An award-winning chef’s African heritage and soul food grocery is among the first announced retail tenants in Phase 1 of the $2.5B East River mixed-use project being developed by Midway.
Broham Fine Soul Food & Groceries originally opened in 2020 in the Trinity Gardens community and was created by acclaimed chef Jonny Rhodes, who became a national name for his now-shuttered restaurant Indigo, also in north Houston. Rhodes closed Indigo, in part, to focus on Broham and his efforts to tackle food insecurity and lack of land ownership among Black communities. The new store will focus on house-made and locally sourced grocery items.
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When it opens in 2023, the new Broham will sit in a 4K SF space in The Depot, a ground-level area of the 150-acre development. The project broke ground in August.
Austin-based Lick Honest Ice Cream and Houston-based Urbn Dental also will open around the same time as Broham. The three storefronts are among the first retailers advertised for the space, which previously announced Houston-based architecture firm Method Architecture and Teal, a Houston firm that creates hot water systems. Owners of wedding venue The Astorian will open a 20K SF event space and rooftop bar around the same time.
The entire East River development includes 250K SF of Class-A office space, 110K SF of retail, multifamily and single-family residential, and 13K SF of green space. Set within the historic Fifth Ward, near the East End District, it is poised to be among the largest developments in Houston’s Inner Loop, according to Midway.
East River’s groundbreaking was delayed due to Covid-19 and supply chain issues, including the skyrocketing costs of lumber. Midway Executive Vice President of Development David Hightower previously told Bisnow that timeline adjustments were made due to supply delays, though there wasn’t a significant overall impact.
Limestone Commercial Real Estate’s Brandi McDonald Sikes and Sobi Qazi serve as exclusive leasing agents for East River’s office spaces, with Lacee Jacobs and Laura Harness of Midway handling retail.
CORRECTION, OCT. 27, 5:18 P.M. ET: An earlier version of this story misspelled Lacee Jacobs' name. The story has been updated.
