Heights Mercantile

A few of miles northwest of downtown Houston, Heights Mercantile is a low-rise 45,000-square-foot, six-building urban shopping district that opened in late 2017. Partly located in one of Houston Heights’ historic districts, the redevelopment includes adaptive reuse of historic bungalows and old industrial warehouses as well as new construction across from the neighborhood’s Donovan Park. 

Houston Heights is a primarily residential area that was established in the late 19^th century as one of the first planned communities in Texas and Houston’s first suburb (later annexed to the city in 1918). After World War II, Houston Heights struggled. It wasn’t until 1991 that the neighborhood began to recover from its postwar decline.  

Today, with over 3,700 homes, it is an upscale community and considered one of the most walkable neighborhoods in Houston. Housing includes a mix of Queen Anne cottages and bungalows built in the early 20^th century, garden apartments from the 1960s and ’70s, and more recent townhouses, multifamily developments, and large Victorian-style single family homes.  

From 1967 to 2007, the Houston-based Pappas Restaurants group used three of the existing buildings as its corporate headquarters. Starting in 2015, developer Steve Radom with Radom Capital acquired eight properties between Yale Street and Heights Boulevard, along both sides of 7^th Street. Radom selected the parcels for their access to three major streets (Yale, 7^th, and Heights Boulevard) as well as the bike trail.  

Radom envisioned Heights Mercantile as a creative and walkable destination with public spaces, restaurants and gathering points. The Heights Mercantile buildings are centered around the 4.6-mile (7.4 km) Heights Hike and Bike Trail and connects to City of Houston’s extensive trail system. The bike trail follows the former rail beds of the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (which is why the trail is also known as the MKT Trail). 

Radom Capital is a Houston-based commercial real estate development firm with a focus on properties that contribute to the community. At the time of construction, Heights Mercantile was Radom’s largest project to date. 

The collection of renovated and new buildings in Heights Mercantile were designed to be an eclectic mix of architectural styles—mirroring the community and city. The development’s six buildings include: 

While Heights Mercantile is now considered a resounding commercial and placemaking success, nearby Heights residents were skeptical in the early stages of development. A group went to the city with concerns the development would add noisy bars to the area. In response to neighborhood opposition, the city denied a variance requested by the developer to provide less parking.  

Today, Heights Mercantile provides a community-centered development that emphasizes social interaction with unique cultural and community amenities. The tree-lined promenade is host to frequent artisan markets and art fairs. The space along the MKT trail draws locals together to shop, socialize, exercise, and people-watch. A lawn along the bike path, installed by Heights Mercantile, has become a place for musical performances and children to play. In addition to the public spaces, one tenant – The Local by Lululemon – offers a community outreach program through yoga and arts and craft classes. A portion of the store’s profits benefit a human trafficking charity. 

Heights Mercantile is located at the intersection of the Heights Boulevard Jogging Trail, a well-used linear park, and the Heights Hike and Bike Trail (MKT Trail), making it both walkable and bike-friendly and encouraging alternative modes of transportation. Use of the MKT Trial has been climbing steadily – so much so that Heights Mercantile incorporated additional bike parking to meet the demand. The location is a 30-minute bike ride to downtown Houston along the trail system and is also accessible by bus. 

The City of Houston designated Yale Street as a Green Corridor in 2016, which protects the street tree canopy and also supports efforts to enhance walkability. This classification allows a five-foot building setback for retail centers (instead of the typical 25-foot requirement), which helps move parking to the back and maximizes the building frontage along the street.  

In order to promote walkability and provide green space, the developer preserved all of the existing street trees and removed or buried numerous power lines, as well as planting additional trees and low-irrigation vegetation. The trees and vegetation were designed to provide a comfortable outdoor destination for city dwellers during hot weather. 

The development reduced waste and minimized construction debris by preserving and rehabbing existing structures and reusing building materials. For example, security bars salvaged from the old Pappas headquarters buildings were reused as trellised landscape features.

Radom Capital privately financed the development. The actual project net income exceeded the initial pro forma net operating income by over 30 percent. The project is 100 percent leased to a diverse roster of 20 tenants. 

As the popularity and desirability of Heights Mercantile have grown, lease rents for restaurant, office, and commercial spaces have steadily increased too.  Because of this momentum and the acclaim the project has generated, there are constant requests to backfill any future retail or restaurant vacancies.  

In 2019, Radom Capital sold Heights Mercantile and three other redevelopment projects to Asana Partners of Charlotte, North Carolina. A purchase price was not disclosed, but the properties’ combined value totals more than $14.31 million. Radom Capital continues to manage and lease the property. 

The Heights Mercantile is a high-end retail development with a mix of exclusive national brands and local boutiques—the result of the developer’s passion and dedication to the vision for the project. Steve Radom flew coast to coast, meeting with prospective tenants.  

The efforts paid off for the project, attracting national retailers such as Chubbies, Warby Parker, Lululemon, and Marine Layer to Houston. The retail shops emphasize boutique clothing and health/wellness products. The new two-story building contains retail and restaurant space on the ground floor and a fitness club and offices on the second floor, including Radom headquarters. 

The gourmet restaurants are locally owned. The bungalows were converted into a clothing boutique and Cloud 10 Creamery ice cream shop. The small one-story wood frame building that was built behind one of the bungalows and houses a cafe. The two remodeled former Pappas buildings now include a suite of shops and a wine bar.  

For a few years, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston operated a pop-up gallery space at Heights Mercantile with rotating works from the museum’s collections. 

Programming includes a biweekly farmer’s market featuring locally grown produce, plus pop-up events like dunk booths, jugglers, and music. The site also features regular holiday and seasonal artisan markets offering small batch, handmade goods from local vendors and small business owners all from Houston and all of Texas. 

The design-focused, human-scaled space offers an attractive place where people can linger—to work, dine, shop, and exercise. Social media accounts with Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter have played an important part in the marketing and enticing locals to hang out.   

Historic districts can inspire creativity: Since 2010, Houston’s preservation ordinance has prohibited demolition in designated historic districts. These limits on demolition helped to prompt a creative adaptive reuse of several buildings as part of the Heights Mercantile project.  

Managing parking requirements amidst infill development: The design team was compelled to be imaginative in the landscaping and siting decisions to establish a strong sense of place while also accommodating the city’s requirements for 140 parking spaces. By reusing instead of replacing the Pappas buildings, the developers were able to maintain the existing (but now illegal) head-in parking.  

Exponential walkability: Located in a generally very car-oriented city, this project has the advantage of a preexisting walkable neighborhood which likely helped inspire the development itself. Located at the intersection of the Heights Boulevard linear park and the Heights Hike and Bike Trail, the project is inherently accessible within the already largely pedestrian-friendly neighborhood of the Heights.  

Heights Mercantile 

Website: https://www.heightsmercantile.com  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heightsmercantile/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeightsMerc/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeightsMerc  

Is Heights Mercantile The Future Of Retail Or Just A Unicorn? https://www.bisnow.com/houston/news/retail/passion-is-paying-off-at-heights-mercantile-81769