So the excavator is sneaking up on the old Fiesta. You knew one was coming. And you know there will be more. As of this morning, the low-slung building at the corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama hasn’t yet received a demolition permit, but it’s been on the smashing block since closing in July, not too long after H-E-B opened the Montrose Market across the street. Developer Marvy Finger, who now owns the property here in Lancaster Place, has said he plans to build something Mediterranean — a 6- to 8-story apartment complex that might or might not have some retail, too: “We’re going to try to create something really beautiful,” he’s told the Houston Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff.
- Previously on Swamplot: Scenes from the Dunlavy Fiesta Farewell Shopping Experience, Montrose Fiesta on Dunlavy Will Close Forever in Less Than a Month, Montrose Fiesta Building Owners: That Variance Is for Future Generations, The Montrose Fiesta Is Over: Here Comes Lancaster Square, West Ave-Style Apartments and Retail Planned for Dunlavy Fiesta Site?, Dunlavy and West Alabama: The Fiesta Antiques District
Photo: Loves swamplot
It’s adios for the 60-year-old Heights market — Bridgewood Properties is building a 4-story senior-living complex in its place — but there will be one more flicker before the lights go out: Bridgewood President Jim Gray tells the Leader 
Would warehouse facilities have worked as well? Katherine Shilcutt explains: “A long-running joke with many Houstonians is that no one quite knew how Rice Epicurean Markets stayed in business. . . . While all kinds of wild rumors flew about how Rice Epicurean stores stayed open despite a lack of traffic, the truth is that most of its customers — which tend to be both older and wealthier — opted for grocery delivery service at home. And while this sustained Rice Epicurean for many years, it appears that this model wasn’t quite enough to keep its stores in business.” The chain’s lone surviving store, at 2020 Fountain View between San Felipe and Inwood, will continue home deliveries. [Eating Our Words; 
The blogger grocery store reviews are in! Or at least one of them, for the just-opened Kroger south of the Heights at 1440 Studemont. Former Stop & Shop cashier Viula finds helpful price scanners, a few extremely wide aisles (and a few especially narrow ones), some discolored lettuces, some very shy salsa, and strange logic in the organization of orange and orange-y juices: “
October 26th is gonna be a busy day for the once-industrial zone south of I-10 just west of Downtown. Sure, it’s Halloween candy-hoarding time. And you’ll have 2 large new venues for it. It’ll be opening day not only for the 
The Sprouts Farmers Market grocery chain’s long-awaited Houston-area landing will begin with 3 outside the Beltway locations next year. Sprouts scout Ed Page of UCR MoodyRambin Page says leases have already been signed for a 25,300-sq.-ft. spot at the southwest corner of Cinco Ranch Blvd. and Peek Rd.; for a 29,000-sq.-ft. store at FM 529 and Hwy. 6 in the Copperfield Village Shopping Center; and for a 28,000-sq.-ft. location off the Tomball Pkwy. at Spring Cypress Rd. in the Spring Cypress Village shopping center. 
“If I plant that same sign in Corpus Christi, will they come????????????????” [
