TEXAS STATE HIGHWAY 45 to PARMER LANE

Rick's Cabaret / 3105 S. I-35
Also known as Rick's Cabaret North Austin, this strip club has been here since the late 2000s/early 2010s. It was previously known as Joy of Austin (opened sometime in the early 1990s) until Rick's Cabaret International Inc. purchased it in 2009 and eventually rebranded it. Because of its location in Round Rock, this has a different numbering than the rest of the buildings in this section and is that way due to the fact that the county line and State Highway 45 are not in the same place.

Whittlesey Landscape Supplies / 3219 S. I-35
This stone and mulch yard has been here for years. Whittlesey's website suggests this location opened in the 1990s, and tax records confirm it opened in 1997.

Service King / 16604 N. I-35
B&B Body & Paint opened here in early 2004 (the building was built in 2003 and briefly spent some time as Tatra Metal Roofing Supply and Ed's Auto Body Shop). In 2011, B&B Body & Paint was acquired by and soon rebranded as Service King. Service King is set to rebrand again as Crash Champions, but that has yet to happen.

Foxy's Cabaret / 16328 Interstate 35
Prior to around 2012, this was Mobile Storage, which rented out cargo container-style units for storage (similar, but not the "PODS" brand often seen in these circumstances). Around 2013 it was renovated and reopend as "Down in Texas Saloon", a strip club, which was acquired by RCI Hospitality (which previously bought Joy of Austin) in 2015. Like with Joy of Austin, RCI rebranded it to its current name.

Austin's / 16231 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
The Interstate numbering resets again at the Travis County line. Austin's (actually in Pflugerville), also known as Austin's Park N Pizza, contains a number of attractions including bowling and rock climbing, with outside attractions including bumper boats, mini-golf, and a go-kart track.

Exxon/McDonald's / 15900 N. Interstate 35
This opened in 2005 as a Chevron/McDonald's; in the early 2010s the McDonald's did a renovation to get rid of the silver mansard roof and the gas station became an Exxon.

7-Eleven / 15829 N. I-35
At the southeast corner of Grand Avenue Parkway and I-35 is this truck stop 7-Eleven. It contains no access to Grand Avenue Parkway, instead connecting to Vision Drive in the back. For food options it contains Angelina's Tacos Caseros and formerly a Subway (gone between 2019 and 2021). My own personal hunch that it was not built as a 7-Eleven proved correct; as of January 2009 it was a Texaco with Speedy Stop and Subway (and probably had a taco counter in there as well). By 2013 it was 7-Eleven (Speedy Stop sold most of its stores to 7-Eleven that year), though the Texaco branding disappeared between spring 2015 and spring 2016.

Ashley Homestore / 15424 FM 1825
This was a Cinemark Movies 12 from December 1988 to late 1997. When Cinemark opened the Tinseltown theater in the same parking lot it was closed, and eventually was redeveloped into retail, with new strip center buildings adjacent to it.

Texas Roadhouse / 15415 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
Texas Roadhouse opened around 2006 (possibly 2007) in an empty pad site next to the Interstate.

Cinemark 20 and XD / 15436 FM 1825
This movie theater opened as Tinseltown USA in 1997, similar to other theaters in Houston that opened around the same time. In 2017 it assumed its current name.

Bombshells / 15119-C Interstate 35
Posados Cafe was here from 2004 to around 2011. It has been Bombshells Restaurant & Bar since 2014. It is also owned by RCI Hospitality (their presence in the north Austin area isn't a small one) but much tamer than the strip clubs.

Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen / 15119 N. Interstate 35
Cheddar's Casual Cafe, as the chain was known until sometime around the mid-to-late 2010s, opened here in November 2003.

FD's Grill House / 15119-B N. Interstate 35
Formerly known as Fish Daddy's Grill House (a concept by Cheddar's before it was bought by Darden) when it opened in mid-2004, this restaurant became FD's in 2015 (an unflattering review came with it).

Exxon / 14730 N. Interstate 35
This is a 7-Eleven but it wasn't until the early 2010s when the convenience store became a 7-Eleven (previously branded as Tigermarket).

Valor North Austin / 14200 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
Formerly, this was the home of the Chaparral Ice Skating Center, but the dual-rink facility closed after November 2011 (originally built in 1996). Soon after, Ecotech Institute took over and remodeled the building, planning to open in 2014. Instead, they pulled the plug on the Austin campus (Ecotech never managed to open a single branch and closed its single Colorado location in 2018) and Virginia College opened instead. Following the demise of Virginia College in 2020, Valor Education, a charter school, opened in the building.

Citgo / 13701 Interstate 35 North
This has been a Citgo since at least 2007 but opened as a Texaco in 1996.

Exxon / 13641 IH 35 North
This used to be a Shell with Quix as of the late 2000s. Quix (open since 1989, though an unknown gas brand) became 7-Eleven in 2012, in 2015 it switched brands to Exxon.

Baby Acapulco / 13609 N. Interstate Highway 35
Part of a mini-chain in Austin, this restaurant, also known as Baby A's, has been in this spot since 2001.

The Home Depot / 13309 N. Interstate Hwy. 35 North
Like Baby Acapulco's, this Home Depot opened in 2001.

Burger King / Denny's / 13200 North Interstate 35
This opened in 2021 and is similar to the hybrid found in Bastrop...the Burger King and Denny's here are linked together by an interior hallway (the restrooms are Denny's, as they tend to have the longer hours), though they have separate dining rooms, kitchen, and staff. The Denny's address here is 13216 N. Interstate 35, but they aren't open 24/7 (24 hours only on the weekends).

The Shops at Tech Ridge / 12901 N. I-35
You can see a site plan (as of 2/22) of this shopping center here. The Floor & Decor and Texas Furniture Mall stores make up the space of a SuperTarget, which operated from October 2003 to January 2016, the only SuperTarget to close in Texas. (The above site plan is archived from here)

Walmart / 12900 Interstate 35 North
This Wal-Mart Supercenter (as it was originally) opened in October 2003. The Lowe's next to it began construction sooner and probably beat it by a few months.

AMC Dine-In Tech Ridge 10 / 12625 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
Occupying only a portion of the previous tenant, AMC opened a smaller movie theater here in December 2019 (before spending a good portion of the next year closed or under capacity). The "previous tenant" here was a Sears Grand, opened in fall 2005 and closed in April 2018 (a good overview of this particular store can be seen here. Sears Grand was an early 2000s concept from Sears, Roebuck, and Company (shortly before their merger with Kmart) to create a hybrid of their department stores (complete with everything they had, like an auto center, portrait studio, etc., as well as Budget/Avis car rentals) with a more traditional discount store style layout with additional departments (garden center, pet supplies, non-perishables, and an HBA section), topping out at 164,000 square feet. While the Sears Grand downscaled the number of departments dramatically in the last five years or so of its life, the Sears outlasted the Super Target about half a mile to the north, with the remaining two Sears in the Austin area closing later that year.

Man Pasand Supermarket to the north has the same address and used to be an OfficeMax. It has "Building A" as the address. More will be discussed on this in a future update.

PARMER LANE to US-183

Tech Ridge Center / 500 W. Canyon Ridge Drive
This shopping center built its first phase in 2001 with an 86,000 square foot H-E-B but all share the same address, just different suite numbers, see this page. An In-N-Out Burger on the site has an address of 12431 N. Interstate Hwy. 35, though this replaced Golden Wok, which operated from 2005 to around 2015. The building was demolished and In-N-Out opened in September 2016.

JCPenney / 12351 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
The Sears Grand is just a memory now, but this JCPenney store (98,000 square feet) is still open. It opened in late 2006, moving from Highland Mall, where it had been since 1971.

QuikTrip / 12213 Tech Ridge Blvd.
QuikTrip #4129 opened in summer 2020. It has a driveway back to the frontage road.

Austin Motor Inn / 11400 N. Interstate Highway 35
This motel was only built in 1983 (it looks far older) and has been going under this name since 1992.

Woodcraft / 10901 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
The woodworking supply store Woodcraft opened the brick-and-mortar "Woodcraft of Austin" in 2015.

Altex Computers & Electronics / 9914 Interstate 35 North
Similar to Micro Center or the late Fry's Electronics, Altex supplies computer parts and various electronics (more of a DIY/technical type of store than ready-built). At just 14,500 square feet, it is smaller than the one in Houston but larger than the one that used to be in Waco. It has been here since 1999.

Exxon / 9401 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
Prior to being a 7-Eleven, it was a Tigermarket. In 2013, C.L. Thomas sold some Speedy Stop and Tigermarket locations to 7-Eleven; this location was converted in 2013.

Fujian Grand China Buffet / 8709 N. Interstate 35
This Chinese buffet has been here since 2008. Previously, it was Austin's location of Old San Francisco Steak House, which operated from 1981 to 2006.

LL Flooring / 8627 N. Interstate 35
This was formerly known as "Lumber Liquidators" when it opened in 2007. In 2020 the corporate name changed, and this received new signage by the end of 2021. The building was here since 1980 but it's been difficult to confirm what it was. Tax records indicate it had something to do with photography.

The Hedge / 8300 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
Now we're getting to the part which was teased back when I wrote about a 2017 trip. The Hedge Apartments looks a bit like an old motel, which of course, it actually is. The website is here, showing floorplans which tend to be a bit cramped (and the bathrooms in the back, probably a carry-over). I believe I did stay at this motel, which was a Travelodge way back when (sometime in the late 1990s), but by 2019 it had long dropped it, known as "Austin Suites Hotel", despite still being a motel. It looks like it may have changed names in 2005. Sometime around 2020 it was closed and converted into an apartment building.

In late 2021, the nearby Red Roof Inn (at 8210 N. IH-35) closed and construction began on a second phase to The Hedge.

Extended Stay America / 8221 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
From what can be found about this hotel, it had its current name since 2004 but until the early 2010s, it was branded as "ExtendedStay Deluxe" (which was based on the 1995-2006 logo). Previous names for this hotel appear to be (based on tax records), "Homegate Studio & Suites" (1998-1999) and "Wellesley Inn & Suites" (1999-2004).

Towne Oaks Apartments / 500 East Anderson Lane
These apartments lost two buildings to freeway flyover ramp construction, with a new building being built in the space to replace them. Just south of here was a whole hotel that was lost to the ramp construction; at 7800 N. IH-35. From what I can piece together, it was a Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel in the mid-to-late 1980s, then Four Points by Sheraton from 1991 to around 2007, then a Howard Johnson again. Before being shut down permanently in 2009, it was briefly "St. Michael Plaza Hotel".

US-183 to US-290

7629 North Interstate 35
This was a Chili's from 1987 to 2007. It moved to 6619 N. Interstate 35 afterward. The restaurant space is still vacant today.

Academy Sports + Outdoors / 7513 N. IH 35
This Academy opened in June 2002 on the site of a former truck stop, the Austin Truck Terminal. It opened in 1965 as one of the very first truck stops in the Austin area (the first one was the Big Wheel Truck Stop). While this description of the truck stop is a bit inaccurate (not yet built in the 1950s, but alive and well in the 1970s), it does seem to line up mostly with what can be found in newspapers and official records. The restaurant inside, Burba's, is mentioned in a 1982 issue of the Austin Chronicle dedicated to restaurants (describing 24 hour outlets). In researching this truck stop, one of the somewhat darkly humorous stories in the Burba's era details the story of a trucker who was shot in the neck, and instead of going into the restaurant for help, he decided to order a cup of coffee instead, which the cook did not serve to him, given how bad his condition was.

By 1986, the Burba's restaurant was Texaco Truck Stop Cafe but by 1990, Dyer Automotive had replaced the sprawling truck stop...its branding under Texaco would be less than five years. Finally, tax records say Dyer Automotive & Transmission closed in 1998, and ground broke for the Academy sporting goods store in 2001. (This was originally part of this page before it was re-worked. As of this writing, the page is in its original form).

Tricolor Auto / 7417 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
This small used car dealership was Capitol Kia Preowned from 2006 to early 2010s. Until around 2003, it was a go-kart track, originally Malibu Grand Prix when it first opened in the late 1970s, then Funwerks in its final years.

In 2005, you can see cars parked around the former go-kart track (used as an impromptu parking lot) and in 2008 most of the go-kart track was removed for construction of a Restaurant Depot. Portions of the former track can be seen between Restaurant Depot and Tricolor Auto.

7211 N. Interstate Highway 35
This Home Depot store opened in 1995 but moved to 1200 Barbara Jordan Boulevard in 2008. The roof is deteriorating; you can see it from recent aerials. It became city property after Home Depot's exit. Originally it was planned to be a courthouse and police substation, but now looks like it will probably be affordable housing. (Source: see this link).

ATX Self Storage / 6901 N. Interstate 35
Before it closed in April 2015 and knocked down in 2017 for this four-story self storage center, this was the first Bikinis Sports Bar & Grill restaurant, which operated in 2006.

I cannot find much on the restaurant before that. It appears this was a gas station in the late 1970s and early 1980s but was redeveloped into a stand-alone restaurant building by 1995. In March 1999, this opened as Dixie's Roadhouse Restaurant (mentioned in the Katy Freeway page) but lasted just ten days before an electrical fire destroyed the restaurant. It was rebuilt and in 2003 was gay nightclub 'Bout Time and in 2005 this was J.R.'s Restaurant & Bar, though I can't find much on it.

Sushi Japon & Hibachi Grill / 6801 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
This started out Shoney's circa 1993 (with the address of 807 Camino La Casta) and like many others previously covered here--Waco, Temple, and San Marcos was sold to Jim's Restaurants in 1998 and converted around 1999. It ended up closing around 2003. Before it became Sushi Japon, it was briefly Bevo's Grill in late 2003 before becoming Sushi Japon in 2004.

Chili's / 6619 N. Interstate 35
Owens Family Restaurant (the same thing as Bob Evans, just with the regional Owens name) was here from 1992 to January 2006 until parent company Bob Evans Farms closed all of the Texas restaurants. Soon after, Chili's moved in, moving from 7629 North Interstate 35.

Seareinas / 6607 N. Interstate 35
Located behind Chili's, Seareinas (Mexican seafood restaurant) opened in 2020. This was Fuddruckers from 1996 to around 2010, and gay nightclub 'Bout Time II (later rebranded as BT2 Nightclub & Bar) from 2012 to 2020. This of course was a "reincarnation" of the original 'Bout Time at 6901 N. Interstate 35 which had closed several years earlier.

Pappasito's Cantina / 6513 N. Interstate 35
The Pappasito's/Pappadeaux tag-team makes another appearance, this time in Austin. Pappasito's #9 opened in July 1992 with the original address of 6601 N. Interstate 35.

Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen / 6319 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen #3 opened in July 1989. It replaced Victoria Station, which operated here from 1978 to 1986.

US-290 to BEN WHITE BOULEVARD (STATE HIGHWAY 71)

Amaya's Taco Village / 5804 Interstate 35 North
From approximately 1980 to 2001 this was Bombay Bicycle Club, a chain usually associated with La Quinta (it had other locations in Texas, often near the same motel chain). The December 5, 1992 issue of Austin American-Statesman reported that the restaurant, was a "pleasant exception" to the usual vacuous atmosphere of chain restaurants, with the restaurant offering quiet dining spaces, a sports bar, nooks for board games, and a space to play computer games both on the LAN and online.

As for the food, the restaurant featured both international dishes and traditional fare (steaks, hamburgers, sandwiches, salads). By 2004, it was JC's Steakhouse, and The Studio Jazz Bar and Restaurant by 2007 (stylized on the sign with a treble clef representing the S). A few years later, it assumed its current tenant.

Target / 5621 N. Interstate 35
Target T-1542 is Capital Plaza's north anchor. The store opened in July 2003 and was a rebuild of a (134,457 sq. ft.) Montgomery Ward that once anchored the north end of the shopping center from 1969 to 2001.

Cabinets To Go / 5510 I-35 North
This small highway-side building also holds signage for "Gracious Homes" though this appears to be part of the same business. Prior to this, circa 2011-2017 was Ruth's Party Land.

The building was designed to hold two smaller tenants, and as of April 2009 was Sprint and the recently-vacated "Barbero del Barrio" (and in 2007, was the home of Deike's Copiers, sharing the building with Sprint).

Mattress Firm Clearance Center / 5403 N. IH 35
This opened as Grandy's in 1986 as part of Capital Plaza. Grandy's closed in the early 2000s and has been a Mattress Firm since (unknown to when it became a "Clearance Center").

McDonald's / 5355 Interregional Highway
The first McDonald's in Texas was a failure (opening in Dallas in the 1950s and closing soon after) but this one was one of the first successful locations, opening around 1962. Between 1985 and 1995, it was rebuilt slightly to the north of the original restaurant (the old one is about where Walgreens is), and in 2013 was rebuilt again.

The Home Depot / 1200 Barbara Jordan Blvd.
Just the back of this circa-2008 store faces I-35, and it replaced the store at 7211 N. Interstate Highway 35. This store has a snazzy-looking exterior (for a Home Depot, at least) but other than that is pretty standard.

Deluxe Inn / 4800 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
This motel has been around for a very long time. More on the history of this will probably be mentioned in a future update, but the Google description describes it as an "adults-only motel".

Hancock Center / 1000 E. 41st Street
Built by Homart Development (a Sears subsidiary) in 1963, the history of this shopping center (formerly an outdoor mall, though it never had much in the way of corridors) can be seen here. It opened with Sears, Dillard's, G.C. Murphy, and H-E-B. Dillard's closed in 1990 (likely due to a more modern store at Highland Mall) and was replaced by Phar-Mor (due to the company's implosion, it didn't even make it a year at Hancock), with the G.C. Murphy becoming Bealls (closed sometime in the 1990s). The H-E-B moved to a new location in 1998 displacing most of the former shopping center (still drawing crowds, of course!) and Sears closed in late 2018 with the bankruptcy of Sears Holdings Corporation.

Fiesta Mart / 3909 North I-35
Fiesta Mart (#25) opened in December 1992 here, and would be the only Fiesta Mart in Austin (and the first Fiesta outside of Houston) for over a decade until a new store opened in 2007. Even after that, it would be one of two Fiesta Mart stores in the Austin area.

Short Stop / 3811 N. Interstate 35
A location of this drive-through only hamburger shop has been here since 1990, back when it was owned by Two Pesos.

Days Inn / 3105 N. Interstate 35
"Days Inn by Wyndham Austin/University/Downtown" has been a Days Inn since 1990. The symbols outside on the sign were something used in the old print directories Days Inn used to have.

Aster's Ethiopian Restaurant / 2804 N. Interstate 35
This opened here in 2007 (not quite 2006 as their website claims) and has operated in some form or fashion (not necessarily Austin) since 1991.

Previous restaurants from research has turned up: Jorge Arrendondo's Tex-Mex Cafe (2004-2006), Austex Mex (1999-2004), Enchiladas y Mas (1994-1999), Zamora's Cazuelas Restaurant (1991-1993), Chef Lupe's Mexican Restaurant (1977-1990), Pike Shoppe (1965-1977). The Aster's signage is draped over a much older sign from the mid-century, this likely dates back to Pike Shoppes.

DoubleTree by Hilton / 1617 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
Because it was a DoubleTree Club until around 2008, this hotel, DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Austin - University Area isn't all-suite. Likely this opened around 2000, the same time as Denny's in the parking lot.

Denny's / 1601 IH-35 North
The chrome "Denny's Classic Diner" here opened in December 2000, between a cemetery and the UT-Austin campus. It appears originally there was something special about these types of Denny's restaurants; however, that has been long gone for at least a decade now.

The Avenir / 1109 Interstate 35 North
This tall apartment building replaced a long-closed Safeway (#266, with the 1109 Interregional Hwy. address). It was a Marina Safeway and closed in 1987, the same year the Dallas division was shut down and several Houston stores were slashed. It never became an AppleTree.

Interestingly, the apartment building that replaced it the building was torn down in 2019, the Avenir, was supposed to have a 60,000 square feet grocery store on the lower level before it was canned due to neighborhood resistance. H-E-B doesn't have new stores of that size, typically...perhaps Randalls was poised to re-emerge at the site of an old Safeway!

Alas, in the end, it was cut, and the tower became just a bit shorter with no new Randalls (or any other grocery store, for that matter) in sight.

Wendy's / 619 N. Interstate Hwy. 35
Wendy's opened here in 2004 at a site of a former gas station, more than likely an Exxon based on the recycled sign structure.

Hilton Garden Inn / 500 N. Interstate 35
This hotel was built as the Waller Creek Plaza hotel in 1985, developed with an adjacent office tower, the 10-story Waller Creek Executive Center at 507 Sabine Street and connected with a skywalk. In 1991, after being repossessed a few years earlier, the hotel was sold and renovated as Sheraton Austin. One of the hotel's features that Sheraton kept (as Rooftop Cafe) and still maintains under Hilton is the restaurant on the top floor, now known as Eighteenth Over Austin. The hotel changed hands in 2003 to Crowne Plaza (Crowne Plaza Austin Hotel) and after a few years under the InterContinental Hotels Group, became Hilton Garden Inn (Hilton Garden Inn Austin Downtown/Convention Center) around 2006-2007. Meanwhile, the former office tower had rented space to Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs for a while (1996-2005) but eventually was extensively renovated into 80 condominiums, Sabine on Fifth.

According to the 2005 InterContinental Hotels Group directory, this has 254 rooms and seven suites.

Plaza Saltillo / 901 E. 5th Street
This large residential building has a 5th Street address but faces I-35 with signage for Whole Foods Market and Target. The Target here (opened March 2020) is one of the "CityTarget" layouts at just 25,000 square feet, with Whole Foods Market opening in June 2020. The 35,000 square feet was originally planned as "365" Whole Foods location before the whole brand was scrubbed under Amazon.

Chevron / 30 N. Interstate 35
This Chevron was developed as a Gulf station in 1969, part of an arrangement with Holiday Inn (see "Holiday Inn" below, including a link to see what the Holiday Inn and gas station looked like in better days) where Gulf Oil owned 5% of the fledgling hotel company. Gulf eventually officially parted ways with Holiday Inn in 1980 but the gas station lived on. Eventually, the garages were converted into a store (there's a sign for "Picky's Pantry" though legally appears to be known as "Austin SuperMarket" today) while the Gulf name was swapped out for Chevron in the early 1990s following the acquisition of Gulf Oil by Chevron.

A wooden enclosure for a taco trailer on the Holiday Inn side of the property makes the hotel more run-down, though the 2007 Holiday Inn logo didn't help.

Holiday Inn / 20 N. Interstate 35
This long-standing cylindrical Holiday Inn (Holiday Inn Austin-Town Lake) was built in the era where Holiday Inn was firing on all cylinders (no pun intended), and featuring two tower buildings (connected by the same ground-floor lobby), one of which was built several years later. My 2002 Holiday Inn guide mentions it featured 14 floors with 320 rooms (the main cylinder building was 13 floors but floor 13 is skipped), though I'm not sure what the original room count was. It mentions "Pecan Tree Restaurant" and "Dabber's Bar". Pleasant Family Shopping has a picture of the hotel soon after it was built (marked as "location unknown").

According to further research, Holiday Inn purchased the land from the city in 1965 to build a circular 12-story hotel with 112 units, a restaurant, and El Caballero night club, with the hotel opening in December 1967. In 1979, a second tower was proposed to add 197 rooms and a 135 space parking lot. This would've used Town Lake parkland, and despite a compromise by Holiday Inns of America Inc. to landscape some of the adjacent park and add a pavilion, citizen opposition eventually forced Holiday Inn to scale back and add only 99 additional rooms...yet somehow the number of rooms did end up being the same number they originally wanted, so something must have changed again at some point.

Whip In / 1950 S. Interstate 35
This has been a hybrid convenience store/restaurant since at least the late 2000s. It opened in the mid-1980s as a Whip In, and originally opened as Convenient Food Mart.

Aiden @ Austin City Hotel / 2200 S. Interstate Highway 35
This was built as Quality Inn Austin South in 1974 and went to the Clarion brand sometime in the 1990s (it was there in 1998).

Between 2013 and 2014 it went from Clarion Inn & Suites to Best Western Plus - Austin City Hotel, and in 2019 became the first Aiden hotel in North America, a boutique hotel brand owned by Best Western.

CubeSmart Self Storage / 2525 S. I-35
This CubeSmart (opened late 2017) reuses the signage of Americas Best Value Inn, which was closed and demolished around 2010.

Donn's Bar-B-Que / 2617 S. Interstate 35
This opened in May 2013 as the second location of Donn's Bar-B-Que. It had previously been a Kettle, which operated from 1972 to 2012.

Travelodge / 2915 I-35 South
Travelodge by Wyndham Austin South, as this inexpensive motel is currently known as, has switched names several times in recent years. As of 2007 it was "Country Garden Inn & Suites". It became Americas Best Value Inn between 2015 and 2016 (no relation to the former one that closed up the street a few years earlier), then briefly reverted to "Country Garden Inn" around 2019-2020. Between February 2020 and 2021 it became Travelodge.

Casulo Hotel / 3017 IH 35 S.
This three-story boutique hotel was built in 2009. According to the local tourism bureau, the "unique boutique hotel is influenced by the Asian culture, housing exotic jacuzzi suites and elegant, high-ceiling rooms".

Wyndham Garden / 3401 Interstate 35 South
The only Austin location of Wyndham Garden was built in the early 1980s. Due to spotty records, it's unknown what it was originally but by the early 1990s was a Howard Johnson hotel, then became a Holiday Inn by 1996, then became the Woodward Hotel & Conference Center.

Due to spotty news records, it's possible that it was a Days Inn briefly (2002-2004) but it was Holiday Inn by 2005 before becoming Woodward Hotel and Conference Center by April 2006, and within a year assumed its current name.

According to a 2002 hotel directory I have, as of 2002 the hotel had 210 rooms, five floors, and the "Country Kitchen" restaurant.

The Home Depot / 3600 S. I-35
This Home Depot was opened in July 2001 and notably, this features forest green awnings rather than the orange ones Home Depot is known for. Accessed from both the freeway and the Home Depot's parking lot (the latter being a service road back exit) is Assumption Cemetery at 3650 South Interstate Highway 35.

3651 Interstate 35 South
This is a submission processing center for the IRS. In 2016 it was announced it would close in 2024 but this was reversed in 2022 and it has remained open. This may have been originally been a production facility or corporate headquarters but this has been occupied by the IRS since at least 1989.

BEN WHITE BOULEVARD (STATE HIGHWAY 71) to SLAUGHTER LANE

Austin Southpark Hotel / 4140 Governors Row
This was an Omni Hotel until 2021 when it was sold along with others.

Aloft / 4108 South I-35
Aloft Austin South opened in 2022 on the site of Howdy Honda Certified Used Cars, which had not operated in years. The main Howdy Honda operated from approximate 1984 to 2006 at 4110 Santiago Street behind it. This site is still vacant.

La Catedral del Marisco / 4118 S. I-35
This served as an IHOP from 1983 to 2004 as a complement to the La Quinta next door. After that it has been a Mexican restaurant. It seems that it started out as Mi Cabaña Restaurant but is now "La Catedral del Marisco #3" (lit. "The Shellfish Cathedral") with its own website but also seems to be contiguous ownership.

Super 8 / 4200 S. I-35
This former La Quinta converted to Super 8 by Wyndham Austin South in late 2022, a lower end brand by Wyndham (which owns both brands).

Skylite Inn / 4220 S. I-35
A former Days Inn (Days Inn Austin South; Skylite reuses the sign). It appears it converted around January 2022 or very late 2021. Google was still reporting Days Inn being here as of February 2022; it had officially changed hands in 2021.

South Austin Nissan Pre-Owned / 4222 S. I-35
The pre-owned car section of South Austin Nissan and the de facto start of the "Motor Mile" section of Austin. It used to be Furr's Family Dining (formerly Furr's Cafeteria, which later converted to buffet style). The distinctive red circular signage is unused these days. The restaurant operated from around 1981 to 2012.

Circle K / 1601 E. St. Elmo Road
This was formerly branded as "Signature" convenience store with a Shell and became Circle K in the early 2010s. In mid-2022, the Shell branding was dropped (to be just Circle K). Very similar to the other "Signature" down closer to Hays County. It has a St. Elmo address but it faces I-35.

Sonesta Simply Suites / 4320 S. I-35
This was formerly Candlewood Suites and originally opened in 1998. Between 2020 and 2021 it converted to its current name. According to my resources this has 122 floors on three floors (under Candlewood Suites, at least).

CarMax / 4400 S. Interstate 35
CarMax opened here in early 2007. This was redeveloped from a previous dealership but the construction is all-new. More information on the old dealerships will be added in a future update.

Red Roof PLUS+ / 4701 S. Interstate 35
This Red Roof Inn was built in 1997, and at some point in or after 2014 converted to the Red Roof PLUS+ designation.

5015 S. I-35
From January 1989 (tax records indicate 12/31/88, unlikely it was open NYE) to 2005, this was a Wal-Mart (#1253), which was, due to topography and trees, impossible to see from the road. It was replaced by the store at 710 East Ben White Boulevard. Today the former Wal-Mart has been renovated into an office building, where the IRS (among others) takes up space here. The IRS has Austin offices a bit further up I-35 at the northeast corner of I-35 and 71.

5107 S. I-35
This was a Sam's Club from 1988 to October 2011, and like Wal-Mart, it too moved from its invisible position to 9900 Interstate 35 South. Today, it's owned by KIPP-Austin Public Schools, a charter school, and holds both KIPP Austin Brave High School and KIPP Austin Obras Elementary School (no middle school).

BMW of South Austin / 5501 S. I-35
From 1998 to its closure in 2015 this was a Cinemark Tinseltown movie theater. The dealership opened in 2018, though the theater was demolished in the process.

Fiesta Mart / 5510 South Interstate 35

This Fiesta Mart is unusual for a few reasons. It's one of the two Fiesta stores in Austin, it's got a gas station and convenience store on the corner, and (related to the previous fact), was a former Albertsons (#4093) which operated from March 2000 to July 2006. In 2007, Albertsons would leave the Austin market, selling its remaining stores to H-E-B, which reopened some but closed others. Fiesta Mart #64 would open in February 2007 at this location. There are a few stores adjacent to the Albertsons/Fiesta Mart built around the same time.

The gas station looked much closer to Albertsons Express (canopy with rounded corners, "Snacks" and "Beverages" still on the store but sometime around 2021 this was renovated out, and evidence also indicates the store interior was updated later after opening.

The 5510 address designation is given to others in the same shopping center. Lowe's to the north has it, it opened around late May 2000, as well as the other stores in the shopping center, including Pizza Hut (which as of 2022 reverted its logo to the "classic" logo), Gamefellas Video Game Exchange, and Goose Cap Liquor (opened in 2019, but coincidentally, the same owners who took over the Fiesta liquor stores and rebranded them as "Uno Más Liquor" (the presence of a Fiesta nearby may or may not be a coincidence).

Over in the parking lot, 5510-C, is the very LAST Texas Land & Cattle restaurant remaining. It opened in 2001 (after Albertsons opened). As of 2002, there two dozen locations (usually in Texas metropolitan areas, Austin included, but also locations in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado). I ate at the Lubbock restaurant in December 2002, a distant memory at this point. You can see the site's dedicated page on Texas Land & Cattle here.

6405 South Interstate 35
This opened as Target (T-683) that operated in this location from October 1991 to October 2007 when it moved to Southpark Meadows. Wayside Schools moved in around the early 2010s and today hosts the main administrative offices, Wayside REAL Learning Academy (PreK-5) and Wayside Sci-Tech Middle School (6-8).

Capitol Chevrolet / 6200 S. Interstate 35
Capitol Chevrolet moved here in 1998 from its old location at 501 N. Lamar downtown, where it had been since 1951. (It stretched several blocks). Today, the dealership features a parking garage to conserve space, and in 2006 an addition added an accessway onto North Bluff Drive.

McDonald's / 6503 S. Interstate 35
This McDonald's has been here since the year 2000 and has since been remodeled into the current prototype.

Taco Cabana / 6430 S. Interstate 35
The Taco Cabana here has been operating since December 1994 (at the earliest) but likely around January 1995.

H-E-B / 6607 S. Interstate 35
This H-E-B was originally built in 1977 though in the late 1980s was rebuilt as a larger location with a bigger setback from the road.

Burlington / 6715 Interstate 35 S.
Burlington Coat Factory (#434) moved into this former Kmart in summer 2003. The chain has been known as Burlington since the late 2010s, with this store receiving a new name at some point after that. It was a Kmart (labeled as Big Kmart from the late 1990s on) from November 1981 to July 2002.

Oak Meadow Baptist Church / 6905 South Interstate 35
This started out as the short-lived Town Lake Chrysler Plymouth which opened in 1989 but closed in May 1990. A few months later, it was re-opened by Nyle Maxwell, which reopened the dealership as Prestige Chrysler Plymouth. It appears that it kept that name ("Prestige Chrysler", that is, as DaimlerChrysler discontinued the Plymouth brand in 2001) until its demise in the late 2000s when it moved (it was also known as "Maxwell Chrysler South"). It was later sold to and renovated as Oak Meadow Baptist Church which used both of the dealership's buildings. A third building had been built on the property in the 2000s but under the church this was fenced off and became a warehouse for Lifeworks South Austin Youth & Family Resource Center.

Austin Lone Star RV Resort / 7009 Interregional Hwy.
Also known as "Austin Lone Star: A Sun RV Resort" since around 2016-2017, this RV campground has been around since 1969.

Adult Megaplex / 7111 South I-35
This was constructed between 1966 and 1973 and was originally for industrial use. It was previously occupied by The Jenkins Company (1970-???), Military History Associates Inc. (1974-1976), Adolphus Book Bindery (1976-1988), T. Michael Parrish Rare Americana (1992), and Leon's Tile (1993-1997). As these are from tax records, names and dates may not be accurate (and may have had multiple tenants in the building). Since 1998, however, it has only had its current tenant (also known as "Adult Video MegapleXXX").

Golden Corral / 7300 S. I-35
This Golden Corral buffet restaurant (#988) opened in late 2016. Coincidentally, it sits at a street named "Corral Lane".

Fast Friends Beer Co. / 7313 S. I-35
This microbrewery opened in July 2022. The side facing the Interstate has big words on it: "Do Good, Love Big, Live Now".

Service King / 7501 S. I-35
Like its North Austin counterpart (see above), this opened as B&B Body & Paint in the mid-2000s and rebranded to Service King by 2012.

Sunbelt Rentals / 8300 I-35 South
Sunbelt Rentals has been here since 2001. In 2009, the sign was replaced with a smaller one (though with their updated logo). It was previously something else prior to Sunbelt Rentals (the building dates back to 1980), but it isn't clear at this time.

P. Terry's Burger Stand / 8600 S. Interstate 35
P. Terry's opened their restaurant #21 in spring 2022. It is a double drive-through but no eat-in area. From the parking lot you can navigate to the massive H-E-B between South Congress and I-35 (see the bottom of this page.

The Home Depot / 8801 S. I-35
The Home Depot here opened in September 2003, but it shares the address with others in the same shopping center, including a Circle K (opened as a Shell-branded "Signature" or "Signature Austin" in January 2004; became a Circle K between 2011 and 2013; between February 2021 and February 2022 the Shell branding was dropped and became a Circle K in its entirety), an IHOP restaurant, and Don Dario's Cantina.

SLAUGHTER LANE to STATE HIGHWAY 45

Walmart / 9300 S. Interstate 35
This Walmart opened in May 2005 (as "Wal-Mart Supercenter") and was one of two stores that replaced #1253 up the road (see "5015 S. I-35", the one that kept the number is at the northwest corner of Ben White and I-35). The 9300 number is shared between the buildings bounded by Cullen and Turk, including where two smaller stores are sandwiched between Jack in the Box and Starbucks, the latter opening in 2006 and the former in 2005, as well as a former Steak N Shake at "Building E" operating from 2008 to 2014 (this became a Dairy Queen in 2022). As of summer 2023 these two stores were uBreakiFix with The Good Feet Store opening in late 2022/early 2023.

The Walmart is part of the sprawling Southpark Meadows complex, with a lease plan seen here.

Floor & Decor / 9315 South Interstate 35
This 73,000 square feet Floor & Decor store opened in late 2021. It sits at the southeast corner of the Slaughter/I-35 area.

SuperTarget / 9500 S. Interstate 35
Southpark Meadows is big enough to have Walmart AND Target (very rare) and this store replaced the Target at 6405 South Interstate 35 (see above), this Target store opened in October 2007 as a SuperTarget. See Bluepages Wiki for more information on this Target (T-2288). See "Walmart" above (9300 S. Interstate 35) for the PDF.

Southpark Crossing Apartments / 1701 Oak Hill Lane
These apartments were built in 2017. It has a back exit onto Melissa Oaks Lane.

Chuck E. Cheese / 9811 S. Interstate 35
This stand-alone CEC (branded as "Chuck E. Cheese's" until 2023, with a repaint of the building) opened in 2013. Sharing the address is building built later—Wing Daddy's Sauce House opened in the last few months of 2016.

Walmart / 9300 S. Interstate 35
Wal-Mart Supercenter #5317 opened in May 2005. It did not directly replace the aforementioned #1253 store but did act as a functional replacement for the South Austin/Onion Creek communities. At the time of its construction it was the furthest-south Walmart store before San Marcos.

Bridge at Asher Apartments / 10505 S. I-35
Until around 2016-2017, this apartment complex was known as Stonegate Apartments. It is possible they had another name when they were constructed in 2003.

Onion Creek Luxury Apartments / 10701 S. Interstate 35
These apartments are accessed through a public alleyway from the I-35 frontage road and have had this name at least since 2011, but were known as Alexan Onion Creek when it was built in the mid-to-late 2000s.

Farmhouse / 10801 S. I-35
This apartment complex was built in 2017 (though it looks quite unfinished as of May 2017 Street View) and features 235 units in several 4-story buildings.

Cowboy Harley-Davidson of Austin / 10917 South IH 35
This opened in 2002 as Hill Country Harley-Davidson but has had its current name since around 2006.

Exxon / 11031 South I-35
This Exxon used to be a Texaco (converted between 2020 and 2021). For some reason, the digital signage was also changed to an extremely small size (almost impossible to read from the road). This may have been due to a local ordinance, but who knows?

Valero / 11206 S. Interstate 35
This opened as a Corner Store in 2016 (with a Valero, of course) but converted to Circle K a few years later with the acquisition of the chain.

Caliber Collision / 11210 S. I-35
Caliber Collision (built in 2017) was built roughly on the site of the Adams Extract building. Adams Extract moved here in 1955 (previously in downtown Austin, and before that, Michigan). When it was built in 1955 at the far fringes of town (at the time), this stretch of I-35 was the "San Antonio Highway". It continued to operate until 2003 shortly after the company was sold to Central Texas Ingredients out of Gonzales (which renamed to Adams Flavors, Foods & Ingredients LLC) and closed the plant here. (Another site has a nighttime shot, which you can see here). Caliber Collision was built in 2017.

Valero / 2107 Boca Raton Drive
This Valero with a generic "Food Mart" was a Shell and converted between 2009 and 2011. From 1979 to around 2000 it was a Stop-N-Go convenience store, based out of Houston.

South of here is the "other" Highway 45 that still goes around in a loop to the other side. After this, we leave Travis County to enter Hays County.

Check the next page, I-35 in Hays County, here.