FM 1960 EAST

At Home / 9450 FM 1960 Bypass West
The At Home store at 9450 FM 1960 Bypass West opened as Garden Ridge in 2001 (next door to one of the Houston area's few Super Kmart stores), but it closed in 2004 when Garden Ridge went bankrupt. It would reopen in 2011 and rebrand to At Home in 2014 but the interim was a bit more interesting.

A church group called Solid Rock Baptist Church purchased the building in December 2005 from Humble Gardens (possibly a shell company or real estate spinoff of Garden Ridge) and because the 116,000 square foot building was too big for the church's uses, plans were put into place to have half of the building serve as businesses operated by the church to keep the tax-exempt status. Only one business actually ended up opening in 2006 (with the church's opening), Bounce City, but the church struggled financially and by 2010 Bounce City was closed with SRBC having been foreclosed on and leasing the space they used to own. The church moved out soon after and a new tenant was found...Garden Ridge!

9470 FM 1960 Bypass West
From November 1994 to June 2002, this was Kmart 4958, better known as Super Kmart Center. After its closure it sat for a number of years before Academy Sports + Outdoors and Burlington reconstructed and split the building in 2011. It appears that Academy's side is the same building but extensively renovated while Burlington's is brand new. Collectively, with the restaurants in front of it, the re-development has the name of "Townsen Crossing".

9805 FM 1960 Bypass West
This opened as Fiesta Mart #21 in 1990, one of the fancier, larger Fiesta Mart stores built in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1992, it was closed and sold to Randalls, which opened there to replace their old store across the freeway at 122 FM 1960 Bypass East.

While Randalls had managed the old Randalls #16 quite effectively since 1980, the new location was a failure. Perhaps Randalls had difficulty filling the large 86,000 square feet footprint but it closed in 1995, less than two years after its opening.

From 2005 to 2011, Academy Sports + Outdoors took most of the space, having moved from a smaller strip mall store near Eastway Village Drive. Ross Dress for Less also opened during that time (it takes an address of 9815A Farm to Market 1960 Bypass Rd. W.)

After Academy moved out, the space was split between Goody Goody Liquor (opened 2012) and Baskins (opened 2013). The latter was quickly purchased by Boot Barn (though it did open as Baskins, if briefly). In 2017, Goody Goody Liquor was sold to Total Wine & More as part of a transaction that included one other Houston store (also in a former Randalls, by coincidence).

It appears that the space was in fact vacant for a period of a decade between the closure of Randalls and opening of Academy and Ross.

JOHN F. KENNEDY BOULEVARD

Holiday Inn / 15222 John F. Kennedy Blvd.
Located at the southeast corner of JFK and Beltway 8, this Holiday Inn dates back to 1971 (originally with the address of 3702 North Belt East) and has remarkably kept the Holiday Inn name all this time, especially as its older brethren from that era closed or changed names. The hotel still features everything from a named in-house restaurant (Good Eats Grill) to a tennis court.

Hot Biscuit / 15360 John F. Kennedy Blvd.
With the former address of 15360 Drummet Blvd. (the old name of the road), this restaurant has been active since 1983 and was built as a Kettle (#144). In 2011 it disconnected from the dying chain and renamed to its current name. While the $3.99 breakfast signage disappeared in the late 2010s, it is still 24 hours. The name is fun. It's almost like an epithet a sweet old Southern lady would use instead of something more vulgar.

Presidential Plaza / 15655 JFK Blvd.
One of the few strip centers in the "airport corridor" seems to know its audience--it's pretty much all consumables, with restaurants, a cigar shop, and a liquor store. The PDF is here (archived from here) and shows the "2nd Gen Restaurant" being empty. This was originally Godfather's Pizza when it was built in 2005 and ended up being the second-last Godfather's in the Houston area (the one in Galveston closed not too long after) before it closed in the early 2010s. By 2015 it was Papa Tony's Kitchen, a similar restaurant. I have a menu from Papa Tony's in 2015 (it closed in 2020)...the menu that I have is different than the menu from their still-up site (page 1, page 2). It's a bit cumbersome, perhaps I'll make an "Ephemera" page on it someday. (The menu I have mentions hot dogs as well as the pizza and rotisserie chicken).

Personally I ate here with my sister while waiting on someone from the airport. We shared a slice of cheesecake. I forgot what flavor it was, but it was seasonal and interesting enough. I'm tempted to say it was key lime, but don't quote me on that. I'm also not sure if Godfather's closed and Papa Tony's or if it was a "franchisee disconnects and strikes out on their own" sort of thing, possibly the latter. I'm not sure if it's been retenanted or not.

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel / 15747 John F Kennedy Blvd.
In 1981, the DoubleTree Hotel opened at 15747 Drummet Blvd., as it was known at the time with 313 suites. It featured a full-service restaurant (Oakley's) and a lounge, Bo Peep's. While it was the first DoubleTree in Houston, it seems like the hotel was struggling initially, in summer 1983 if you mentioned the "summer special" you could stay for just $30 a night (weekdays only), by 1985 the regular rate was $70. Another promotion in 1986 let you stay for $45 on the weekends...and that included a free bottle of wine at Oakley's (remember, several hotels were closing at this period due to lack of business). These days, the hotel (which has a regular going rate of around $100) has 747 Bar & Grill as its restaurant.

WEST SAM HOUSTON PARKWAY NORTH (NORTH OF NORTHWEST FREEWAY)

McDonald's / 8940 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. N.
This McDonald's opened in April 2001. In fall 2017, the exterior was renovated to the current prototype.

Kroger / 9125 W. Sam Houston Parkway N.
Albertsons #2766 opened in September 1999 and in May 2002 was shut down and converted to a Kroger (#739). It also included a fuel center out front (known as Albertsons Express under Albertsons, then Kwik Shop under Kroger until the Kwik Shop chain was divested). Additional pictures on my old blog The Houston Files.

Whataburger / 9232 W. Sam Houston Parkway N.
This Whataburger opened in front of LA Fitness in December 2009. (The LA Fitness center behind it opened earlier that year).

10357 W. Sam Houston Parkway N.
Built around 2013, this building houses Purvis Industries' divisions Capcorp and National Petroleum in one building (though they don't seem to be the headquarters of either).

10603 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. N.
This office building, constructed in 2009, has a strip mall portion despite the latter being almost invisible from the highway. It holds breakfast chain First Watch, which replaced The Egg & I, a previous similar tenant.

NORTH SAM HOUSTON PARKWAY WEST

Texaco / 8110 N. Sam Houston Pkwy. W.
As of 2008, this Texaco had a Sonic as a restaurant co-brand, from 2014 to 2016 it was Frenchy's Chicken, and after Frenchy's closed, the restaurant side sat vacant for a while until Hippo Burgers opened in 2020.

Chevron/Jack in the Box / 8055 N. Sam Houston Pkwy. W.
This Quick Stuff/Jack in the Box opened in 2003 (with a Shell, at least that's how it was in the late 2000s). Quick Stuff was a Jack in the Box concept that added a gas station and convenience store to Jack in the Box restaurants, founded by the company itself. In 2009, they divested the chain to other operators (but kept the Quick Stuff name) and the store here was sold to Stripes (also, in the early 2010s, the gas operator converted to a Chevron). After Sunoco sold Stripes to 7-Eleven, this quickly got disconnected from the chain (even in 2018) and was sold to Checkout, though is still branded as Quick Stuff on the outside.

Saffron Indian Kitchen / 8045 N. Sam Houston Pkwy W.
This two-story restaurant and events center was the home of Steamboat House, which operated from 2005 to January 29, 2022.

Check Point / 15405 Texas State Highway 249
At the southwest corner of Beltway 8 and Highway 249 is a "Check Point", in both gas brand and convenience store (Checkpoint #106). The gas station has had somewhat of a tortured history, it was an Exxon opened in mid-1997 but by December 2007 it was stripped and boarded up. By 2011 it was reopened by Valero (demarcated as a "Discount Fleet" Valero), with "Sky Mart" as the convenience store. Buzzy Bee opened in fall 2015. I'm not sure if this was before or after Buzzy Bee changed their logo, but in early 2015, the Buzzy Bee logo had a striking resemblance to a certain cereal mascot owned by General Mills. The Check Point conversion came in summer 2020.

Valero/Checkers / 4919 N. Sam Houston Pkwy. W.
Valero and McDonald's opened here in late 2004 (it's possibly McDonald's opened in January 2005) with a third tenant, a barbershop/hair salon (King & Queen Barber & Hair Studio), as well as a fourth tenant, "Roberts Elegant Doors" (later just Robert's Doors). In early 2015, McDonald's relocated out of the gas station to a stand-alone location across the street (10966 Bammel North Houston Road), and Checkers replaced McDonald's in early 2016.

McDonald's / 10966 Bammel North Houston Road
See previous entry for more information.

Gordon Food Service / 11303 Antoine Drive
Home to Gordon Food Service's Houston distribution center (they have others nationwide). It was built in 2005 as the new consolidated home of Glazier Food Company, but in 2014, Gordon Food Service acquired the company and rebranded it. The company does a variety of distribution both to some grocery stores (though only recently have they opened up stores locally) and institutional uses, and sometimes acquires other distribution centers. (Their location in Plant City, Florida, was the old distribution center of Albertsons' Florida division). And speaking of Albertsons...

Food Town / 2770 N. Sam Houston Pkwy. West
Albertsons (#2757) opened in November 1998 here, and in summer 2002, it closed as the Albertsons Houston division was shut down. It was replaced by Food Town, which opened in January 2003. Food Town would keep Albertsons' "Grocery Palace" décor, which remains today.

2225 North Sam Houston Parkway West
ScreamWorld, a haunted house attraction originally opened in the early 2000s and open seasonally, closed in March 2020 when the owner retired. It has not reopened as anything else.

NORTH SAM HOUSTON PARKWAY EAST

Goodwill / 171 N. Sam Houston Pkwy. E.
Located just outside of Greenspoint Mall (see North Freeway section, below), this was originally a Circuit City with the address of 171 North Belt East. It was one of the five initial Houston stores that opened on or just after August 29, 1991, all of which opened near a mall. In addition to Greenspoint Mall getting a Circuit City near it, Circuit City stores were also built near Almeda Mall, Willowbrook Mall, Baybrook Mall, and West Oaks Mall. Circuit City actually left this location before its 2009 demise and from 2005 to the early 2010s became Bel Furniture Clearance Center. After Bel Furniture left, it became a Goodwill. This was branded as a "Goodwill Select" (and was one of one of Goodwill's "Computer Works" departments) but as of 2022 it has become "Goodwill Outlet".

307 N. Sam Houston Parkway E.
What made the October 2020 closure of Jimmy G's (Louisiana-style seafood restaurant) notable was not just the fact it had been there for decades, it was also the last vestige of restaurateurs Jody Larriviere and Jim Gossen. Gossen and Larriviere opened the original Landry's and Willie G's restaurants (among others), but for years they kept Jimmy G's as independent. With the closure of Jimmy G's, they were out of the business and retired for good.

The archives above say it opened in 1985 but other reliable sources show that it opened in 1986 (at 307 North Belt East, the original pre-Beltway address).

Hyatt Regency North Houston / 425 N. Sam Houston Pkwy. E.

L'hotel Sofitel (Hotel Sofitel) opened in fall 1982 with three restaurants: Chez Colette, the casual brasserie cafe, La Terrasse, the "sidewalk café" for light food and drinks, and Le Cafe Royal as the hotel's upscale French restaurant. It had eight stories, 341 rooms, 10 suites, and even had a small takeout French bakery. The hotel was renovated in 1995. In 2007 it changed hands to become Crowne Plaza (Crowne Plaza Houston North Greenspoint), with the French restuarants disappearing around this time. By 2012 it had rebranded to Hyatt Regency North Houston. This article refers to the hotel as being "recently rebranded".

Red Lion Hotel / 500 N. Sam Houston Pkwy E.
Red Lion Hotel Houston Intercontinental Airport has a history closely tied to the adjacent hotel Red Roof PLUS+ & Suites at 502 N. Sam Houston Pkwy. East. Read more about them here.

OYO Townhouse / 702 N. Sam Houston Pkwy. E.
Opened in 1983 as Hotel Ibis, an eight-story moderately-priced companion to the upscale Hotel Sofitel down the road, this hotel (despite being the first Ibis in the United States), the Accor ownership ended less than a year (by January 1984 it was "Preference Inn"), and it closed in 1986 after less than three years of operation.

While it was closed, it was controversially approved for use as a halfway house for non-violent ex-cons, though this never appears to have happened. Instead it was renovated and reopened in October 1991 as a Holiday Inn Express (one of the first, at least one of the earliest, Holiday Inn Express hotels in the chain, and the first in Houston). Between November 1998 and March 1999, the hotel changed hands to Cendant's Howard Johnson Plaza (the highest-tier hotel in the Howard Johnson hotel chain). By 2004, it had become Airport Inn & Suites and by 2005, the hotel had once again changed to Woodley Suites. In 2011 it was Americas Best Value Inn & Suites, and finally by fall 2019, OYO Townhouse. Spring 2019 had the hotel haphazardly named "Americas Inn & Suites", covering up the logo, the "Best Value", and the "by Vantage" below the main name.

Yet even OYO could not turn the hotel around, by 2022 it was "America's Airport Inn & Suites" with cheap rooms.

Mobil / 1104 N. Sam Houston Pkwy. E.
Belt 8 Travel Plaza (Beltway 8 Travel Plaza) is a truck stop opened in 2016 that features a Denny's and Schlotzsky's in addition to truck stop features.

Nupur Food Mart / 1214 North Sam Houston Parkway East
This name appears nowhere on signage, but this gas station and store was formerly a Texaco until around 2020-2021. It changed hands in 2019 (where shortly after the Texaco brand was dropped). It dates back to 1981 as Stop-N-Serve (#21) and also briefly served under the Stop N Go name in the mid-1980s.

NORTH FREEWAY

Cash America Pawn / 8223 North Freeway
In the early 1980s, this was a Wolfe Nursery (listed as "Wolfe Garden-Land"). The pawn shop still uses the main building.

8711 North Freeway
Facing north towards Little York, this was most recently, from early 2009 to early 2014, Más Club. Más Club was a one-off food-oriented Sam's Club spin-off aimed at Hispanic audiences and had its own membership card ("Sam" spelled backwards is "Mas", see?). Walmart still uses the building for warehouse space.

The lot where the former Más Club sits was developed two pieces. The first was the old 8935 North Freeway (aka 8935 N. Shepherd) at Little York and North Freeway. Facing North Freeway, this operated from 1971 to 1983 as a Safeway. In 1983, it was converted to Drugs for Less, a deep-discount drugstore concept owned by Safeway before it was closed in 1986. It was later absorbed by 8711 to the south, Archer AMC/Jeep, which operated from 1971 to 2004.

10241 North Freeway
This location used to be a Builder's Square, a home improvement store operated by Kmart. It was developed as part of a larger power center with other Kmart concepts at the time (including a regular Kmart). In 1999, the store closed just shy of its 8th anniversary. The conversion to Fry's Electronics in 2000, its better-known successor, involved rebuilding the garden center as retail space, with the expansions taking it to just shy of a 140,000 square feet space. Sadly, in early 2021, it closed with the rest of the Fry's Electronics chain. Some photos and thoughts of this Fry's can be seen at the Fry's Electronics page on this website.

Express Inn / 9025 North Freeway
This tortured motel has gone under several names. In 1982 (when it opened) it was a Travelodge, in mid-1990 had become "Houston North End" and in 1991 had become a Days Inn. From what I can tell, based on the evidence I have, it looks like it closed in 2006 but reopened in spring 2007 with "brand new rooms", before closing by February 2008.

Between 2008 and 2011 the hotel had already reopened as a Super 8 (which made the sign much smaller), then switched to Knights Inn, and by January 2015, had closed again. By late 2016, it had reopened as "Select Inn & Suites". In March 2021, the hotel was branded as "Express Inn - Gulf Bank".

Walmart / 10411 North Freeway
According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, this store opened in spring '89 (May 1989, as it turns out) as a 120k square feet Wal-Mart.

Aldine Ninth Grade School / 10650 North Freeway
This AISD campus opened in fall 1998 with six other new campuses (three pre-K centers, another 9th grade campus, an elementary school, and a magnet school).

I remember seeing this way back when I was in high school myself (a bit more than a decade after the opening of Aldine NGS) and thought it was brilliant to segregate the freshmen since we were having capacity issues at the time with more incoming ninth-graders than ever...though in this school's case it does share some facilities with the actual high school.

10718 North Freeway
The most recent tenant here, China Border, seems to have shut down between 2021 and 2022. Steak & Ale was here from 1975 to 1998 (approximately), with China Border taking over soon after.

Mambo Seafood / 10810 North Freeway
This was Champ's restaurant (#3) since 1977, and has been Mambo Seafood since early 2002. I'm not sure when Champ's shut down but it was sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s. Indications are it wasn't vacant for that long. Also nearby was a theme restaurant in the late 1970s and early 1980s at 10822 North Freeway called "Bobby McGee's Conglomeration". The space was at the end of the strip center behind it and was until recently a CiCi's Pizza.

Monk JCB / 11211 North Freeway
In January 1967, Field Inn opened as the first location of a new motel chain that was intended to go nationwide much like other motel chains starting to take off at this time. By October, Field Inn North (aka Field Inn #1) was a "motor inn" with full services (including a "private air-conditioned bus" for large events), with banquet and meeting rooms, as well as a club and restaurant. Unusually for these types of developments, a third of the property was apartments owned and operated by the hotel (with a notably different architectural style). The apartment portion (completed later that year) featured a washateria on the premises and a children's playground and in 1967 had the name of Aldine Field Apartments. By January 1976 the hotel was flying under the banner of Rodeway Inn (Rodeway Inn Greensgate) with the name later that year Greenspoint Inn (and Greenspoint Apartments, also known as Greenspoint International Apts.). The actual Greenspoint Mall was a mile to the north and the area was a trendy spot for new apartment construction.

By 1985, the hotel portion was Best Western - Greenspoint Inn (aka Best Western Greenspoint) and kept the name into the name into the mid-1990s. By the late 1990s, the hotel was known as the Greenspoint Plaza Inn. By this time, the motel's best years was behind it. The club was leased as a swingers' club at the hotel operated from 1999 to 2003 as Club Connections. Around the time Club Connections closed, the entire property closed and was demolished circa 2004. For many years the property was dormant, but with Gillespie Road (which ran just south of the property) getting upgraded and connecting in with the new Pinto Business Park behind the property. In late 2019, Monk JCB, a construction equipment dealership, began groundbreaking, and in December 2021 it opened, bringing the 11211 North Freeway address back into service. The back half of the property remains vacant (some of the hotel buildings and all of the apartment buildings), but it will be probably be redeveloped soon enough.

Behind the 11211 North Freeway address is 300 1/2 Gillespie Road, which was developed in 2015 as a Harris County MUD "Water Repressurization Plant".

Golf Cars of Houston Superstore / 11219 North Fwy.
Built in 1979 as a location of Fun City Toys (later branded as Lionel Playworld Fun City before going out of business in 1982 with the rest of the Houston locations), this was a Federated electronics store by spring 1986 before being liquidated at the end of 1989. In late 1991, Best Buy opened, one of four new stores in the Houston area when the chain entered the city. Best Buy closed around the mid-2000s (still open in early 2005) and was replaced by its current tenant in the year 2008.

Digital Realty Houston / 12001-12245 North Freeway
Data center (fenced in, no public access) redeveloped from a former power center known as The Commons at Greenspoint, holding such tenants like Children's Palace and Phar-Mor. More information can be seen at my old blog, The Houston Files.

Greenspoint Mall / 12300 North Freeway
A dying mall with only a fitness center and a movie theater as anchors, yet was once one of Houston's biggest and arguably best malls even into the 1990s. Covered in more detail here.

Shell / 108 West Greens Road
Located at the northwest corner of Greens Road and North Freeway is this gas station built out of a former Luby's...yes, built OUT of a Luby's and not "on the site of" a former Luby's! Check out more information at Houston Historic Retail! There's a Church's Chicken inside as well.

Monte Carlo Inn / 12500 North Fwy.
This opened as "The Point Hotel" in 1982 (180 units according to a 1982 posting, though my Days Inn directory says 170 units) and was a Comfort Inn by 1985. Between February 1994 and November 1995 it became a Days Inn. Between 2008 and 2011 (probably closer to the latter) the hotel became a Knights Inn, which involved moving the signage (still Days Inn-shaped) closer to the highway...originally, it was about 200 feet back from the frontage road. Between October 2019 and February 2020, however, the hotel became the "Monte Carlo Inn" (probably closer to the latter as a February 2020 article mentions Knights Inn), and all visible traces of Days Inn disappeared.

Sunoco / 14834 North Freeway
This was built as a Mobil truck stop in 2000, and by 2007 it was a Texaco. In 2011, the gas station was briefly closed as the convenience store renovated into a Stripes with a Laredo Taco Company, with the Sunoco brand replacing Texaco around 2014-2015. Around that time the diesel pumps behind the store were rebuilt to be parallel to the store's back.

As of November 2022, the convenience store is still branded as Stripes despite being a 7-Eleven in all but name. Just about a block away was Buyer's Market (431 Airtex Drive), an enclosed outlet mall built in the early 1980s. Like its twin near Katy, it was purchased and reopened as a "Garden Ridge Pottery & World Imports" in 1986 (later just branded as simply "Garden Ridge"). It closed around 2006 and spent time as Armadillo Flea Market. Armadillo closed in February 2014 and was demolished later that year for a new warehouse development.

Saltgrass Steak House / 14909 North Freeway
This restaurant opened in 1994 along with an adjacent Joe's Crab Shack (14901 Interstate 45, the parking lots connected in the back) back when they were part of the same parent company. While the parking lots had a back entrance to Back Ash Drive, this was closed since at least 2009 (if not longer). Joe's Crab Shack closed around 2014-2015 and the building has was fairly extensively renovated for Fresas Cantina (which may or may not open at this point, it's been in planning for a while).

Floor & Decor / 17211 North Freeway
The first Houston location of Floor & Decor opened in this building in late November 2003. For a brief time (1993-1994), it operated as International Market, a flea-market like business with smaller retailers inside selling clothing, apparel, furniture, and other items.

It opened as Gemco (#587) in 1978 until the Gemco stores in Houston were closed in December 1983. It was the last Gemco in Houston to open. In 1984 it reopened as Sam's Wholesale Club (as it was known back then) but closed in 1991.

19750 North Freeway
This address is occcupied by American Freight (formerly Sears Outlet) since 2013, with the larger half (at 19746) occupied by Conn's HomePlus (formerly Conn's Appliances) since 2012.

While this did serve as Albertsons from 1995 to 2002, a lesser known fact was that following the demise of Albertsons and subsequent vacancy, from 2004 to 2007 it was reopened as an AppleTree, the only AppleTree supermarket that was not originally a Safeway and the first AppleTree to be in the Houston area since its 1997 exit. (It even had Boar's Head, which no other AppleTree had). Within a few years not only was the AppleTree in Houston closed but the chain was sold off entirely.

Six Flags Hurricane Harbor SplashTown / 21300 I-45 North
Originally built as Hanna-Barbera Land in 1984 (the only stand-alone park with Hanna-Barbera properties) and later redeveloped as a waterpark, I invite you to check out my very outdated (but nonetheless informative) Splashtown page from back when I was in high school. It doesn't even link to my own memorablia, some letters and some old brochures. This is about as much I'll cover this waterpark. Well, that and there was an arcade at the waterpark as well utilizing some of the Hanna-Barbera buildings...I don't think I spent money there but I do remember the attract mode of Crisis Zone.

McDonald's / 21330 Interstate 45 N.
Just outside Splashtown is this McDonald's restaurant (a Wendy's is nearby, that's where I remember visiting on my first visit to the waterpark in 1999), but the McDonald's was notable. It was originally built in 1984 and was rebuilt in 2002 (the 1984 restaurant faced north/south as opposed to the 2002 restaurant). I visited this restaurant in 2006. I don't think it had any unique menu items or a specific local touch but was certainly nicer than most McDonald's and was more akin to the mid-2000s "spruced up interiors" that stores had at the time. I specifically remember one of those "indoor glass water fountains". It was very similar to the one shown here as an example but not nearly as large (maybe a quarter of the size).

Unusually, it featured the "lightning script" logo on the signage on the Golden Arches signage (but not on the store itself). A blurry Street View picture can be seen here (it also shows up in a picture in the background of Houston Freeways, see page nine of the PDF). Around 2011 it was replaced with the traditional font, and in 2012 the restaurant was renovated to a standard prototype inside and out.

Beyond this point is Montgomery County, but the zero address starts at TX-105. This list continues from south to north continuing here.

TOMBALL PARKWAY

IQ Products Company / 16212 TX-249
This has been here since 1992 (manufactures a number of compressed products in cans, from compressed air for electronics to insecticide) but while the website still seems to be active, the only main text on the sign is a non-profit subsidiary called IQ Life Sciences Corporation that also operates on the premises and has done so since at least 2017. (Google's "Permanently Closed" aside, there's nothing to indicate that the regular IQ is out of business). It should be noted that despite the Tomball Parkway address, it's actually off of Nitrogen Boulevard.

17381 Tomball Parkway
This currently-vacant restaurant off North Gessner was originally "Juan & Lefty's" from early 2009 (when it was built) to a few years later (it closed in 2013). It then became a location of Bone Daddy's House of Smoke, opening in June 2014, before closing sometime around late 2018. It is still vacant.

Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital / 18220 Tomball Parkway
JumboSports, a sporting goods chain, opened a store here in 1995 when it entered Houston (there was also a Sugar Land location) but it closed in 1998, shortly before the chain went under. It was soon demolished for this hospital, which opened in December 2000.