Passing on a Museum District Restaurant Reno

Back in April, former Bootsie’s Heritage Cafe chef Randy Rucker gave up on plans to open a new restaurant in the holdout parcel (above and at bottom right in the photo at right) behind the Asia Society Texas building. Now that property’s owner, Balcor Commercial, is giving up on it as well. The 3,624-sq.-ft. former doctors’ office on a 11,700-sq.-ft. lot at 5219 Caroline was listed for sale earlier this month for just a tad under $1.5 million. The property traded hands for $907K back in July of 2010, when Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi’s steamy building next door was just a muddy construction site. Renovations of the Caroline building for Rucker’s conāt never began. “Unfortunately, converting the Caroline property into a fully functional restaurant while maintaining the integrity and design of the structure turned out to be a challenge,” an owner’s rep tells Swamplot.

5 Comment

  • “maintaining the integrity … turned out to be a challenge”

    Does this mean the building is looking for any excuse to fall down, or that it would have to change too much to be “cool” to be a restaurant?

  • good god, is that property even worth 907k???

  • I know Houston real estate is doing well, but I don’t think this market is so hot that properties in that area have increased over 65% in value in 2 years!

  • It’s a restaurant desert over here.

  • Agreed @Ron. The area would be perfect but for that. One of the things I really miss about living in other cities. (Oh no! Did I just point out that there are other cities out there–faux pas.)