A single gas station may be all that separates Southeast Austin’s JD’s Supermarket from permanent closure — and Austin’s transit authority wants the land beneath it.
The threat to JD’s is not a local zoning spat. It signals a broader pattern playing out in cities from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., where public transit expansion quietly accelerates the erasure of Latino commercial anchors in neighborhoods that can least afford to lose them.
The Stakes on Riverside Drive
JD’s Supermarket #9, a Hispanic and Mediterranean grocery anchored at the corner of East Riverside Drive and Montopolis Drive, has become the focal point of Austin’s most uncomfortable transit conversation. Project Connect, the city’s 9.8-mile light rail line planned around 15 stations, is scheduled to break ground in 2027 — and one of its future stops sits directly adjacent to JD’s property.
In March 2026, Austin Transit Partnership sent the store’s management a letter warning that a portion of their property “will be needed for the proposed transit project” and that they could be entitled to relocation assistance, according to the Austin Chronicle. The parcel in question is the gas station out front — not the store building itself, ATP maintains.
When 30% of Revenue Disappears
That distinction offers little comfort to Vanessa Calixto, the supermarket’s risk manager. Many customers stop for fuel before shopping inside, making the pumps a commercial engine, not a roadside convenience. Losing the station, Calixto told KXAN, would push the business into “survival mode” and eventually force it to shut down permanently…