HEB Stone Oak: Office/Retail/Mixed-Use: Award of Merit
Joeris General Contractors led work on a first-of-its-kind HEB store for the Stone Oak community in San Antonio. Unlike most HEB stores, this one houses a full-service bar and restaurant, outdoor patio, play area and stage. The store, spanning 87,000 sq ft, had numerous elements that required detailed craftsmanship, including native stone chiseled to reflect the region and carved wooden beams that required multiple compound miter cuts.
The store's complex double sloping roof system was equal parts fashion and function. The roof starts out at 52 ft and slopes out to 35 ft to ensure that all rainwater drains off the back. Although it presented challenges from a constructibility standpoint, the roof was successfully installed and is the trademark architectural feature of the store.
The retail concept was at times ambiguous, as the owner was uncertain about what exactly should go into the new store. That meant including a lot of design elements that had not been used on previous projects, and plenty of trial and error. The owner would either scrap an idea and start over or move forward with it. However, there was no extension to the schedule.
One particular challenge was the decision to create the full-service bar, a change made roughly three months before the grand opening. The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission required a separate license for the bar, which meant that the HEB Grocery Store and the HEB Bar had to occupy separate addresses. This also required installation of a one-hour-rated firewall to separate the restaurant and the store. In addition to the construction and design changes that accompanied this addition, the Joeris team had to restart the permitting process. Joeris has completed more than 50 projects for HEB and has met each grand opening target date.
Key Players
General Contractor Joeris General Contractors Ltd., San Antonio
Owner HEB Grocery, San Antonio
Lead Design Selser Schaefer Architects, Tulsa
