The first shoppers arrived at I-35 and McCarty Lane at 6 p.m. the evening before the store opened. When the doors opened on Oct. 7, H-E-B reported a crowd of more than 1,000. According to KTSW, the festivities started at 4 a.m. with free coffee and food, a DJ, the San Marcos High School Drumline, Diamond Line and a mariachi band, and the first 250 people in line got swag bags.
Six weeks later, the third San Marcos H-E-B at 1074 E. McCarty Lane is part of the weekly routine. It is also the first finished piece of a bigger change on that corner. A fuel station, a Home Depot and a Rooms To Go are all under way within sight of the parking lot, and their opening dates are spread over the coming year. For anyone living on the south side or east of I-35, the useful question is which errands this corner covers today and which ones it will take over by the end of 2027.
Where the Closest H-E-B Moved
Until October, San Marcos had two H-E-B stores, and both are on Hopkins Street. H-E-B's store locator lists their distances from the new McCarty Lane store:
- West Hopkins H-E-B, 200 W. Hopkins St., about 3.57 miles away
- East Hopkins H-E-B, 641 E. Hopkins St., about 4.36 miles away
So for a household near McCarty Lane, the nearest H-E-B went from a drive of three to four miles up the interstate to a store at the end of the street. Community Impact described the opening as expanding grocery access for residents east of I-35 and on the city's south side. It also noted that the City Council adopted a resolution on May 7, 2024 supporting tax incentives for new grocery stores.
The store covers 114,000 square feet, which makes it the largest H-E-B in San Marcos. Ground was broken on Nov. 4, 2025, and it opened less than a year later. Community Impact puts the investment at about $53 million and the workforce at more than 400 jobs, roughly 212 full-time and 238 part-time.
The locator lists store hours as 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. The pharmacy, which has a drive-thru, is open:
| Day | Pharmacy hours |
|---|---|
| Monday to Friday | 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. |
| Saturday | 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. |
| Sunday | 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
Curbside pickup has its own dedicated parking spaces, and Home Delivery is available from this store as well.
The Part of the Store That Covers Dinner
The biggest difference between McCarty Lane and the two Hopkins Street stores sits inside the building. It is the first True Texas BBQ in San Marcos, a restaurant with indoor seating and its own drive-thru. According to H-E-B's opening announcement, the meats are all-natural and smoked in-house over Texas oak, with sides like brisket beans, creamed corn and homestyle potato salad. H-E-B runs more than 50 True Texas BBQ locations across the state, and this is the first one in town.
The same announcement lists several other ready-to-eat counters that turn a grocery stop into a dinner stop:
- Sushiya, with sushi made in-store daily and a hot Asian grill serving fried rice, noodle bowls, rice bowls and teriyaki
- Mi Tienda tamales, hand-wrapped in real corn husks and sold hot
- H-E-B Meal Simple, with chef-inspired meals prepared in the store each day
- H-E-B Natural rotisserie chicken, roasted fresh in store
- Warm H-E-B Bakery desserts, plus artisan breads and tortillas made in-store daily
Other departments make this store a wider errand than a typical grocery run. There is a deli with a charcuterie island, a meat market carrying Prime, Wagyu and fully cooked options, a craft beer and wine section with a sampling station, a Healthy Living department with bulk foods, and H-E-B Texas Backyard, which sells live plants, pottery, soil and gardening supplies. Blooms floral is in the store too.
Put together, a south side household can pick up brisket at the drive-thru, a bag of potting soil and a week of groceries without getting back on I-35.
Second Saturdays Bring Music
H-E-B also plans for people to stay a while. Through its True Texas Tunes program with H.O.M.E., the True Texas BBQ dining room hosts live music on the second Saturday of every month from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., beginning this November.
November's date, Nov. 14, has already passed, so the next one is Saturday, Dec. 12. That is also one of the dates listed on the Sights & Sounds of Christmas website. This year the festival is scheduled for Dec. 3 to 5 and Dec. 10 to 12 at San Marcos Plaza Park, 206 N. C M Allen Pkwy. If you want both on Dec. 12, the music at McCarty Lane is a late-morning lunch stop. Check the festival's own site for its hours and tickets as the date gets closer.
What the Rest of the Corner Adds, and When
The grocery store opened first, and it won't be the only one there. Three more projects are under way on the same I-35 and McCarty Lane intersection, according to Community Impact's Oct. 20 report and H-E-B's own announcement. Each one takes a different errand off the drive north.
| Project | What it adds | Size | Expected opening |
|---|---|---|---|
| H-E-B | Groceries, pharmacy, True Texas BBQ | 114,000 sq. ft. | Open since Oct. 7, 2026 |
| H-E-B Fresh Bites | Convenience store, fuel station, car wash | Not reported | Spring 2027 |
| The Home Depot | Home improvement, with a 28,120 sq. ft. garden center | 107,797 sq. ft. | 2027 |
| Rooms To Go | Furniture | 52,460 sq. ft. | Fourth quarter of 2027 |
H-E-B says work on the convenience store was still under way when the grocery opened. Community Impact's Oct. 12 business roundup lists Fresh Bites at 3375 S. I-35 frontage road and says it will serve True Texas Tacos or Soflo Pizza. That adds another place to eat on the same lot as the BBQ restaurant.
The Home Depot will be the company's first San Marcos location, built next to the new H-E-B at a cost of about $13 million. Rooms To Go is being built on the southeast corner of the McCarty Commons development. Once all of these open, a south side homeowner's list of grocery, gas, a hardware run and a furniture delivery can start and end at one intersection.
Getting In and Out of the Intersection
More stores bring more cars, and the city has already planned for that. A San Marcos traffic analysis cited by Community Impact expects traffic to grow as the McCarty area develops and proposes new turn lanes and restriping at the intersection to handle it. When Community Impact covered the FM 110 extension in February 2024, it reported that McCarty Lane carried 10,000 to 11,000 vehicles per day. That count came before any of these stores opened.
FM 110 is the main way to avoid the interstate. Its northern section runs from Hwy. 80 to east of I-35 at Yarrington Road and opened to traffic on Dec. 20, ahead of a ribbon cutting on Jan. 31, 2024. It was built partly to offer an alternative to the I-35 corridor, and it gives drivers another route between San Marcos and Kyle. For a Saturday that combines a stop at McCarty Lane with an errand in Kyle, FM 110 keeps the whole trip off I-35.
The Store's Ties to Local Groups
At the Oct. 6 ribbon cutting, H-E-B gave $10,000 each to the San Marcos Education Foundation, the Hays County Food Bank and the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, KTSW reported. The company also plans a $20,000 tree and irrigation project at San Marcos High School in spring 2027. The tree project falls in the same season as Fresh Bites, so spring 2027 is when the next round of changes reaches both the McCarty corner and the high school campus.
If you live near McCarty Lane and want to know what your home is worth while this corner fills in, Esther Talley and the team at Olive Fox Properties can walk you through it using current, neighborhood-level numbers. Start with a free home valuation.
