Good grief. How easy was that? Instead of flapping their gums about the CoB and the Mayor they could have just said this and been done with it.

**** Rusty. That guy sucks. HEB says they don't have a timeline for building. That doesn't mean they aren't building there.

Yep, buncha drama over nothing.

Wasn't the agreement always that they had 7 years to do something with the property or am I thinking of another deal?

Broncos said:

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**** Rusty. That guy sucks. HEB says they don't have a timeline for building. That doesn't mean they aren't building there.

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Yep. That guy is a complete asshat. Maybe this should be on the I hate kbtx thread, but I detest the whole lot of them. I quit listening, watching, social media-ing them a year or so ago. There are much better news sources available.

AgLaw09 said:

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That's a rather disingenuous characterization of her role. She's an HEB employee, not a 501(c) coordinator. In the interview you cited, the very next Q&A section was her talking about an upcoming store (the one at Jones Crossing 8 years ago) and later discussed HEB's strategy for the store and location.

I don't know whether she's speaking out of turn or not in this case. If she is, then I would expect HEB would put out some corporate-speak statement saying as much. But she has at least put her name to her words. When asked for who they spoke to, CoB's response was "we'll get back to you."

Knowing that KBTX had a named source and what she'd told KBTX, why wouldn't CoB ask their sources before releasing their Friday night statement, especially their HEB POC, about the accuracy of her comments and whether she was authorized to speak on the matter so that they could put out something definitive. It's not like the CoB was up against some looming deadline and needed to get a statement out. Rusty had reported the story 24 hours earlier. Instead, they went with a vague "status of the project remains unchanged" statement. Great! What's the status of the project?

The public silence from HEB since Thursday night's story is deafening. CoB has an opportunity to put up or shut up with their, so far, unnamed sources and directly counter the report that there is no HEB slated for the Booneville location. We'll see, but this is looking more and more like a situation where the CoB overpromised and will underdeliver.

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Well this didn't age well

This is from that article, in her own words-

Quote:

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Jay Socol: Okay. Your title with H-E-B is what?

Diane Besosa: Is Area Community Coordinator.

Jay Socol: What does that mean? What does that entail?


Diane Besosa: I handle donations, sponsorships, community and in store events for all five stores.

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By her own admission she handles charity. It's not disingenuous, it's her own words when asked directly what her title was. KBTX spoke to a person not qualified to speak on the matter then ran with it, that's all this is. My spidey senses were going off early and they were correct in this case.

PS3D said:

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Broncos said:

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**** Rusty. That guy sucks. HEB says they don't have a timeline for building. That doesn't mean they aren't building there.

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I swear I've seen "...and they're groundbreaking next year" posts on TexAgs for the last four years or so, not exaggerating.

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TexAgs posters aren't held to the standard of our local news media who should fact check and utilize confirmed sources. Nobody knows when "groudbreaking" will happen but the top people at HEB who make those calls. Just because it isn't being built this second doesn't mean it isn't happening. It could be a few years out. That doesn't change my opinion on the KBTX poor reporting of the issue.

For local stuff, I have been reading Community Impact more and more lately. They have had many stories KBTX and WTAW haven't covered and in more detail.

Broncos said:

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PS3D said:

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Broncos said:

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**** Rusty. That guy sucks. HEB says they don't have a timeline for building. That doesn't mean they aren't building there.

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I swear I've seen "...and they're groundbreaking next year" posts on TexAgs for the last four years or so, not exaggerating.

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TexAgs posters aren't held to the standard of our local news media who should fact check and utilize confirmed sources. Nobody knows when "groudbreaking" will happen but the top people at HEB who make those calls. Just because it isn't being built this second doesn't mean it isn't happening. It could be a few years out. That doesn't change my opinion on the KBTX poor reporting of the issue.

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Well of course, considering that half of KBTX's local "news" is just repackaged TexAgs posts.

You don't think the headline "HEB Boonville off the table" is a little deceiving?

You tell me who is being deceptive

https://www.kbtx.com/video/2026/07/31/h-e-b-portillos-no-longer-coming-bcs-areaversion/

Watch the video

"Journalism"
or
"Clickbait for suckers who want sensationalism."

You decide. Such a fraud.

Im pretty sure the original article and Besosa said they dont own the property on Boonville across from Miramont, but own land closer to university.

Tax records show they DO own that property.

This isnt just about hating Rusty- its about hating his (and KBTX) shotty half-assed journalism. This whole thing could have been prevented if they just looked at the tax records and then pushed Besosa on why she is saying they dont own it when they clearly do.

[You are not going to be allowed to make obscene comments on this forum. -Staff]

histag10 said:

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Its a case of the local news not fact checking their own sources before putting something blatantly false out as fact backed by a "source".


Its not that "the media should be held to a higher standard". The news media's sole purpose is to provide the public with the news and facts, setting aside sensationalism. But our local "news" (and yes, they no longer an actual news source in my book) has turned i to a click bait factory- facts be damned.

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Let's look at what actually happened:


The original agreement promised a supermarket as part of the development. The agreement defined "supermarket" was defined as such (on page 7):

Quote:

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"Supermarket" means a large format, upscale H-E-B or better full-line retail grocery store that enables customers to purchase substantially all of their weekly food and grocery shopping requirements in a single shopping visit.

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KBTX ran the story and misread it as an actual H-E-B store or Central Market coming to Bryan.


This is the original story KBTX ran, unaltered, with the corrections made August 1st. Let's see who said what.

Quote:

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"We own property closer to University. The area everyone was excited about (across from Miramont) was not part of our purchase and was something the mayor of Bryan wanted to happen," Besosa told KBTX reporter Alex Weister. "It's unfortunate that narrative was promoted to the community by the city because that didn't come from us. Either way, no new stores are slated for additional BCS locations at this time."

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If you look at BCAD, the property directly across from Miramont Boulevard (and the adjacent property) is owned by Boonville Center (about 7.8 acres altogether). What Bisosa said was correct, at least in terms of land ownership.


Did the City of Bryan and the Mayor want it? Maybe. This site sure did. KBTX did in fact that note that H-E-B owned the 13.3 acres adjacent to Boonville Center, so they followed up who owned what land.


While it would've been hilarious if there was never an H-E-B planned for there at all and H-E-B's ownership of the adjacent land was a coincidence, except for the fact that the H-E-B side of the land was sold to H-E-B in December 2023 from "Boonville Center" around the time KBTX reported on it.


When the City of Bryan responded, their issues was that their talks with the developer were on track and the developer had until December 2028 to even start construction on the supermarket component...something that was in the KBTX article. The KBTX article also reports that the agreement does mention at the bottom that there will be an H-E-B supermarket.


So, in this case, KBTX jumped the gun in stating that H-E-B had pulled out, when it fact had no timeline. I think what Biochem Ag 97 is close to correct.


1) KBTX assumed that the construction was for the H-E-B and was imminent and asks H-E-B about it.
2) H-E-B responds that the land they worked on wasn't theirs and they have no timeline for a store.
3) KBTX runs the story that H-E-B pulled out.
4) CoB calls them out on it, forcing a clarification.


Either way, the second article does have more information on the whole land set-up and the agreement. KBTX might've not done due diligence but the cagey response by H-E-B didn't help.

Rotating to the KBTX piece tonight- I thought James Edge did a good job. Rusty showed how little he understands- HEB isn't building until it breaks ground. Same with WalMart, Kroger, etc. Large companies - and especially family owned well capitalized ones - keep their options open as long as possible. HEB could say no plans in 8/26 and be breaking ground in 8/27. They aren't constrained by financing like Schulmann Theaters. They don't need a loan from COB or any outside consultants. They just make it happen when and where they want to be.

EBrazosAg said:

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Rotating to the KBTX piece tonight- I thought James Edge did a good job. Rusty showed how little he understands- HEB isn't building until it breaks ground. Same with WalMart, Kroger, etc. Large companies - and especially family owned well capitalized ones - keep their options open as long as possible. HEB could say no plans in 8/26 and be breaking ground in 8/27. They aren't constrained by financing like Schulmann Theaters. They don't need a loan from COB or any outside consultants. They just make it happen when and where they want to be.

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True...I remember when they swore nothing was going on for College Station and less than four years later Jones Crossing was operational.

EBrazosAg said:

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Exactly! How can everyone forget that ? I remember when TowerPoint was nothing but a field where they moved dirt around every few years and blew up large amounts of dynamite without telling many folks …..

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Pffff. I remember when Southern Pointe was just a racetrack!

Calm down. This is similar to prior projects. Just before Rusty SM Drama. It's a nothing burger.