Vespa-riding Montrosian Brittanie Holland is curious about two retail buildings in her ’hood recently dressed up for lease:

We live in the northeast part of the Montrose. I was sad when the Hyde Park Supermarket shut down (across from Ziggy’s on Taft and Fairview) because they sold St. Arnold’s and Mexican Coke and were within walking distance. Plus the Pakistani (?) guys who worked there were so nice and knew me by name. Back when Ziggy’s was BYOB having the store there was, well, convenient.

The building has been vacant since summer but over the past few months workers have painstakingly removed all the original brick, refurbished the structure and the rebricked it with most of the original brick. It’s kind of an interesting mid-century building — it looks like it might once have been a garage, and there is a sign for business lease outside but I can’t believe the owners would do all that refurbishing without a [tenant] in mind. This is right down the street from Boheme and the new Deans, and has ample parking, so maybe they’re hoping to draw some similar high-brow ventures? Is Midtown continuing it’s fast encroachment on my filthy Montrose? (We’ll always have Lola’s. Hopefully.)

The other building probably needed a much more extensive cleaning:

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The same thing has happened to what used to be a “24-hour news stand” just east of Numbers on Mason and Westheimer. It’s been vacant for longer and it’s refurbishment has been more subtle, but the building that was once covered with awful spray-painted cartoon characters is now coated in aluminum siding with lime green accents. It still looks closed up (no windows) but now it looks kinda space-agey and interesting.

Any idea what’s up with these two buildings?

Photos of 214 Fairview St. and 240 Westheimer Rd.: Brittanie Holland