(9/13/2011)

TEMPLE – (TDTnews.com) H-E-B Grocery plans to open a $20 million cold storage facility in Temple in July 2012.

Construction will start in October on the 300,000-sf facility in Rail Park at Central Pointe. It will be next to the H-E-B Retail Support Center that opened in July 2010.

Forty jobs will be created by the expansion. The new cold storage facility will serve more than 50 H-E-B retail stores from Austin to Dallas.

Temple City Council approved a 20-year tax abatement agreement that applies to H-E-B buildings and land on Wendland Rd.

The abatement does not apply to millions of dollars in H-E-B equipment, inventory and personal property, or to retail stores in Temple, according to Temple Mayor Bill Jones III.

H-E-B also is building a new store in Belton that will be the area’s largest.