Chain-link fencing went up around the former Village Fitness space on Rice Boulevard earlier this year.
That space at 2369 Rice Blvd is becoming a Kinokuniya, the Japanese bookstore chain's second Houston-area location and its first inside the Inner Loop. Heather Nguyen, managing director at NewQuest, put it plainly when the deal was announced: her team had been eyeing the Village for years, and when this space came open, they moved before it ever reached the open market. Rice Village has seen a number of new businesses and projects this year.
Kinokuniya's Rice Village Location
Kinokuniya is one of the notable additions to Rice Village. The company is expanding beyond its Katy Grand location with a second Houston-area store in Rice Village, near Rice University and with dense foot traffic. The nearly 5,600-square-foot store is set to open this fall next to Bitty & Beau's Coffee, and it lands at a moment when Rice University itself is investing in the corridor between campus and the shopping district. The university announced a $120 million Gateway Project last year, a pedestrian-focused link meant to draw more student and faculty traffic directly into the Village.
Village Corner Redevelopment
Realty News Report reported that Fifth Corner acquired Village Corner, the retail plaza at 2400 Times Blvd, last year and has broken ground on its redevelopment. Fifth Corner was founded in 2017 by former AmREIT executives Chad Braun, Tenel Tayar, and H. Kerr Taylor, and the firm has built its business around what it calls "irreplaceable corners," meaning walkable, high-visibility properties in neighborhoods that already work. Village Corner qualifies. It sits between Rice University and West University Place, and it has long housed some of the district's most established names: La Taste, Salento Bistrot, Café Rabelais, and Torchy's Tacos.
Here is what separates this project from a typical teardown-and-rebuild: those tenants are staying. Michael Hsu Office of Architecture is handling the redesign, which will bring new facades, expanded patios, and improved walkways across the property's roughly 38,000 square feet of retail and nearly 29,000 square feet of office space, with construction expected to wrap by the end of this year. In Realty News Report, Brandon Eads, Fifth Corner's portfolio development manager, described the intent this way:
"Our goal has never been simply to redevelop a property. We're creating a place where exceptional brands want to invest, where people naturally want to spend time, and where every detail, from the architecture to the patios to the pedestrian experience, has been considered with the long term in mind."
Village Corner is one example of how redevelopment is reshaping retail in the area.
Retail Changes Beyond Rice Village
At the Terrace Shops on Buffalo Speedway near Westpark, Fifth Corner filled a former Starbucks space with Merit Coffee, the San Antonio-based roaster's first Houston location.
These examples also show retail changes in the Upper Kirby corridor beyond the Rice Village retail core.
The Restaurants Filling the Quiet Spaces
Restaurant openings are another part of the area's recent changes. Liberty Kitchen & Oysterette is opening its third location on November 5 in the space at 5212 Morningside that Gratify left behind. It joins existing Liberty Kitchen locations in River Oaks and Memorial, and the new outpost will carry the brand's seafood-heavy menu of fried shrimp, gumbo, cioppino, and Texas redfish, alongside a rotating Chef's Table lineup that opens with dishes like braised octopus and green curry mussels. Culinary Khancepts, the group behind Liberty Kitchen along with State Fare and Leo's River Oaks, is handling the buildout in-house rather than shopping the space around publicly first.
Hill House Home is also opening its first permanent Houston boutique this fall. In a Houston First report, Sam Dike of Rice Real Estate Company described the addition as part of "the continuation of thoughtful work to curate a retail mix that enhances the Rice Village community."
Other openings this year include Sugared + Bronzed for beauty services, FIGS for scrubs, Birkenstock and On for footwear, GLO30 for skincare, ParkerJoe for children's clothing, and Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. Together, they broaden the district's retail mix.
Public Events and Amenities
Rice Village also has public events and amenities with published schedules. The Rice Village Farmers Market has run on the same visible, predictable schedule for years: first and third Sunday of every month, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., rain or shine, organized by The Informal Grub, the market and events company founded by Houstonian Casey Barbles. You do not need an insider relationship to show up. You just need to know the calendar.
Levy Park, a few minutes away in the heart of Upper Kirby, runs the same way. Its dog park, splash pad, and community garden are open to anyone, and its monthly Sunset Bingo nights land on the second Saturday of the month, with the next few dates falling on September 12, October 10, November 14, and December 12. Together, they offer regular ways to take part in neighborhood life.
What This Means If You Live Here
For updates on commercial real estate and retail activity in the area, follow regional real estate trade publications and local outlets that cover food, retail, and lease activity. Opening announcements can follow lease decisions by several months.
These examples show several kinds of retail and development changes in Rice Village and nearby corridors. When fencing appears around a storefront, it may be part of work related to a new tenant or redevelopment, as in the examples above.
If you are curious how any of this shifts the character or value of a specific block in Rice Village, Upper Kirby, or the surrounding corridor, the team at Urban Access Properties spends a lot of time tracking exactly these kinds of moves. Schedule a free consultation with Sharlene Abghary and her team if you want to talk through what it means for where you live.
