Do Us A Favor

H-E-B grocery chain buys itself tech cred with big Austin score

H-E-B and Favor Delivery are now a package deal.

Courtesy photo

Austin-based Favor Delivery, the on-demand delivery app, has been acquired by Texas grocery giant H-E-B. On February 15, the San Antonio-based chain announced it was purchasing Favor for an undisclosed amount.

Favor has been a game-changer since it came onto the scene in 2013. Suddenly, for a slight fee, users could order almost anything via Favor's mobile app, and within an hour or so a friendly driver clad in a light blue tuxedo T-shirt would show up at the front door.

Currently, Favor operates in more than 50 cities across Texas. It entered the Dallas-Fort Worth market in July 2017.

"Over the past two years, we have established a strong working relationship with Favor that has proven to be immensely successful for both companies," says H-E-B COO Martin Otto in a release. "We see a unique opportunity with this partnership to support and accelerate each other's growth through the sharing of experience, insight, and resources."

H-E-B has been busy. The Favor acquisition comes one day after the company unveiled curbside service for some of its Central Market stores, starting with the Fort Worth store at the corner of Hulen Street and I-30. It already offers curbside service at more than 100 H-E-B stores throughout Texas.

There are seven H-E-B stores in North Texas, in Burleson, Granbury, Cleburne, Ennis, Waxahachie, Stephenville, and Corsicana; an eighth store is set to open in Hudson Oaks in 2019.

H-E-B isn't the only grocery chain investing in technology-based delivery. In early February, Amazon-owned Whole Foods Market launched service with Prime Now to deliver groceries for free within a two-hour window.

news-you-can-eat shopping

University News

Univ of Texas at Arlington gets OK to proceed on west Fort Worth campus

Courtesy rendering

UTA West campus coming soon

A new university campus is in the works for west Fort Worth. According to a release, a proposal by the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) to purchase 51 acres of property in west Fort Worth got the thumbs up from the University of Texas System Board of Regents, paving the way for UTA West, a new campus that would be built in the Walsh Ranch development.

Advantageously positioned at the intersection of I-30 and I-20 at the western gateway of Fort Worth, the new campus could begin welcoming students as early as fall 2028.

UTA West will be developed as part of a multiyear plan to serve more than 10,000 students.

“Anytime the UT System can expand greater educational opportunity, access, and affordability to Texans, we’re going to do it,” says UT System Board of Regents chairman Kevin Eltife in a satement. “We’ve recently done it in east Texas and south Texas and now we’re heading west. We’re looking forward to planting a UT Arlington flag in west Fort Worth, currently the nation’s fastest growing city.”

"The western part of the metroplex has an ever-growing population, a plethora of student talent, and a wide breadth of opportunity for explosive economic advancement. UTA has long been a top supplier of talent to companies across Fort Worth, and this expansion will allow UTA to broaden its impact across our region,” said UTA President Jennifer Cowley.

Walsh Ranch is the 7,200-acre development in west Fort Worth that calls itself "Fort Worth's next great neighborhood," being developed with neighborhoods, town centers, mixed-use areas, and commercial space.

And now a university campus.

UTA in Fort Worth
The new campus would be only the latest in a decades-long partnership between UTA and the city of Fort Worth. That includes the UTA Research Institute (UTARI), a facility established in east Fort Worth in 1986; and the UTA Fort Worth Center, a continuing education center for the downtown Fort Worth community established in 2007.

In 2023, the UTA Institute of Urban Studies, the principal research center for the College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs, opened at UTA’s Fort Worth Center with a mission is to conduct research and provide technical assistance to city and county governments, governmental agencies, and nonprofit organizations, and to offer education and teaching opportunities to individuals either already in or contemplating public service careers.

The University of Texas at Arlington is a comprehensive teaching, research, and public service institution with an enrollment of approximately 41,000 students, and is the second-largest institution in the UT System. In 2021, its combination of outstanding academics and innovative research contributed to its reaffirmation as a Carnegie R-1 “Very High Research Activity” institution, a significant milestone of excellence. The University is designated as a Hispanic Serving-Institution and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education and in 2022 earned the Seal of Excelencia for its commitment to accelerating Latino student success.