Street failed after a two-year effort. That large lot, where a movie theater burned down in 2004, is still vacant.

Meanwhile, the owner of the North Gray Street property, Mohammed Bahrami, said a provision of his contract with H-E-B prohibits the re-opening of the store as a grocer retailer for more than 50 years.

“There’s a 55-year block on this particular location,” Gonzalez said. “So, we can’t establish a grocery store even if we wanted to.”

55-year prohibition

As for trying to draw other grocers to the area, “they have to generate at least $1 million a week,” said Ronnie Russell of the Innovation Black Chamber of Commerce.

“There’s no grocery store in Nolanville or in east Temple,” he said. “They need two other grocery stores (in the area) to make it work” logistically. “But we’re actively engaged to try to bring resources into the city.”

Bahrami said he purchased the North Gray Street property four or five years ago under the name “501_503 Powell LLC.” According to the Bell County Tax Appraisal District website, the assessed value is $530,000.

“Let’s make sure we leave no stone unturned,” Gonzalez said. “Let’s talk about boutique grocers. They’re on the East Coast and are working beautifully ... on a smaller scale.”

But for any grocer considering north Killeen, warehousing and transportation issues are a problem, she said.

‘Our best option’

“That’s one of the biggest challenges we have today. I do believe the boutique grocer is our best option.”

However, Gonzalez said, one of the provisions of the contract with Bahrami is that no more than 500 square feet can be used for grocery retail.

Near the end of the rally, Killeen resident Michael Fornino pointed at Councilman Jose Segarra, who was standing next to him, and partly blamed him for the food desert in north Killeen.

Segarra responded with a terse profanity, and the two men stood face to face for several minutes while Gonzalez and Precinct 2 Bell County Commissioner Bobby Whitson intervened.

Other officials at the event included Killeen EDC President and CEO Scott Connell, Councilman Michael Boyd and the city’s downtown revitalization director, Katlin Kizito.