Where Have All the Rice Fields Gone?

Mahatma Rice Silos at Riviana Foods Plant, 1702 Taylor St., Houston

Gone to subdivisions, everyone!

Riviana Foods chief Bastiaan de Zeeuw gives more details about the company’s decision to close the Mahatma and Success Rice processing plant at 1702 Taylor St.:

De Zeeuw points out that the acreage devoted to rice-growing in Texas decreased by 75 percent from 1980 to 2006. In the 1980s, he says, Texas represented about 20 percent of total rice acreage in the United States. Now, it represents only 5 percent.

So what will happen to the 9.4-acre site in the increasingly less industrial area just south of I-10 once a new facility is built in Memphis? Read on, after the jump.

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The sale of the land is a “real possibility,” according to de Zeeuw, who says no deals have been finalized. . . .

The Riviana land, [Property Commerce broker Chad] Moss says, could be home to a variety of uses and might appeal to different buyers, including multifamily, office, retail or townhome developers.

And because of its proximity to downtown and the Heights, “Yuppies love it,” Moss says.

See, all that development on former rice fields on Houston’s outskirts benefits close-in neighborhoods too!