Fresh off its recent plans to open stores in Dallas-Fort Worth, popular grocer H-E-B has bought land in fast-growing Forney near the intersection of U.S. Highway 80 and FM1641.

The property is on the southeast corner of the main retail intersection in Forney, with a Walmart Supercenter directly across Highway 80 and a Kroger Marketplace on the northeast side of the intersection. A Kohl’s department store just broke ground near Kroger.

The 18.44-acre parcel is one of several at busy intersections around D-FW that the San Antonio-based grocery has acquired over the past two decades.

H-E-B’s long-anticipated expansion was made official in March when it announced plans for stores in Frisco and Plano that will open in late 2022. In June, the company said a third store will be built in McKinney with a spring 2023 completion date.

The grocery chain confirmed to The Dallas Morning News that it purchased the land in Forney, but said it’s not ready to say when a store will be built there.

“At this time, we have not established a timeline for development of the property,” said Mabrie Jackson, a spokeswoman for H-E-B and its Central Market division, based in Dallas.

D-FW is the last big market in Texas where H-E-B hasn’t had a big presence with its namesake stores. But D-FW has the most Central Markets of any other city, with six of the 10 specialty food stores.

The 116-year-old grocer has opened stores south and west of Fort Worth in Burleson, Cleburne and Granbury and south of Dallas in Waxahachie. Its newest store in the area opened in 2019 just west of Fort Worth in Hudson Oaks.

Kaufman County, where Forney is, led the D-FW metropolitan area with a 40% population increase over the past decade, according to recently released U.S. Census data. Forney’s population of more than 65,000 is projected to grow to 100,000 by 2025, according to the city. It was also North Texas’ top homebuilding market last year.

Forney has attracted all kinds of investment. Amazon opened a 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center there in June and Atlanta-based homebuilder Ashton Woods recently purchased a 344-acre tract with plans to build 1,000 houses.

This week, Dallas-based Megatel Homes said it’s planning an $800 million lagoon community development with 400 homes in Forney.

In June, Houston-based developer Hines said it purchased the more than 600-acre High Point Ranch property on Highway 80 between Terrell and Forney for 2,000 homes. Other builders including Highland Homes, David Weekley Homes and Tri Pointe Homes already have houses under construction in the same area. There’s also an Aldi and Brookshire’s in Forney.

H-E-B’s parcel is big enough for a supermarket.

The land has a market value of $4.02 million and appraised value of $2.52 million, according to Kaufman County public records. Hay production was listed as the use of the undeveloped property previously owned by Glenn Whaley. A Firestone and McDonald’s are adjacent to the land.

Twitter: @MariaHalkias