Here’s a pic of the foliage and signage of the closed Wel-Farm Supermarket in Sugar Land — which, a reader reports, will soon have its hyphen removed and hyperbole reduced when it opens later this fall as the Welfresh Market. The grocery store, specializing in Asian produce, is located inside the shopping center near Dulles Ave. at 4635 Hwy. 6.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Looks like Weingarten has lured another tenant into the Kohl’s-anchored Tomball Marketplace at the southwest corner of the Tomball Pkwy. and FM 2920: Super Yummy Mongolian Grill. The somewhat self-aggrandizing chain restaurant is expected to open in Suite 160 in early October or November, according to Community Impact News.
Photo of Tomball Marketplace: Weingarten Realty
Retail on the Morningside side of Hanover’s Rice Village mixed-use complex seems to be filling up: A reader sends this photo of signage for Cyclone Anaya’s, the Mexican kitchen named for the Mexican wrestler. It appears that the local chain restaurant will go in a few doors down from the walk-thru pizza window of Coppa Osteria, now open on the corner of Morningside and Dunstan, and, as this photo shows, right next to Chris Leung’s not-quite-ready Cloud 10 Creamery.
That retail task force that Mayor Parker put together about the same time that Macy’s announced it was closing the Downtown store came through with its first report yesterday, recommending that Dallas St. between Milam and La Branch — or between the hotels on the west side of Downtown and the hotels, Discovery Green, and George R. Brown Convention Center on the east — be prettied up into a kind of retail promenade. And the task force recommends that it happen sooner rather than later, in time to capitalize on the disposable incomes of the hordes coming to town for the NCAA Final Four in 2016 and the Super Bowl in 2017.
The rendering above, included in the report, shows a Kardashian body double strolling through the intersection of Main St. and Dallas; the Sakowitz building, catty-corner across from the to-be-demolished-in-a-week Macy’s, would pair with GreenStreet to anchor the linear district and provide similar photo opportunities. It appears that the task force hopes to lure national retailers and rally existing tenants and landowers, like Hilcorp, to the cause with tax breaks and other incentives, including waiving the city ordinance requiring that signage Downtown be no taller than 42.5 ft.
Just north of the just-underway River Oaks District and in the shadow of the Highland Tower, 24 of these homes are going up in what will be another cheek-to-jowl gated community. The first 8 are almost done, apparently, and all but 1 has sold; the whole set of ’em should be ready by March. Located at 2200 Briarglen Ln. just south of San Felipe on the site of some apartments that were knocked down in 2008, the homes range in size from 1,989 sq. ft. to 2,305 sq. ft. They’re starting at $600,000.
Rendering: Pelican Builders
GREENSTREET, GETTING GOING 
Just 4 short months after that party it threw for itself, GreenStreet might start becoming something more than a new name and a few signs, reports the Houston Business Journal. Though graffiti artists worked in June to enliven some of the former Houston Pavilions infamously inward-facing spaces with murals, it seems real construction — expected to last between 6 and 9 more months — will begin in a few weeks. The thrust of the renovations? Here’s Shaina Zucker: “Changes to the 568,294-square-foot property . . . include removing existing implements to the interior corridor while creating a new linear urban park.” [Art Attack; Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: GreenStreet
The former menswear mod on W. 19th St. and Ashland is being outfitted with some contemporary effects, it appears: Purchased back in 2011 by Braun Enterprises — which also recently snapped up and plans to knock down 2 Baptist Temple Church buildings to make way for retail just north of here — the building has got the signage for what will be Houston’s 3rd Torchy’s Tacos and some fake graffiti advertising a September opening. In the back, the buildout is a bit more substantial: The roof has been popped out rather jauntily for the Heights General Store, a small market and restaurant that will have a terrace, and women’s clothier Emerson Rose.
You can see more photos, going around the corner spot, after the jump:
A buildout of the old Wolf Camera spot in Rice Village has fixed up this strip-center suite at 2526 Rice Blvd. into a franchise of The Boardroom, which says it provides “a relaxed grooming experience for men.” That experience here includes — besides the little flourish of authenticity that is that barber’s pole — waxes, hot lather shaves, massages, and color treatments. This 3rd 2nd Houston location opened about a week ago; there’s one in Highland Village and another up in The Woodlands. Inside, polished wood floors and finishes and a pool table imply the sophistication of these upper-management-level proceedings; a trim of the power beard will set you back $12; a haircut $40.
Photo: Allyn West
The Woodway store is closing, Whole Foods announced yesterday, and the grocer plans to build a new one on the site of the recently closed and approved-for-demolition Flagship Randall’s at 1407 S. Voss near San Felipe. That’s right across the street from the brand-new Trader Joe’s. A Whole Foods rep says that new store will be 40,000 sq. ft., double the size of the store at 6401 Woodway that’s been there since 1983.
Photo of Flagship Randall’s: Allyn West
This crosshatched highrise shows up in a recently published marketing video as a potential development to densify the low-slung Uptown Park. The 50,000-sq.-ft. site HFF and AmREIT seem to have in mind for these apartments-upon-retail is right off the Loop, across Uptown Park Blvd. from the Ziegler Cooper-designed 27-story Villa d’Este condo tower — a site occupied now by a 12,000-sq.-ft. 1-story building at the northern end of the low-density Euro-style shopping spread.
WHAT HOUSTON’S GROCER GROWTH MIGHT MEAN FOR RANDALL’S 
Real Estate Bisnow predicts that in the next year and a half as many as 60 new retail centers anchored by grocery stores will pop up in the Houston area. And not only are the stores proliferating, reports Catie Dixon, they’re getting larger: Many of these new buildings will balloon to 100,000 sq. ft. While national chains like Aldi, Trader Joe’s, Sprouts, and Fresh Market are being introduced to Houston, regional ones like H-E-B are expanding. Of course, adds Dixon, this means that there might be a loser: “Baker Katz/X Team International partner Jason Baker [says that] all this grocer competition will cause fallout — for example, he tells us there’s a strong rumor that Randall’s won’t be around much longer.” [Real Estate Bisnow; previously on Swamplot] Photo of closed Flagship Randall’s at 1407 S. Voss Rd.: Allyn West
NEW INWOOD YES PREP SAYS NO TO NEXT-DOOR LOAN STORE 
Calculating interest must not be part of the curriculum: The Leader reports that this vacant Kroger in the shopping center at W. Tidwell and Antoine is being renovated into a YES Prep School, with an inaugural class of sixth-graders ready to file in this August. But ACE Cash Express, the former grocery store’s next-door neighbor at 5616 W. Tidwell, seems to have become suddenly unwelcome, as a YES Prep rep explains: “’We’re worried that the activity there isn’t really compatible with a school, and we have some definite safety concerns. We’re hoping we can get them to relocate. If they don’t, we think their presence could have a negative impact on our ability to have students stay late on campus.’†[The Leader] Photo: Michael Sudhalter
THE RETURN OF MARFRELESS 
It was only temporary, it turns out, the closing of Houston’s infamous den of PDA: Though reports in March suggested that River Oaks Shopping Center landlords Weingarten had hiked the rent, described cheekily in a press release by Marfreless as “the rising cost of doing business,” it appears that the bar that looks the other way has found new owners and will reopen with the same management in the same spot this summer — and they’ll be fixing up the place, too, they’ve announced in a press release that’s fairly dripping with innuendo: “All this comes with a complete renovation — from wires and carpet to the furniture you . . . sit on. You can expect an updated feel with the same Marfreless experience you’ve come to love. And don’t worry, our upstairs seating and iconic blue door will remain.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Flickr user jmcgeough
What’s this sandbox right beside the Hungry’s Cafe and Bistro in Rice Village going to be? A Hungry’s. An employee at the not-that-old one next door at 2356 Rice Blvd. says it will be demolished and turned into a parking lot for what a rendering on a sign at this construction site shows is a 2-story new one.
Hungry’s, you’ll remember, is owned by an entity controlled by Fred Sharifi, who earlier this year purchased and now appears to have plans to redevelop the Gramercy Place Apartments on the 200 block of Portland St. — just a few miles away on the east side of Montrose Blvd. — into townhomes.
A rendering of the new Hungry’s wasn’t made immediately available; what follows after the jump is a photo of what’s on that sign at the construction site:
Going out, coming in: It looks like the work to update this former Rice Epicurean Market at 2617 W. Holcombe into The Fresh Market is well underway. Set back in that shopping center on the southwest corner of W. Holcombe and Kirby Dr. in West University, this will be one of the 4 Rice Epicurean spots that the North Carolina chain said it would be freshening up this year; the others are on Weslayan, Tanglewood, and Memorial.
Photo: Allyn West
