Flower Mound's Most-Wanted Stores Are on the Agenda Now. Where H-E-B and Costco Actually Stand

How many parking spaces does an H-E-B need? Flower Mound's code sets a limit. The grocer's engineers asked for 733 spaces for a 110,000-square-foot store. Cross Timbers Gazette reported that this works out to 164% of the town's minimum and 205 spaces over its maximum. Costco wants 898 spaces about a mile away.

Those numbers explain most of what is happening along FM 2499 this fall. The stores at the top of Flower Mound's wish list are built to serve a whole region. Shoppers would come from well beyond the town, and the town has to plan for that traffic. So the public meetings have been about pavement, trees and intersections.

The List the Town Has Been Keeping

Flower Mound asks residents every year which businesses they want. In August 2025 the Retail and Restaurant Survey drew 1,100 responses, and Cross Timbers Gazette listed the top five retailers this way:

1. Trader Joe's
2. H-E-B
3. Costco
4. Central Market
5. Nordstrom/Nordstrom Rack

Two of those five now have formal plans in front of the town, and H-E-B has land in a second location. Flower Mound Director of Economic Development Ray Watson told the Gazette the town has been working to land an H-E-B for more than four years.

Why the Town Wants Big Stores That Draw From Far Away

The town gives its reasons in dollars. In the same report, Watson said an H-E-B is expected to generate $800,000 to $1 million in sales tax for Flower Mound. At an August work session, Costco cited company data showing 15,514 Flower Mound members in 2025, North Texas Sun reported. A Costco representative estimated that about $150 million in sales was going to stores outside the town, according to the Gazette.

That $150 million already leaves town on trips to Costco locations in other cities. Keeping it here is the reason for the project. It is also why the parking counts are so large. In the Aug. 19 Gazette story, town planner Codie Freeman explained the H-E-B parking study. He said that "due to its size and popularity, the proposed grocery site is anticipate[d] to draw from a larger area and induce a much higher parking demand than the minimum parking requirement."

The same idea applies to the Costco: a store that brings sales tax in from the region also brings regional traffic. Every exception, roundabout and saved pecan tree in these filings deals with that.

Cottonwood: The Costco Case, Line by Line

Costco is part of Cottonwood, an 86-acre planned development east of FM 2499 and south of Justin Road, next to Marcus High School's athletic fields on Dixon Lane. North Texas Sun reported on Nov. 6 that the plan includes Costco and its gas station, fast-food restaurants, Crunch Fitness, office showroom space and light manufacturing. The land is zoned for agriculture today. The town's master plan marks half of it commercial and industrial and half office. Cottonwood Development Partners has asked to change most of the office half to retail. No homes border the property.

The proposed Costco is 168,256 square feet. The Gazette reported in August that a kennel and an extended-stay hotel had been dropped from the plan after town staff raised concerns. Since then, most changes have involved roads and trees:

A few rows need more explanation. The developer submitted a 400-page traffic impact analysis in August. It found that several roads and intersections near Cottonwood would need improvements for the project to go forward. The analysis recommended a signal or a roundabout at Whyburn Drive and Dixon Lane. The project's engineers said a roundabout would have to sit slightly northwest of the intersection itself, North Texas Sun reported in August. Mayor Pro Tem Adam Schiestel said he would like approval tied to a guaranteed roundabout, and the plan now includes one. At the north edge, the analysis calls for a signal where Whyburn Drive meets Justin Road. Justin Road is FM 407, a state road, so the signal needs TxDOT approval.

The tree changes are also specific. After the Environmental Conservation Commission objected, especially to four trees near the fuel center, the developer moved buildings, revised parking lots and added retaining walls. The new layout keeps a pecan with a 45-inch trunk diameter, a 21.5-inch post oak and a 32.5-inch pecan. The driveway exception relates to concept drawings that show a Chick-fil-A, which would move from a location a few blocks east.

Cottonwood was on the Planning & Zoning Commission's agenda for Monday, Nov. 9. Any vote the commission takes is a recommendation, and Town Council makes the final decision. The opening date Costco has given is May 2028. In August, Costco's representative called that a rollout-plan target with "a lot of moving parts."

Flower Mound Center: An H-E-B About a Mile Down FM 2499

The second proposal sits at the southwest corner of FM 2499 and Waketon Road, south of the QuikTrip and east of Rippy Road. Regency Centers is the developer, and the project is called Flower Mound Center. Abe Pacetti of Regency presented it to the Planning & Zoning Commission at an Aug. 24 work session. The Gazette reported that he is confident H-E-B's first Flower Mound store will be built here, on the east side.

According to the August reporting, the plan includes:

• An H-E-B of 110,000 to 130,000 square feet with an in-store barbecue restaurant, bakery, pharmacy and curbside pickup
• Four 10,000-square-foot multi-tenant buildings for fast-service or sit-down restaurants with patios
• A retention pond in the southwest corner with a hike and bike trail running through the site, plus about 450 new trees, some of them post oaks
• Evening H-E-B deliveries by trucks without backup alarms, entering and leaving only from Waketon Road
• A goal of LEED-Silver certification

All of these were proposals at a work-session stage. The town archive describes that session as held "in conjunction with a future Public Hearing." Commissioners asked that some uses allowed in the draft zoning, including a circus, fair, sewage treatment facility and mortuary, be specifically prohibited when the case returns. Pacetti said none of those uses had ever been considered. Commissioner Michelle Jackson asked whether H-E-B would build a smaller store. The H-E-B representative answered that the company sizes stores to an area's demographics and projected demand.

Nearby residents raised concerns about noise, compatibility and traffic, pointing to the possible Costco a mile away and to Marcus High School down the road. Town staff said the project must meet Flower Mound's SMARTGrowth requirements.

The 733 Spaces the Town Already Approved Once

The parking request at Waketon looks familiar because H-E-B has made it before. In June 2025, H-E-B closed on 22.8 acres at the northeast corner of FM 1171 and US 377 in Furst Ranch, on the town's west side. Before that, in May 2025, Town Council approved a parking exception there of up to 733 spaces for a store of about 110,000 square feet, Community Impact reported.

Flower Mound has already agreed once to the parking footprint H-E-B says a store this size needs. The FM 2499 site asks for the same 733 spaces. The Furst Ranch store has no announced timeline.

West of there, big-box retail is planned on a larger scale. The Monarch development along I-35W is planned for five big-box stores, including two home-improvement centers. Schiestel called the land swap with Argyle that supports it "a huge tailwind for us for sales tax generation," according to the Gazette.

What Changes on FM 2499 if Both Are Built

The two east-side sites are on the same corridor. Cottonwood is near Justin Road and Dixon Lane, and Flower Mound Center is at Waketon, about a mile south. Every road item in these filings touches roads that also carry school traffic: the Whyburn roundabout, the signal at Justin Road, and the Waketon truck route. North Texas Sun described the area as "already teeming with regional, retail, and school traffic."

The next public steps are a Planning & Zoning recommendation and then a Town Council vote, for Cottonwood first and Flower Mound Center after its public hearing. Agendas and meeting video are posted on the Town of Flower Mound site. The conditions attached to each approval will set how many cars use each lot, where delivery trucks turn on Waketon Road and whether the 45-inch pecan inside Cottonwood stays standing.

If you live near the FM 2499 corridor and want to talk through what these projects could mean for your home, Sherri Murphy-Bort and The Ultimate Real Estate Group are happy to follow the next votes with you and help you plan calmly as the details are settled. Let's Connect.