From the folks currently in the process of bringing you Heights Mercantile: plans for East Village, a 2-block mixed-use complex planned along St. Emanuel and Hutchins Sts. between Polk and Lamar in East Downtown — a few blocks south of the Dynamo’s BBVA Compass Stadium, and across 59 from the George R. Brown Convention Center and Discovery Green. New real estate investment and development firm Ancorian (founded by Finial co-founders Neil Martin and Michael Sperandio with Matthew Donowho) is behind the development; as of two months ago, land for the project (across the street from the Yen Huong Bakery and the now-closed Kim Hung Supermarket) was still being acquired.

A few renderings are up on the Ancorian website — the view above is of a Lamar-facing courtyard and a renovated version of the warehouse currently housing Kitchen Depot. But a presentation dated late November shows many additional angles, siteplans, and renderings of the planned development, one block of which is credited to the design firm of Austin-based Michael Hsu, and the other to Māk Studio Architecture:

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Māk did the 1201 St. Emanuel St. block (on the left above, south of Dallas St. across Hutchins from 8th Wonder); a more detailed view of the siteplan includes a “creative office” space tucked into the L of the forthcoming Secret Group comedy club, as well as retail spaces, a parking lot, and an area labeled for Air BNB rental:

A closer zoom on the northern half of the block, which shows an interior courtyard accessible to many of the surrounding spaces:

A conceptual rendering of the corner of Dallas St. and St. Emanuel (bottom right in the site plan above) incorporates the structure of an existing warehouse on the site:

Meanwhile, on the north side of Dallas St., Hsu’s section (referred to as 2118 Lamar in the presentation deck) includes several large outdoor areas, an office building, restaurants, and a distillery, seemingly the Houston branch of the Our/Vodka project:

More conceptual renderings also incorporate some existing structures into their designs — check out the corner of Lamar and St. Emmanuel:

Take a glimpse down the length of the walkway between Dallas and Lamar on the same block:

Renderings: māk studio architecture (1201 St. Emanuel St.), Michael Hsu Office of Architecture (2118 Lamar St.)

Beer Before Liquor on Hutchins