The H Mart Asian supermarket set to open at Loop 820 and North Beach Street in Haltom City is closer to reality for the throngs of anticipating foodies, as crews Friday installed the store’s sign on the building.
“They still are very confident that they’re going to open prior to Thanksgiving,” Robert Briggs, economic development director for the city, told the Fort Worth Report.
Supply chain issues delayed the store’s opening, but the shopping center where it will be located is already seeing 6,000-8,000 visitors daily to the restaurants and shops already opened this year, Briggs said. The city estimates the complex has received 634,000 visitors, he said.
“That data’s pretty compelling,” he said.
The numbers, which the city has collected using an artificial intelligence platform, bear out what Haltom City leaders predicted: The center will be a regional draw, bringing in customers from around the area, Briggs said.
Hao Tran, the Fort Worth restaurateur who owns Hao’s Grocery & Café on the Near Southside and is preparing to open Hao’s Duong DeVille restaurant in White Settlement, believes the H Mart center will expand the market for Asian foods in Tarrant County.
“It opens up an opportunity for everyone else to grow, culturally,” she said. “We’ve been wanting it, we’ve been needing it for our own community. We’ve always had to drive to Carrollton or Richardson.”
Tran doesn’t view the new center, which will have a total 45 restaurants and stores and is 100% leased, as a competitive threat.
“We’re talking about two concentric circles,” she said. “One is around Dallas, one is around Fort Worth. We didn’t always have that equilateral view, but now we do.”
Like Tran, Kevin Martinez, executive chef at Tokyo Cafe in Fort Worth, thinks the H Mart center can shift customer tastes in Tarrant County.
“I think it allows people to be exposed to things they don’t normally have,” he said. “They’ve seen it on travel shows, they’ve seen your food shows. Now there’s something out here closer by.”
The new center certainly will present familiar options like ramen, Korean barbecue and pho. But the selection goes beyond that.
“Different styles,” Martinez said.
He sees a key customer as being his age — 42 — and younger, including the ages of his children, 14 and 17.
“I could definitely see that age group being the primary group going,” Martinez said. “You can go to the shop and pick up a small amount of this, a small amount of that. You can go up there and have lunch.”
H Mart also offers a different range of fish than traditional supermarkets, he said.
Fort Worth chefs may be interested in expanding their menu offerings if they can pick up smaller quantities of certain ingredients at H Mart, Martinez said.
“I think it’s great for the chefs in Fort Worth, because they can grab some of those ingredients and don’t have to sit on a whole case of something,” he said.
The shopping center is already boosting the city’s financial picture. In its 2027 fiscal general fund budget, which goes into effect Oct. 1 and pays for most basic city services, Haltom City budgeted $15.9 million in sales tax, above the $15.468 million projected for this year.
The city budgeted property tax revenue at $17.13 million, higher than the $17.119 million projected for this year. Total general fund revenue is budgeted at $46.46 million.
“We adopted the lowest property tax rate in the last 20 years,” Briggs said.
According to the city, record economic growth and the city’s lowest debt rate in 25 years made the reduction possible.
Twenty-two tenants in the center are operating, including three that are in soft opening, Briggs said. Twenty-three are yet to open. Once it’s fully operating and stabilized, the city projects $1.1 million in gross sales tax collections annually from the center, he said.
The city also is experiencing a surge in interest in other development sites, Briggs said.
“I think this is going to be a catalyst for development.”
Open:
- Uncle Tetsu, Japanese soufflé cheesecakes
- 85°C Bakery Cafe, Taiwanese bakery and café
- Teso Life, Japanese lifestyle retail store
- Wooga Korean BBQ by Chodang Village, server-grilled Korean barbecue
- Hanabi, Japanese ramen and izakaya
- Hui Lau Shan, Hong Kong mango desserts
- Dal Pocha, late-night Korean pub
- Bandai Gashapon, Japanese capsule toy shop
- Kin Pho, Vietnamese pho, Lao-Thai dishes
- The Kickin’ Crab, Cajun-style seafood boils
- Cafe BomBom & XO Corndog, Korean corn dogs, boba
- Bambu, Vietnamese dessert drinks, boba
- Claw Mania Kingdom, claw machine arcade
- ClawZania Fort Worth, claw machine arcade
- McDonald’s, fast food burgers and fries
- Our Hair, hair salon and head spa
- Dia Dental Studio, multilingual general dentistry
- Flossophy Dental Studio, dentistry with evening hours
- SolidSight, eye care and eyewear
Soft opening:
- It’s KBBQ & Shabu Shabu, all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue
- Tasty Pot, Taiwanese individual hot pot. Soft opening Sept. 24-Oct. 1, grand opening Oct. 2
- Yindee Thai Eatery, Thai restaurant
Coming soon:
- H Mart, anchor
- Kinokuniya, Japanese bookstore
- Mensho, Japanese ramen
- Somisomi, Korean soft serve taiyaki
- Chicha San Chen, Taiwanese bubble tea
- CoCo Ichibanya, Japanese curry rice
- Miniso, lifestyle retail store
- Maht Gaek, Korean home-style cooking
- Sulbing, Korean shaved ice desserts
- bb.q Chicken, Korean fried chicken
- Tsaocaa, tea and desserts
- Suka Omakase, sushi omakase
- Nigori Sushi & Grill, all-you-can-eat sushi
- Trung Nguyen, Vietnamese coffee
- Ten Thousand Coffee, specialty coffee shop
- Bada Golf, indoor golf simulator
- Momo & Bun, Nepalese dumpling
- Korean Seafood, Korean-style seafood restaurant
- R&B Tea, Taiwanese bubble tea
- Potobox, self-serve photo booth
- Eiswelt Gelato, gelato shop
- Hey Yogurt, frozen yogurt desserts
- Tu Chilito, tacos
Scott Nishimura is a senior editor for local government accountability and a Fort Worth City Hall reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Reach him at scott.nishimura@fortworthreport.org.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
