Magic Island, one of Houston's most peculiar buildings, prepares for a revival See what it looks like inside 35 years after it opened

Take a tour of the old Magic Island complex along the Southwest Freeway near Greenbriar, where work is starting to ramp up on a revival of the '80s Houston nightlife destination. Take a tour of the old Magic Island complex along the Southwest Freeway near Greenbriar, where work is starting to ramp up on a revival of the '80s Houston nightlife destination. Photo: Paul Hester, Rice Design Alliance Photo: Paul Hester, Rice Design Alliance Image 1 of / 65 Caption Close Magic Island, one of Houston's most peculiar buildings, prepares for a revival 1 / 65 Back to Gallery

Houstonians who have driven by Magic Island off of the Southwest Freeway as of late may have noticed some activity going on in the parking lot adjacent to the Egyptian-themed entertainment venue.

On Thursday, Chron.com visited the site at 2215 Southwest Freeway and spoke with two people who are working with the owner to restore it to its former glory.

HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: The building with the pharaoh's head

First opened in 1983, Magic Island was a destination dining experience featuring magic shows, music, dining and drinking. The pharaoh's head on the top of the building is one of the most recognized pieces of architecture in Houston, and its old world construction always turns heads.

Manny Fahid and his assistant, Sue Smith, are working for the building's owner, Mohammad Athari, an area neurologist, to somehow renovate the building and turn it back into a Houston nightlife destination. Photos in the Houston Chronicle archives show it to be an ornate yet tongue-in-cheek haunt covered in Egyptian artifacts. It started out as a private club before going public.

Photo: Craig Hlavaty Take a tour of the old Magic Island complex along the Southwest...

Proposed architectural renderings of what the two-story, 22,000-square-foot property could look like in the future reside on a table at a doctor's office next door. The plan is to have it back in operation by late 2018.

The premise will be the same, just updated for today's audiences in love with old-school entertainment.

It won't be easy. Scavengers and street people have had their way with the building over the past decade. A fire during Hurricane Ike didn't do it any favors either, along with a few fires that Fahid says may have been set by transients. The inside is covered in crude graffiti, in subject matter and style.

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Back in 2015 the Houston Chronicle's Leah Binkovitz spoke to a handful of magicians who performed at the club.

Houston actually was Magic Island's second location. A movie producer named Michael Callie started the original club in Newport Beach, California, in the hopes of turning it into a chain. He sold off the concept to another businessman, who brought it to Houston during the '80s oil boom.

Fahid was an employee at the venue back in 1983 when it first opened. He's back on board working for Athari. Smith, his assistant, is handling the financial side.

"We need to tear everything out and start over," Fahid says Thursday, surveying the scene under a patio. "There is no longer a lick of electrical wire inside."

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"We want it to look just the way it was," Smith adds. "Unless people were here the first time around they had no idea of the magnitude of it inside."

It's been a favorite site for urban explorers in the city looking for thrills and chills in old, abandoned buildings. It doesn't look at all inside the way the way it did years ago when this urbex Indiana Jones came to visit.

It appears that the old residents have moved on from their Egyptian digs.

Photo: John Everett, © Houston Chronicle In March 1984 workmen raise a fiberglass Egyptian head to the top...

A staircase inside leads to the upper room where magic shows took place for dazzled diners. With no electricity in the building it's hard to get a look at the wreckage left behind after years of neglect.

A covered patio and valet area on the building's east end is today a graveyard of tables and chairs ripped out of the dining rooms. Egyptian art and murals sit idle, some covered in graffiti. Broken marble and glass are strewn about the grounds. It won't be an easy renovation by the looks of it.

Time will tell if Athari's dream will become a reality. For now we still have that pharaoh head presiding over the Southwest Freeway's notoriously punishing rush hour traffic.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com.