The firm hired by Rice University to manage the Village Arcade has produced a new brochure outlining coming and hoped-for changes to the couple-decades-old Rice Village multi-block shopping center and surroundings. Plans are being developed for new landscaping and storefronts for the 164,211-square-foot complex that lines the north side of University Dr. between Kirby and Morningside Dr., Trademark Property’s flyer notes. But perhaps more interesting is the simple map included (and shown above) documenting the university’s property holdings in and near its eponymous village. They include the 3-block Village Arcade, the office building and parking garage at 2500 Dunstan Rd. currently home to 24 Hour Fitness, and a good portion of the block across Greenbriar Dr. from Rice Stadium, where the university demolished an office building in 2010. “Additional Rice owned property in the Village (approximately 7 acres),” the brochure says, “is available for future mixed-use development.” Rice’s Rice Village Apartments complex on Shakespeare at Morningside is not outlined on the map.
- Rice Village Arcade [Trademark Property]
- Rice to take control of Village Arcade [Houston Chronicle ($)]
Map: Trademark Property
The River Oaks name spreads its tendrils again: Just a day or so after shuttering its location on the corner of Westheimer and Buffalo Speedway, topiary-in-a-pot hotspot River Oaks Plant House has sprouted in a new location, 6103 Kirby Dr., where it’s already open for business. Evicted from its longtime home on land bought last year by the St. John’s School, the greenery retailer has responded by buying the Village Flowery, an employee tells Swamplot. The Village Flowery is perched on the western reaches of the Rice Village on the southeast corner of Kirby and Rice Blvd. [
“I think West Ave.-to-Rice Village will become contiguous before Highland Village-to-Galleria ever will.” [
The first tenant to open on the Morningside side of Hanover Rice Village will be Coppa Osteria, reports Eater Houston’s Darla Guillen, who pins the date in September. Coppa will be run by the folks who bring you Ibiza, Brasserie 19, and Coppa Ristorante Italiano, a fact that strikes Guillen as emblematic of a pattern in Houston’s culinary scene: “
“If you follow many of the comments on this board, it’s become kind of an inside joke here that everything should have first floor retail. If there was an article about a cemetery, someone here would post that it should have first floor retail.
That said, I don’t know of many other locations in this city that would be more suitable for first floor retail than this one. It’s already an established shopping district, and the building is actually replacing some retail. I’m not a developer, but I would think that in a high density location like this one, retail leases would be a net financial benefit, with a higher $ amount per square foot, and lease terms much longer than the typical 6 or 12 month residential lease. However, there’s two arguments I can think of on why they have chosen not to go the retail route. First, would any new retail businesses be subject to our city’s minimum parking regulations? If so, providing garage space would have a negative impact on costs. Second, perhaps if the plan by Hanover is to convert these to condos in the next 5 years, then retail would not be a net benefit.” [
The retail ring facing Morningside, Dunstan, and Kelvin around the bottom of Hanover at Rice Village seems to be filling out: With 
