H-E-B progress on downtown culinary school

SAN ANTONIO – H-E-B is making progress on its planned culinary center and cooking school at the corners of South Flores and Arsenal St.’s near its headquarters.

A local design firm has filed architectural records for the second floor of the three-story facility at 641 S. Flores St. The grocer is building a commercial kitchen and about 20,000 sf of office space to train employees in the culinary arts while developing its own brand products and recipes.

H-E-B also will use the cooking school to prepare workers and design menus for its expanding restaurant business, which includes the full-service Oaks Crossing restaurant it will open next month in Stone Oak, adjacent to the store H-E-B is developing there.

The culinary school also should support the grocery chain’s prepared-food offering and in-house restaurants.

The renovation cost is now at $9.6 million according to records from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The school is expected to open late summer 2014.

Read more at the San Antonio Express-News.