HANOVER AT RICE VILLAGE FEEDING THE HUNGRY 
The retail ring facing Morningside, Dunstan, and Kelvin around the bottom of Hanover at Rice Village seems to be filling out: With Zoës Kitchen opening in February at 5215 Kelvin and Cloud 10 Creamery making plans to since January, Prime Property’s Nancy Sarnoff drops the names of the other 4 restaurants on the way: There’ll be Cyclone Anaya’s (shown in the photo here on Morningside to the right of Cloud 10 Creamery), a coffee shop called Fellini, Punk’s Simple Southern Food, and Coppa Osteria. Sarnoff also mentions the lone non-restaurant planned, “a boutique” called Saint Cloud. [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
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OK, so this Hanover development in Rice Village is mixed use retail, and has filled out their space within months of becoming available.
Last week, Swamplot posted the not quite rendering of the proposed Hines apartments to be built at Westheimer and South Shepherd that will contain no space for retail, leading to swamplotters debating the merits of mixed use at the intersection. Several posted comments to the effect of where would retail customers park at the Hines development. Well, Rice Village has some of the worst parking in the inner loop, yet it looks like people were racing to take on leases there. What gives?
I would imagine that internal parking is being provided for the retail, otherwise this would have required a variance from the City.
Other than Zoe’s Kitchen it looks like these tenants are not national chains but instead local independents thus less likely to have more strict requirements about parking configuration.
Hanover and its sources of capital obviously have ways of tolerating higher risk due, whether from urban design, construction cost, or credit risk (non-national tenants) standpoint. Hopefully we will see more developers of this ilk in the future; or better yet the perceived risk of such practices will start to lessen.
5125 Kelivn. Now that’s hot.
According to Greg Morago’s article in today’s Chron, Clark and Cooper (owners of 2 of the new restaurants) bought in becuase Hanover set aside 375 spaces for restaurant customers, and they also expected walk-up use as they believe this is one of the more pedestrian friendly areas in the City.
Rice Village/Rice U needs a grocery store for all these residents. Used to be a Rice there awhile back. How ’bout a boutique store–Phoenicia or something?
The reality is that parking in Rice Village is not bad at all. The people that complain about parking think that they should have a spot a block from their destination.
Here’s a hint, park in the Arcade Parking garage and pay for it. You walk to many non-arcade shops and restaurants.
Some of us believe the parking situation is rotten because we were not aware that you may now pay to park in the Arcade garage and then go where you please. It may be a while back now, but there was a time when the Arcade garage was free – you just had to be shopping at an Arcade store. And if you weren’t, you got towed. Promptly. The net result, for me at least, is that as the Village got more densely built (and the reign of tow truck terror was still in play), I quit going as often…to the point where it’s now probably at least a couple years since I’ve spent any money with any Village tenant.
If you buy something at the Arcade, they will validate your parking as well.
Just more of the same folks with no concept of “city-living” giving their 2 cents….
“What, I can’t park within one block of my destination, how can I or anyone else ever survive such conditions?”
Are we all forgetting that paying for parking in Houston to shop at a business is a heinous crime tantamount to heresy?