New scribbles on a siteplan show a Sprouts Farmers Market marked in as a tenant for the planned redo of the former East Downtown Houston Post building over on Polk St. at Dowling Emancipation Ave. (Don’t get this spot confused with the former postal office Downtown, which is also being redeveloped by the Lovett Commercial folks — nor with the other former Houston Post building recently resuscitated by the Chronicle.) The leasing plan appears to show some new construction toward the currently empty Bell St. end of the double-wide block, making room for the Sprouts and for a few layers of parking garage. It also notes a drive-thru CVS on the northern side, along Polk:
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And another .72 acres is also labeled as a spot for future development, right across Bell St.:
The complex is a few blocks southeast of the East Village development.
- Polk & Dowling [Lovett Commercial]
- Previously on Swamplot:Â First Sign of a Post Journalism Future for an East Downtown Double Block
Images:Â Lovett CommercialÂ
Awfully big parking lot for that CVS.
Best news EVER! At least best news in 10 years! For 10 years I have been eating sub par food from Cullen and Polk monstrosity or schlepping all over town. Sprouts is a great fit. I often go to one on Yale. But, it will be way better to catch Sprouts on Polk and Dowling.
Incredibly excited!!
Let me first say that I’m so excited about having a grocery store so I know I’m going to sound ungrateful. I’m just kinda bummed, though, that the retail entrances appear to be internal (facing into the parking structure) rather than street-facing entrances. There’s so much potential for pedestrians with the density in the immediate area but they’ll have to walk into the parking structure to enter Sprouts. If you’re coming from the St. Charles side, you’ll have to cross the two-way ramp to enter Sprouts.
Also, CVS could have had a pretty cool entrance on the Polk side but now it’s just going to say in big letters “EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY.” That building has what looks like a really interesting front entrance along Polk but it’ll probably still look like a boarded up building.
This strikes me as a fairly big deal for the East Side.
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! What’s the time frame?
No pictures of the existing buildings?
@GL I think CVS has some corporate policy that all free standing stores have to be built the same. See the one that opened recently at W. Alabama & Shepherd. Canes Chicken has a similar policy (see Hazard & Westhsiemer).
@Walker – That makes sense but I believe this is a re-use of the existing structure. It’s not totally clear but I think the Sprouts structure is the only new build. I could be reading the plans wrong, though.
Wait, am I reading this right? Are they building office blocks on top of the CVS and a parking garage on top of the Sprouts? I’m not really up to whatever on reading these things, but I didn’t see the side view there.
@MrEction – It looks like they’ll re-purpose the historic structure that faces Polk. The ground floor of that structure is for the CVS and a hollowed-out portion for the parking. There are floors above the ground floor so they would have to build on top of it. The Sprouts structure, though, with parking on top would be a new build since that section of the lot is empty.
Ugh, sorry…meant to type: There are already floors above the ground floor so they WOULDN’T have to build the offices on top of the CVS.
wonderful news! this will change life for the better in EaDo. there has been a lack of good grocery items for years there and people need a decent option besides the neglected wasteland of Kroger at Polk & Cullen. thank you Sprouts! same goes for a CVS. good add! i am tired of driving to west gray or over to navigation…
When will this happen? I’m reading the ivy lofts will not break ground. Is this project scrapped too?
Anyone know the status on this? Is it happening or were the plans scrapped?
I live at live oak lofts, and there’s been a ton of action at this location over the last month or two. Like active site cleanup and demo work. Fingers crossed, it becomes something good.