FM 362 to FM 2920

Buc-ee's / 40900 U.S 290
We're going to start in Waller County with Buc-ee's, which opened in spring 2013 and quickly became a near-regular stop on Houston trips (the actual county line is just east of it). It advertises (at least until it became common knowledge, or I could be just getting used to it) even on Highway 6 South as "Waller You Waiting For?" I love this store and has become a regular stop in returning on the 290 corridor. At least three times (as of last time I kept count, which was a while back) I have eaten here for their awesome club sandwiches and in-house potato chips, though I gotta admit, I've had a number of "bad chips" (almost consistently per package) where it somehow doesn't get cooked properly and ends up having the texture of folded paper. It was definitely disconcerting for the first time, because I couldn't see them while eating. True story: I remember actually exiting the highway to try to spit out what I thought I was a napkin I had accidentally ingested. I have a few pictures of this Buc-ee's, but not from the highway. Buc-ee's is hard to capture because it's so large (looking east in March 2015). Here's another picture looking back at the beaver statue to the west (also in March 2015).

Fortify Building Solutions / 40202 U.S. 290
The opposite direction has a building called NCI Metal Depots, opened 2003. For some reason, around late December 2018 or early the next month, the signage changed slightly to feature the new name (from "Metal Depots Factory Direct"), with the color changed from black text, tan background, and red accents, to black text, white background, and lime green accents. By September 2023 the "NCI" name quietly disappeared and by December 2024 had another name, Fortify Building Solutions with no lime green at all.

Shell / 40203 U.S. 290
Field Store Road got its start as a freeway destination when a small gas station (Chevron brand) began building on a cul-de-sac created during freeway construction. "Rocky's B-B-Q Grille" opened in summer 2010 but within its first few years, it changed hands and became Field Store BBQ (at least by my memory...for some reason I remember being it under construction in early 2009), then Irv's Field Store by 2013, then eventually simply Irv's with a repainted red sign by August 2014. Not long after it was simply "Irv's", construction began next door which by March 2015 was revealed to be a new gas canopy with diesel (the canopy is a simple green one) with a large concrete pad for trucks. That's right: they "upgraded" to being a truck stop. For Irv's, I actually have before and after pictures. Here's my picture from May 2014, back when it was still Field Store. Notice obviously-tacked-on later "Irv's" sign. My second picture comes from December 2015, with what Irv's looked like for several years afterwards. Sorry it's a bit darker (a lot darker, actually) than it should be, it was a new camera and I was still learning how to use it. In 2019, Waller began to build a water tower behind the gas station. A visit around that time showed that Irv's had some video gambling machines, but only with small, non-money prizes.

As of June 2021, Irv's had become Waller Travel Plaza, and in a notable change, switched from Chevron to Shell. A few years later, a huge new warehouse for Daikin began construction between Field Store Road and Stokes Road, utilizing the cul-de-sac just past CVS that was functionally abandoned for many years.

Comfort Inn & Suites / 39502 US-290
This hotel on the westbound frontage road was opened sometime around 2020.

Fun Town RV Waller / 20103 Stokes Rd.
This RV dealership is off a different part of Stokes Road then the rest of the commercial development (bisected by 290 in the 1990s) and first appeared around 2019-2020. The connection with 290 came during an expansion a few years later.

CVS/pharmacy / 31013 FM 2920
Opened around 2005. This moved from a strip center further down into Waller, where it was an Eckerd until 2004. It probably doesn't see as much freeway-side traffic as the fast foods and gas station does, but it serves a purpose for those things drug stores have that convenience stores don't (hey, I stopped there once), and it serves local Waller interests as well.

FM 2920 to BECKER ROAD

Love's Travel Center / 30710 FM 2920
While it has no direct 290 access and requires a bit of a farther trip on FM 2920, on the north side of 290 sits just one business, the Love's Travel Center, which has an Arby's inside (it has been here since 2001). I've been here a few times but I rarely stop at it (usually prefer Buc-ee's). As a truck stop, its merchandise mix is a bit more interesting than the usual convenience store fare, but the restrooms aren't that great, the prices aren't that great, and I don't really care for Arby's as a fast food option (probably why they seem to have closed a lot of locations in the last few years). It can be seen on the left side of the distant shot looking toward the Exxon. The logo (for Arby's) was updated, though.

It's mostly here because how prominent it is from the freeway.

Jack in the Box / 31014 FM 2920
Jack in the Box used to be my Dad's stop when heading down to Houston and later was adopted by me. The first time I actually remember going in to the store was as far back as 2009, when they were advertising the HangInThereJack campaign, which would ultimately result in altering the logo of Jack in the Box, and within a few years that would sweep the chain. I don't know about the logo change, to be honest, it took me a few more years to get to used to it, but this is one of the places I always stop these days. It was built in 1999.

Exxon / 31100 FM 2920
As aforementioned, this Exxon is actually in a large plaza featuring a Subway, Sakura Nail Spa, and a local doughnut place called Donuts Delight. Popeyes is there too, but it's not connected to the inside of the convenience store, Town & Country Market. I have one shot of the gas signage when gas prices began to go down around late 2014 (January 2015 picture), though on my iPhone, reds display as oranges. I'd have to say that the gas station (minus Subway, which was built later...probably why it lacks co-billing with Exxon). The gas station was built in 2001.

In previous versions of this page, I stated that "none of the food establishments are accessible from inside the convenience store", but that's not true, it actually does have a Domino's inside, but it's just a counter inside the store. There are a few more shops down Stokes Road here, including a car wash, a few hotels, and Shipley Do-Nuts.

Stoneside Veterinary Hospital / 38111 US-290
This vet office was formerly Walker Veterinary Hospital until sometime in the latter half of the 2010s. It seems to share the original rectangular plot of land US-290 cuts through with Topper's (see below).

Topper's Camping Center / 38002 US-290
Also known as Topper's RVs or Topper Sales, the earliest reference I can find for this is 2008.

Chevron / 35515 Highway 290 Bypass
This mega-Chevron opened in 2019 and features Fuel Maxx as the convenience store, plus "Taco Corner", Dickey's Barbecue Pit, and Checkers. There's even a huge truck stop area behind it, and since then, a few hotels and a small strip center (featuring a liquor store) have opened. It seems almost strange now that even as of circa 2015, it used to be exclusively farmland and that the only thing noticeable on the horizon was to the south where a park had added a soapbox derby track in the early 2010s. A few years prior, the massive "ComfortPlex" was built on the north side of Kermier, a mega-structure HVAC factory/office campus was finished in 2016. I can't tell what's worse, the continuing sprawl of Houston or the fact that it will drag traffic out here, or the fact that even "rural" in recent memory is once again being dramatically transformed (Kickapoo and Binford used to do the "bulge out and shrink away to rural" like James R. Muse Parkway still does.

Ewing Outdoor Supply / 34150 US-290
This was constructed in the early 2020s (2022-2023).

Lansdowne-Moody Co. / 32804 U.S. 290
This moved here in 2017 from its old Cypress digs covered in the next section of the highway. Of course, back then the area was very rural, and packed up and moved to Hockley at 32804 U.S. 290 sometime around 2016 or 2017. The warehouse used to be used by Axon but I can't find any more details on it at the moment.

On the other side of the street is the intersection of Grimes Road and Bauer-Hockley, which was turned into a sharp curve following the construction of the freeway. Until around 2021, there was a wooden bridge over a ditch (not very long, just 20 feet) but it was eventually rebuilt as concrete. Too bad...

Sutong Tire Resources Inc. / 33402 U.S. Highway 290
This large stone building (33400 U.S. Highway 290) that originally opened as D&D Farm & Ranch Supermarket in 2000, which was billed as the world's largest western store upon opening and sold upscale western-inspired clothing, including what was called "music-star jeans" but the store also sold actual farm-related equipment including saddles, fencing, and home furnishings (but no food, ironically--at least, not any substantial selection). D&D eventually moved on. By November 2005, the space reopened as Sergeant's Western World, which was in many ways more of the same but focused more on horse equipment and custom saddlery, with Western apparel and everything else following behind. I remember passing by Sergeant's in January 2009, when it was going out of business. It was replaced by Foster's Farm & Equipment store soon after. It appears that Foster's was initially at 33400 (the smaller building next door) starting around 2003 and moved into Sergeant's after its closure, but it remained until sometime in late 2015 and was superseded by its next-door neighbor, Brookside Equipment Sales (originally; from 2014 to 2024, now home to King Ranch Ag & Turf as of 12/24), with Sutong appearing by December 2016. This is my best photo...a drive-by photo of Foster's, May 2015.

Hanson Aggregates of Hockley / 16910 Katy-Hockley Rd.
A concrete plant that has a large, circular railroad spur (since it loops, it can't accurately be called a spur now, can it?) though right near it is an abandoned ROW that led out to a salt mine (which still exists).-->

32202 US-290
This has two structures on it. The first building was originally built back in 1996, 290 Express Way, an Exxon that operated between 1996 and 2011. The only reference I can find is a 1999 article where the owner described the major accidents happening at Becker Road, since it was not a freeway at the time nor had lights. I don't know why it closed, either problems stemming from the widening of Becker, or the fact that it may have been a less attractive option than Shell, as a good truck stop usually requires a prominently advertised restaurant option (it had a Subway inside as of 2007 and possibly a second food stand earlier on). A few photos I have (all from 2/15) include the empty canopies of the Exxon, the fading and deteriorating billboard, and the Exxon roadside sign. In 2022 it was demolished for a Swift gas station with "Mr. Express" convenience store and a Burger King co-tenant. Dunkin' joined a few years later, but I believe it's a separate tenant.

Sonic Drive-In is "Building B" and was the last of its kind to include red and yellow neon tubing before a newer design (with the gray plastic tubing) swept the chain (it opened in 2004 and kept that look many years after most other locations switched). You can see in the last image posted the Sonic's red and yellow neon.

BECKER ROAD to MASON ROAD

Shell / 32150 US-290
I've gotten relatively cheap bottled water here (at least for gas station standards). The truck stop features a Taco Bell and (formerly) Church's Chicken inside, though it's just two counters in a common seating area (and not particularly well-lit). Here's the front of the fast foods from the outside (taken 2/2015). The late West Houston Archives had an older photo of this gas station; you'll notice that the Taco Bell sign is now painted more of an orange color (I'm pretty sure it's not just the sunlight) and lost its "Express" moniker before gaining the new white-and-purple logo. By late 2019, Church's would give way to a Krispy Krunchy Chicken counter, with the exterior also renovated.

Second Baptist Church - Cypress / 29900 U.S. 290
Just east of the Grand Parkway, this megachurch with its roots closer to the Houston Inner Loop opened October 30, 2016.

Houston Premium Outlets / 29300 U.S. 290
I've noticed even from the highway a number of tenants have come and gone, which I probably won't cover here. The large outlet mall opened in April 2009. The late West Houston Archives noted that this was the historic site of Nine Bar Ranch.

It's located just south of Fairfield Place road, which I should bring up. The westbound freeway has its own exit for Fairfield Place, when the freeway was constructed around 2007 (originally). Good future planning if everything wasn't torn up within a decade...

LongHorn Steakhouse / 29120 U.S. 290
This chain steakhouse opened in early 2022 in space previously used for parking. Perhaps this is the first of several outlots in the outlet mall.

29100 U.S. 290
A strip center built between 2008 and 2011. Already there have been a few changes. As of January 2019, the line-up (from north to south) includes Tomiko Japanese Restaurant (100), Glam House (110, a hair salon...as of the 1/19 aerial, it covers up the old signage, Paris Salon), 1st Care Dental (200), 3D Nailspa & Lashes (210 and now closed, probably a victim of state restrictions), "SmallCakes: A Cupcakery" (220), two vacant spaces (Memorial Floors at 250 and All Floors & More at 400), Sergio's Mexican Grill (500), State Farm Insurance (600), and H&R Block. This last one is actually "Suite A" and was originally Verizon Wireless prior to 2015.

FAIRFIELD TOWN CENTER

• Rooms to Go (29060 U.S. 290) opened in July 2016. I recognized this furniture store by its construction before the name ever went up. The Community Impact link mentions a full-line children's showroom area as well as the opening date.
• CUT! by Cinemark Cypress opened November 2020 at 29030 Hwy. 290. It was a bad year for movie theaters (and mandatory face masks during films was not going to be a fun experience, especially since it is a "eat restaurant food brought to table" cinema). CinemaTreasures, which is usually helpful in showing the movies a theater had when opening, isn't much help.
• Chick-fil-a (28644 U.S. 290) opened August 2014 if memory serves.
• The Taco Bell at 28638 U.S. 290 opened in late 2013.
• Whataburger (28630 U.S. 290) opened late February 2014.
• McDonald's (28624 U.S. 290) also opened in late 2014.
• Academy Sports + Outdoors at 28616 U.S. 290 opened sometime in late 2015. It was the first major retail tenant at Fairfield Towne Center, the new strip center here.
• The large, 100,000 square foot H-E-B (28550 U.S. 290) opened in fall 2012. This is not only big for an H-E-B store but big for a supermarket in general. It would precede a bunch of restaurants adjacent to it and continuing development perpetually occurring. The picture above is from February 2016. As noted, it was originally supposed to be closer to the Grand Parkway.
• In-N-Out Burger (28320 U.S. 290) opened November 2023. The previous restaurant, BreWingz, operated from October 2017 to August 2022, and in early 2023 it was demolished, despite being less than five years old.
• Lupe Tortilla (28302 Northwest Freeway) is only accessed through the very end of the H-E-B parking lot. It opened in November 2016.

MASON ROAD to CYPRESS ROSEHILL ROAD / FRY ROAD

FAIRFIELD MARKETPLACE

• The place where Pet Supermarket is (15050 Fairfield Village, suite 100) occupies part of a building that held the long since forgotten Fairfield Market, which opened here in spring 1992 (or late 1991) and was one of the first grocery stores in the Fairfield area. It never did expand to 30,000 square feet or 40,000 square feet as hoped. At some point between 1996 (a confirmed time of when it was open still) and 2003 (when it was confirmed to be closed), a fire in the deli area shut down the store permanently. From 2010 to 2014 it briefly became home to My Father's House before the redevelopment of the area.
• Kroger Marketplace at 20355 Cypresswood Drive is one of the large-format Kroger stores (there were only a few years in the mid-2010s where Kroger was really pushing the format) with over 100k square feet (it's around 115,000 square feet) that opened in December 2015 based on the crowds but had its grand opening in January 2016 (officially).
• Wendy's (28060 U.S. 290) opened here sometime around late 2016. I don't remember it because I wasn't really driving in the area during that time.
• Zaxby's (28030 U.S. 290) opened in late 2016.

Memorial Hermann Cypress Hospital / 27800 Northwest Freeway
Memorial Hermann Health System reached Cypress on March 31, 2017. As of this writing, the hospital campus intends to expand, including adding a parking garage, another professional building, and other features.

27700 Northwest Freeway
This building is an auxiliary medical office building to Memorial Hermann. Tenants here include Cypress Dermatology, Blue Fish Pediatrics Fairfield, Quest Diagnostics, and Kids GI Kare, a pediatric gastroenterologist (wow, now that's specialty medicine).

Fairfield Creek Estates / 27550 Highway 290
This 55+ apartment community opened close to the tail-end of 2014. Historical views for this property show two trailer homes here in the 1990s and later in the mid to late 2000s.

Fairfield Baptist Church / 27240 U.S. 290
Predating everything else in this stretch, this church was completed in August 1995 shortly after the Google Maps aerial was done. It later expanded with a larger sanctuary in the early 2010s after building a second building in the mid-2000s. For over 10 years since its original opening, it was the only thing on Northwest Freeway until Cypress Chase Boulevard had it not been for the storage unit down the street.

SmartStop Self Storage / 27236 U.S. 290
This opened in the early 2000s as Metro Mini Storage and expanded over the years. This is a more "traditional" self-storage place with drive-up garage doors, unlike Public Storage down the street.

27230 U.S. 290
As of March 2022 this strip center building (built in 2019) includes Houston Sinus & Allergy and Houston Audiology & Hearing Aids.

27214 U.S. 290
This opened as Public Storage in 2017, the same year as the extension of East Louetta Road to the freeway. Despite Louetta Road finally going to I-45 (why would you want to, though?), the road abruptly ends at Northwest Freeway with just a right-turn only lane. PS is more of what self-storage buildings look like in the Inner Loop, a big boxy building with no windows. Several years after that, a strip center opened with the same address in front of it but as of 11/24 only has Strong Vision Center.

Tru by Hilton / 27204 US Hwy. 290
This hotel opened around May 2019 as a Tru, one of Hilton's newer brands. The hotel's website is here. It's four stories but the hotel webpage does not list the number of rooms, something the old paper directories reliably did.

27200 Northwest Freeway
This strip mall was built in 2016 and quickly populated. As of September 2019 (suite numbers are in parentheses), it featured Imperial Vapor Company (100), Retro Cafe Vietnamese Subs (120), Ocean Nails Lounge (110, yes, it's out of order), JD Foot Massage (140), Yokohamaya Japanese Restaurant (150), New York & Chicago Pizza Company (160), The Little Gym (170), Enterprise (180), and Bless You Allergy & Asthma (200). As of November 2021, both The Little Gym and New York & Chicago Pizza Company have closed, probably for the same reason and in the same year. They have been replaced by OurSleepGuide.com and Rio Lindo Mexican Grill, respectively, and as of summer 2022, Rio Lindo has been replaced with Andy's Bar & Grill.

Current tenants as of December 2024 (suite numbers are in parentheses), it featured Imperial Vapor Company (100), Retro Cafe Vietnamese Subs (120), Ocean Nails Lounge (110, still out of order), JD Foot Massage (140), Yokohamaya Japanese Restaurant (150), Andy's Bar & Grill (160), Ro's Barbershop (170), Enterprise (180), and weMed (200; holistic medicine).

27150 U.S. 290
This strip mall is a bit older but not nearly as well-populated. It is anchored by Fairfield OB/GYN (seems it had its sign up for several months before opening around April 2016) and Nikko Dermatology (on the opposite end, also opened 2016). There is also "Medi Pro International Pharmacy", which opened 2017 (likely). Directly behind it is a medical office building (27160).

Goodwill Select Store / 27140 U.S. 290
Opened January 2016. This replaced the donations-only storefront closer to Fry Road.

La Quinta Inn & Suites / 27130 U.S. 290
This hotel, badged as simply La Quinta, seems to have opened in 2016 based on real cars in the parking lot.

Christian Brothers Automotive / 27210 U.S. 290
Based on aerials, this either opened late 2012 or early 2013. (I know that the addresses seem out of order, but they're listed chronologically as they appear north to south)

27126 U.S. 290
Two tenants were originally in this strip mall (opened 2011): Lucky's Pub and "Cy-Fair Emergency & Imaging Center at 290 & Mueschke 24-Hour Emergency Care", one of these private "emergency rooms" that have been cropping up everywhere. I can't find when the emergency room left the site, but Lucky's Pub ended up closing around early 2017 and soon after Lucky's filed out of this location, replaced by Floyd's Cajun Seafood. As of October 2021, a similar medical/emergency room facility has opened to replace the long-vacant ER site.

27118 US 290
As of March 2022, this has Mega Beauty Supply, Eagle Remodeling & More, Doghouse Poker Club, and Cindie's, the Houston-based "adult toy" store. All but Cindie's opened sometime between March 2021 and March 2022.

Buc-ee's / 27106 U.S. 290
Gas station opened late 2008. This is perhaps (one of) the last "traditional sized" Buc-ee's ever built. It has a car wash. A few years ago, Buc-ee's seemed to be selling off their smaller stations (similar to this one) to Stripes, but there's no action here yet, if ever. Behind Buc-ee's is a Waffle House, opened around October 2015 (at 14201 Mueschke).

27104 U.S. 290
2013-constructed strip mall. As of January 2019, the tenants from left to right are Universal Smiles, Animal ER of Northwest Houston (including Wonder Pet Rehabilitation), The Donut Palace, Sydney Nail Spa, and Texas Mesquite Grill. Both Texas Mesquite Grill and Universal Smiles predate the others by several years. Texas Mesquite Grill's name also lights up in Texas colors after dark, and I believe this is a relatively new feature because I don't remember seeing it prior to fall 2021.

Mo's Irish Pub / 14102 Mueschke Road
Although physically connected to 14106 Mueschke (a strip mall), this restaurant was the third restaurant built in the "restaurant row" and opened late 2015. It looks like they have a tree permanently covered in Christmas lights, which change colors at night (or at least how it appeared on a Friday night in April back in 2016).

Cracker Barrel / 27040 U.S. 290
Cracker Barrel opened by late 2014 as the second building in the "restaurant row".

Gringo's Mexican Kitchen / 27030 U.S. 290
The first in the restaurant row at the northeast corner of Mueschke and NW Freeway, opened in October 2011.

Costco Wholesale / 26960 Northwest Freeway
In July 2019, Cypress got a Costco of their own for the first time. It also includes a gasoline station outlot. Due to Texas laws, Costco can't sell hard liquor in their stores, and while some stores in Houston (including in Tomball and Katy) have a liquor store on premises operated by WB Liquors, this one is not one of them.

27002-27008 Northwest Freeway
This address should have a 26000 number but it doesn't. It's a strip center from 2019 (first stores in early 2020). As of 2024 it has Sleep Number, Toasted Yolk Cafe, Crust Pizza Company, Golftec, and a few others.

IHOP / 26301 Northwest Fwy.
This IHOP was opened in June 2008. It is the first of several times Northwest Freeway juts out of the freeway for an intersection with a major road before peeling away for good just before Beltway 8.

Alicia's Mexican Grille / 26326 Northwest Freeway
Opened sometime around 2008 on the northbound and is often seen emitting smoke from cooking. It certainly looks like it smells good, and I do think I caught a whiff of it once.

26321 Northwest Freeway

This was the first strip center of the Fry Road area on the southbound side when photographed (taken from a video, actually) in 2014 and composes one of three shopping strips in the "Shoppes at Fry Road", which is the area bounded by Hempstead Highway (the older highway next to the railroad), Northwest Freeway, and Fry Road. You can see the PDF that accompanies this page here (originally from this source).

For some reason, the PDF doesn't actually map out the building (26351) between IHOP and this one where Aqua-Tots Swim School is, even though it was built by that time.

From right to left (for 26321), there's Shipley Do-Nuts (#800), a vacancy (#750, the PDF still shows it as Goodwill but the store, previously just a donation center, was replaced by the newer location listed further up a number of years ago), Cypress Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery (#700, I do love the Peignot typeface), Allegiance Title Company (#600, formerly the home of StarTex Title Company though I can't find when it changed hands), Texas State Optical (#500), Orange Leaf (#400, frozen yogurt, the PDF indicates that the business idled for a bit as it changed hands...I can't find when this happened but if it did it was prior to December 2019), Rice & Beans Cuban Cuisine (I can't find a suite number for this one, but it's been here at least since 2014 and is between 300 and 400), Fresenius Medical Care (#300, formerly site of MattressFirm), C&J Tailor (#200, this looks to have been vacant for a while), and Century 21 (formerly Cornerstone, and before that Stewart Title...but I may have some of the chronology switched around).

The PDF also mentions a few buildings, including a KFC and another strip center, which is not covered in this version.

Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers / 26302 Northwest Freeway
Until very recently (fall 2022), the website of Raising Cane's had opening dates of each store, including this one, which opened in November 2011.

CVS/pharmacy / 26265 Northwest Freeway
CVS opened in the southwest corner of Cypress Rosehill in 2009.

FRY ROAD / CYPRESS ROSEHILL ROAD to SKINNER ROAD

CYPRESS MILL PLAZA

• Originally badged as Wal-Mart Supercenter, this store (#5091) sits at 26270 Northwest Freeway and opened in May 2004, this has since been rebranded just to "Walmart" (around 2011) and received interior updates since then. It has a McDonald's inside.
• Panda Express at 26230 Northwest Freeway opened May 2012 in Walmart's parking lot.
• Planet Fitness at 26068 US-290 replaced Palais Royal, which closed in fall 2019 before the entire chain imploded soon after.
• Denny's (26050 US-290) is one of the few sit-down 24 hour restaurants in the area. The nearby House of Pies (further down this page) regrettably only closes at midnight.
• Whataburger (26040 Northwest Freeway) probably originally opened in late 2003. It kept its original blue accents until the early 2010s when it was excised from the chain.
• Hobby Lobby at 26060 Northwest Freeway sits behind Denny's and opened in early 2005.
• The Home Depot (17928 Spring Cypress Road) opened December 2002.
• Prim Beauty Supply (Suite 100) at 26084 U.S. Hwy. 290 used to be Payless ShoeSource before it closed in 2019.
• As aforementioned, the Philly Connection was at Suite 110 at 26084 US 290 from 2004 to the early 2010s, it is Sky Nail Spa now.
• Jack in the Box (17926 Spring Cypress Road) was developed around 2011.

Sonic Drive-In / 26044 Northwest Freeway
This opened sometime around December 2003 or January 2004, based on aerial images. It does not appear to be part of the above shopping center, despite being connected to it.

Exxon / 25950 US-290
When this Exxon was built as the first commercial development in the intersection c. 2000, it featured Long John Silver's. Around 2009 this went away for additional shops, like Metro by T-Mobile. There are a total of about four smaller shops here plus the convenience store.

14140 Cypress Rosehill Road
Strip center building. It includes Potbelly Sandwich Shop (ste. 100), All Floors & More (200), and Navy Federal Credit Union (suite 400, opened November 2018). Navy Federal Credit Union occupies the space where Suite 300 would be. An El Pollo Loco, built around 2017, sits next to it at 14124 Cypress Rose Hill Road. This was always undeveloped space, not part of the Lowe's parking lot.

Lowe's / 14128 Cypress Rosehill Road
The Lowe's opened in March 2006. Later on, a strip center was built at the corner of the highway.

Panera Bread / 26003 Northwest Freeway
Panera Bread opened in the Lowe's parking lot in December 2012.

Arby's / 25957 Northwest Freeway
Arby's has had a few new openings in the suburbs since the last time this page got a main update; however, there are only two left inside of Beltway 8 and completely extinct in the Inner Loop. This one even has the pre-2012 logo. (It opened in 2008.)

At Spring Cypress, there's a lot to take in to begin with, and so much in-fill. To make things a bit less confusing instead of jumping between the two sides of the freeway, there are two major shopping centers, Cypress Town Center and Cy-Fair Town Center, and the stores around them.

CYPRESS TOWN CENTER

• The former Capital One Bank (closed in the early 2020s) at 25907 U.S. 290 opened as Hibernia National Bank before its 2006 merger with Capital One.
• Chili's (25825 Northwest Fwy.) opened by spring 2005.
• Five Guys is at 25845 US-290 and shares the address with two other tenant spaces: Massage Heights (previously "Jack's Carpet: The Super Floor Store" prior to 2013), and T-Mobile (former Sprint store, closed 2020--later reopened as T-Mobile's new location).
• Chick-fil-A is located at 25835 US-290.
• Located at 25955 Northwest Freeway, this Taco Cabana (here since May 2005) was originally 24 hours (as the chain famously was) but later was open only 6 am to 1 am, and that was BEFORE the 'rona panic. Now it closes at 10pm every day.
• At one time, Spring Creek Barbecue (25831 Northwest Freeway) represented just one of the many things that made Houston a more unique place with unusual restaurants (heck, even the Chick-fil-a near it was semi-exotic, as at the time it was built, only one stand-alone CFA existed in town, and that was nine miles away from my house). Anyway, I did finally eat in spring 2013 with my family and cousin. It's okay, and is (or at least was, prior to 2020) a hybrid buffet-type place (unlimited rolls, limited meat). Here's a shot from the front of the restaurant looking out, taken April 2013 (it is very blurry).
• NTB-National Tire & Battery is at 25827 Northwest Fwy.
• 25823 U.S. 290, a strip mall building on the site, has Leslie's Pool Supplies (acquired Warehouse Pool Supply in 2013), Kolache Factory (replaced Quiznos), Castle Dental (originally opened in December 2007), and was never Bright Now! Dental (the companies merged in 2004, prior to completion of the center), and Black Rifle Coffee Company (T-Mobile was gone by the early 2020s).
• This Starbucks Coffee (25615 U.S. 290) opened in November 2007 according to StarbucksEverywhere.net.
• This Target store at 25901 U.S. 290 anchors the center. T-1894 opened in October 2004 (source). I read somewhere that the Target was originally supposed to be a Mervyn's when it was planned out in 2003, but the Target's opening soon in 2004 soon after Mervyn's spun off suggests otherwise. The Target got a "P-Fresh" update (with a graphic of fresh produce over the doors) around 2011. Later on (about a decade later), the Target logo was updated.
• Boot Barn is at 25855 Northwest Freeway. Originally the space between Target and T.J. Maxx was just empty; Boot Barn opened sometime around 2014 (by that time, Boot Barn had bought Baskin's, a similar store back home).
• HomeSense opened at 25839 US-290 by November 2024, to replace the long-standing original tenant Bed Bath & Beyond.
• Formerly the home of Dress Barn, Texas Floors is at 25833 Northwest Freeway. Dress Barn took off for Fairfield Town Center, with the new store opened March 17, 2017 at the Fairfield Town Center (28802 Hwy. 290), but it wasn't Cypress Town Center left holding the bag when Dress Barn kicked it two years later.
• Best Buy at 25525 Northwest Freeway opened in 2006.

Angel's Auto Center / 25425 Northwest Freeway
Located just beyond Best Buy, Angel's Auto Center has been in this location since 1995.

CY-FAIR TOWN CENTER

• Taco Bell (17525 Spring Cypress Road) first opened around sometime in late 2005. In 2017 it was renovated to a new prototype featuring the new purple-and-white logo.
• 25686 Northwest Freeway was originally built and opened around 2006 as an On the Border; however, this was closed by August 2014 and soon torn down and replaced by a new build PDQ fried chicken restaurant (more along the lines of Raising Cane's than Church's) which opened in July 2015. The restaurant closed in 2019, ultimately being one of the shorter-lived restaurants in the corridor. House of Pies replaced it in December 2021, though unfortunately is not open 24 hours.
• McDonald's at 25666 Northwest Freeway originally featured a Playplace and a silver mansard roof when it was built in 2006. In January 2018 work began to remodel the exterior (and likely the interior too) to McDonald's current prototype.
• BJ's Brewhouse (25660 Northwest Freeway), opened around fall 2024, replaced what might've been the last new-build Luby's location (that didn't replace another or was a co-branded Fuddruckers). It operated from 2007 to January 2024 and demolished soon after.
• 25618 Northwest Freeway has seen the biggest turnover—it was originally a TGI Friday's when it opened in 2007, but it closed in late summer 2013. From January 2014 to December 2017 it was Baker Street Pub & Grill. In September 2019, this became the second Corky's restaurant in the Houston area, serving Memphis-style pork barbecue rather than the brisket we all associate barbecue with. Unfortunately, Corky's in Katy closed in December, though Corky's in Cypress kept running until around September 2021 when the franchisee pulled the plug and worked with a local restaurateur to open Burro & Bull, which opened in November 2021. Burro & Bull fancied itself a "smoked Texana" restaurant with barbecue, Mexican, and Cajun influences. (This probably would've been called a "fusion" restaurant back in the 2000s, though that term has picked up negative connotations in the restaurant world). Burro & Bull closed less than a year later but reopened in January 2023 as Killen's Barbecue. Their third location, but this building's fifth restaurant.
• Beyond the restaurants, one of the major tenants here is a JCPenney department store opened in summer 2007. It occupies about 100,000 square feet.
• 24 Hour Fitness occupied a space at 25632 U.S. 290 from fall 2007 to 2020. It actually used to be in the smaller 25704 U.S. 290 building from early 2006 to late 2007.
• Cinemark 12 Cypress and XD at 25720 Northwest Freeway is the center's 13-screen movie theater. The "XD" cinema was added later (to make 13 screens) and opened December 2005. First movies shown were The Family Stone, King Kong (the Peter Jackson one), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Walk the Line, Derailed, Zathura, Chicken Little and Yours, Mine & Ours.

Pluckers Wing Bar / 25310 Northwest Freeway
Opening years after the other restaurants, Pluckers opened here in May 2018. I ate here not long after it opened but I felt it wasn't much to write home about.

SKINNER ROAD to BARKER CYPRESS ROAD

CYPRESS VILLAGE STATION

• 25250 Northwest Freeway is the building that faces Northwest Freeway at the corner of Skinner and US-290. Fred Astaire Dance Studio is at suite 280, above a now-vacant Schlotzsky's (closed sometime in late 2021 or very early 2021). Salon Sza Sza, another once-prominent tenant (suite 290), has also since closed.
• Dutch Bros Coffee opened in an unused pad at 25260 Northwest Freeway in spring 2022.
• 25282 Northwest Freeway is behind Dutch Bros and actually not very visible from Northwest Freeway at all. Some tenants here include Brothers Pizza Parlor (suite 120), Nara Thai Dining & Sushi Bar, and U S Remodeling & Floors (suite 290).
• Formerly known as Cypress Village Apartments, Highline Urban Lofts (website here) has some retail on the ground level as well (25222 Northwest Freeway).

Houston Methodist Hospital - Cypress / 24500 Northwest Freeway
Originally this was a factory built c. 1979 by Texas Instruments and spared the cuts the company faced in the mid-1980s, but closed in 1993. Hewlett-Packard picked up soon after for use as a call center but it closed sometime in the early 2000s, and in February 2007 it became the first new 290 park and ride since 1989. After a permanent park and ride facility was built next door, it remained empty again for a short while before 2010 when Sysco purchased it. Sysco moved out of the facility in 2020 and most of the building was demolished (save for one portion in the back) into the Cypress location of Houston Methodist, opened 2024 (over three new buildings).

24815 Northwest Freeway
The sign for "HW Shooting Range" remains but it has since closed. Originally, a natural lake, Hot Wells, was open for public swimming and picnics, and in 1973 Hot Wells Shooting Range opened. It closed in December 2017 following a manslaughter incident and reopened in 2018 as "HW Range & Training" before closing for good in 2022. The unprotected crossing still leads to a concrete plant, this will probably close if/when Greenhouse/Skinner goes across the railroad.

At Home / 24340 Northwest Fwy.
Garden Ridge was never a part of Northwest Freeway, but its new incarnation as At Home has been since around summer 2019.

24324 Northwest Freeway
A strip mall building with four tenant spaces; built in 2007. I always found it interestingly NOT interesting, even though it had some unusual names, they were all in the same typeface (originally). These include Tru Tri Sports in suite 400 (now closed, it had its Grand Opening in March 2012 after opening in 2011 according to their website, and moved out in September 2016), Made Ya Smile Dental (that one always makes me grimace for some reason) in suite 300, First American Title Company in suite 200 (invisible from the freeway), and suite 100, which has Sandy's Hair Studio, and before that, Shapes Threading Studio (unless I'm wrong on the dates). As of August 2018, Suite 400 now has "Hammer & Nails" open, a "Grooming Shop for Guys". I'm not sure of any tenant changes past 2018. Sometime around fall 2021, a GEICO insurance office opened in suite 500. As of November 2024, the dental office is now "Glo Dental Group", with the other tenants vacant (except for Hammer & Nails).

Willie's Grill & Icehouse / 24326 Northwest Freeway
This chain restaurant opened sometime in 2010, in front of what is now At Home.

H-E-B / 24224 Northwest Freeway
A mega-popular H-E-B supermarket that opened in 2007, replacing a 1999 H-E-B Pantry (even though it had changed its name to simply H-E-B before closing) several miles away. It has a gas station outlot.

Chase / 24230 Northwest Freeway
Chase bank opened sometime after H-E-B (possibly 2008).

BARKER CYPRESS ROAD to TELGE ROAD

Marvino's Italian Kitchen / 24002 Northwest Freeway
This restaurant opened early 2015.

Saltgrass Steak House / 23952 Northwest Freeway
This restaurant opened in August 2012.

Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen / 23948 Northwest Freeway
Chain restaurant "Cheddar's Casual Cafe" opened in 2011, though in 2016 it was rebranded to "Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen" as part of a chain-wide upgrade.

Texas Furniture Hut Showroom & Outlet / 23922 Northwest Freeway
This store opened in late 2011 or early 2012.

Brake Check / 23900 Northwest Freeway
Brake Check opened between October 2012 and October 2013. Given the plot of land was empty in October 2012 and the Brake Check further up near Beltway 8 was already shut down by April 2013 (I think it closed the previous fall with the others) I'm not sure if this Brake Check officially "replaced" that location.

Cypress Collision Repair / 23738 Northwest Freeway
This used to be a tractor dealership, Lansdowne-Moody Co., which opened in 1985. Of course, back then the area was very rural, and packed up and moved to Hockley at 32804 U.S. 290 sometime around 2016 or 2017.

CubeSmart Self Storage / 23550 Northwest Freeway
This self-storage center opened in 2002 as "Private Mini Storage".

Caliber Collision / 23266 Northwest Fwy.
This auto body shop chain opened as "Collision Express" back in 2009 but by 2015 had assumed its current name.

Houston Garden Centers / 23260 Northwest Freeway
A branch of Houston Garden Centers opened here by 2005. It was still native ground in January 2004, which means it probably missed the 2004 spring season.

Valero / 23240 Northwest Freeway
This Valero just has a generic food mart, and is listed as "Mini Mart Valero" in many listings. In 1995, this was under "Mini-Mart Texaco", but that doesn't mean it might not have served under a Diamond Shamrock (or another brand) prior to Valero in the mid-2000s. The gas station at the southeast corner of Northwest Freeway and Cypress North Houston, a road that was clearly meant to expand across the freeway at some point, but plans were scrapped and despite another Cypress North Houston Road on the other side of the freeway, the right of way was later turned into a park.

Tex-Fab Inc. / 23138 Northwest Freeway
Tex-Fab has been here in some form or another since 1973 but expanded in the 1980s. They fabricate pressure vessels for the petrochemical industry and around 2017 did a repaint, though their logo didn't appear on the building for nearly a year afterwards.

Cy-Fair High School / 22602 Northwest Freeway
One of the oldest surviving structures along the Northwest Freeway corridor, Cy-Fair High School opened in 1941 and was dedicated by Eleanor Roosevelt, though it's been modernized and expanded several times.

Just to the west of it, new buildings are being constructed for a new performing arts center and an administration building, both of CFISD. The land used to be Family Golf Park (22910 Northwest Freeway), which operated from June 2008 to October 2019, though it was primarily a driving range and took up less than half of the land space. Across from it is Arnold Middle School at 11111 Telge Road (which opened after Cy-Fair at some point). When I was younger I thought the above-ground utilty line connecting the two buildings was a walkway, but this sadly isn't the case.

TELGE ROAD to FM 1960 WEST

Swift / 22250 Northwest Freeway
This was built in 2021 and replaced a Chevron with a small Blimpie inside the convenience store. The Blimpie kept its logo for years and stayed with the convenience store until almost the very end. The previous version of this page noted Blimpie was gone in 2021; the entire station went soon after. Swift's modern convenience store is "Telge Stop".

22224 Northwest Freeway
A strip center completed in 2008 (apparently "Telga Plaza", at least 22222) is here, just east of the Chevron. Even in 2011, the only tenant was suite A (1/2 Price Boxes), but eventually filled out with other tenants. By 2017, tenants included Tacoland Mex-Mex Tacos (suite B), U.S. Floors & Remodeling (D), Fast Signs (C, despite being to the right of D, likely having opened earlier), and Mint Dentistry in E.

22222 Northwest Freeway
This strip center was built at the same time, and filled out faster than 22224 did. It contains only Red Wing Shoes (suite A-1) with much of the space being taken up by Houston's First Baptist Church, which moved out in August 2017 to a full campus, with Loopnet advertising the space soon after.

Toyo Financial Group / 22226 Northwest Fwy.
As of 2011 this was 7K Bus Sales, selling old school buses, and by 2016 was Toyo Financial Group (Toyo Auto Sales). They must have bought the old inventory as some buses existed in the back of the lot by 2016, but as of 2024, it's all normal cars.

Carl's BBQ / 21920 Northwest Freeway
Carl's BBQ, according to an ad from 1999, has been in the "same location since 1974". However, the building doesn't seem to appear in Google Earth until the 1990s, and it's 1995 when it is fully visible (and 1995 was the year of improvements in terms of "canopy roof and slab"). It's possible the old building that was there was torn down and rebuilt for whatever reason, but HCAD also says that the building on site dates back to 1954! Just to the northwest was Weiser Air Park. It wasn't so much an airport as a small landing strip for hobby aircraft, and was clearly grandfathered in from another time. The edge of the runway was just 830 feet away from the westbound mainlanes of 290 and 630 feet to the westbound frontage road. Before it permanently closed in June 2019, at the right time, you could see planes coming in for a landing right over the freeway. Now it's been redeveloped into warehouses and the extension of Fallbrook Drive. Fallbrook Drive neither has southbound access nor actually connects to the rest of Fallbrook Drive (there are still three segments).

Cypress VFW Post 8905 / 21902 Northwest Freeway
This has been here for years, and it looks like Gentry Road (which should've started about where their driveway is) was never built out to begin with.

Cypress Creek Baptist Church / 21870 Northwest Fwy.
Another pre-freeway landmark, Cypress Creek is on the other side of the would-be Gentry Road.

West Side Dry Wall / 21706 Northwest Fwy.
This unassuming drywall business has been here for years, the more prominent business was on the other side of the highway (especially from the east) with the big Randalls distribution center with its big Randalls-branded water tank. I've written a bit on that on The Houston Files (which was originally cross-posted here).

21420 Northwest Fwy.
This warehouse was built in 2019. It includes Kingsley Beverages USA (distribution), Paradise Grills, and likely others.

Tifco Industries Inc. / 21400 Northwest Fwy.
This hidden office building is off of a tree-lined driveway. The building at least has been here since the late 1980s though I'm not sure if Tifco has been here the whole time.

HCA Houston Healthcare North Cypress / 21214 Northwest Freeway
Originally North Cypress Medical Center from its opening in January 2007 to its sale in 2018, this hospital was a landmark to indicate the FM 1960 intersection ahead. While the construction of the hospital made the area much busier and removed its more urban feeling, one of the memories I have particularly around this area was in March 2012 when we had taken the HOV lane (which had recently been re-striped from the inner turn lane) and found it jammed when a motorcycle had stalled. We managed to get out amid some honking and tense moments; at least it was there and not the "concrete canyon" later on.

Before the HOT lane was actually built with the freeway reconstruction and starts all the way back at Mason, the HOV lane started at Eldridge. The "quick fix" pushed it back to between Telge and Barker-Cypress.

Additionally, some later medical offices and parking garages were built adjacent to the medical center. Of note was "Merche!", an Italian-Mexican restaurant. It operated in the lower level of 21208 (parking above) from December 2009 to sometime around 2017, though the signage remained afterward.
An expansion to the hospital with a new large tower is coming to the lot to the north of it. This lot used to have have three businesses (similar in all dealing with yards) with different addresses on one lot. Beyond Paradise (a garden center at 21206) and 290 Grass (21210, sod), were here until early 2021 and July 1, 2022, respectively. By late 2024, the last business, The Yard Depot (21202 Northwest Freeway, had expanded) had packed up and moved out as well.

Exxon / 20600 Northwest Freeway
This Exxon (with Timewise) something not uncommon along the 290 corridor, and not even unique to Northwest Freeway and Huffmeister. The gas station was one of the earliest buildings at the intersection, dating back to 1999, but as of 2005 it was an On the Run gas station. (Most of the On the Run stores were sold to Star Stop, but this one became a Timewise presumably before that).

Exxon / 26021 Northwest Freeway
And "not uncommon" it is, this second Exxon on the other side of the freeway opened in late 2015. It was the last new-build Exxon I've ever seen built new that has the full capital EXXON lettering and blue stripe under the logo before they switched to lower case lettering akin to the full ExxonMobil logo.

20502 Hempstead Road
Despite a Hempstead Road address (and as such, is even despite being on the south side of Northwest Freeway), this warehouse is used as retail use, containing an Urban Air trampoline park and a Floor & Decor store. Both of these opened in fall 2016. It is one of four buildings that compose the Gateway Northwest Business Park. (As a personal note, I was sad when this largely undeveloped swath of trees was torn out in 2013 to build the four warehouses and the Exxon gas station (see previous entry). It wasn't virgin land that was never developed, thThe gas station was built as part of a huge development that ripped out a massive swath of trees in the area (though not virgin land, as one of the old tenants was one "Texas Tee Golf Course" at "20454 Northwest Freeway", or rather, 20454 Hempstead Highway, abandoned some time in the 1990s). The greens had long been overgrown by the 2000s.

Top Dog Fireworks Warehouse / 20432 Northwest Freeway
This fireworks stand, formerly Black Cat Fireworks Warehouse until the mid-2000s, is here. Not only does a giant fireworks warehouse behind a subdivision sounds like a horrifyingly bad idea, you can't even legally possess fireworks in the area. It had to be grandfathered in, obviously. During the Halloween season, it gains orange banners and becomes a large Halloween store (usually with an inflatable pumpkin atop). My single experience here was not a bad one but I was taken aback that a shopping cart was insisted upon, even if you wanted to just grab a few items, you couldn't just hold them in your hands and make your way to the front like a grocery store.

SpringHill Suites by Marriott / 20350 Northwest Freeway
This hotel opened 2016. It has 78 suites spread across four floors.

Goode Company BBQ / 20102 Northwest Fwy.
Goode Company BBQ was built around 2008. When I first designed this page, most of the northeast corner still remained fairly undeveloped.

Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar / 20030 Northwest Freeway
This restaurant opened in May 2019.

Frost Bank / 20002 Northwest Fwy.
Located next to Lazy Dog (the address is slightly out of order), the continued development of "Cypress Crossing" brought this bank in 2021.

Hampton Inn / 20035 Northwest Freeway
My references say this modest Hampton Inn was built in 1996. It is directly across from Frost Bank on the opposite side of the freeway.

Shell / 13250 FM 1960 West
The Shell gas station here was branded "Select" (opened 2000, with the gas station), which I believe is an in-house brand used on a (very) "Select" number of stations. One of those conversations I've had with family members is as follows: "Oh! It's a Shell with a 'Select' gas station. I remember I had a LEGO gas station with that brand as the convenience store...or at least really wanting it," as I realized I never actually owned it.

From what I've heard, the Select brand is a lot more common in Europe (where the set is based on) and very rare here, with this one perhaps being the first U.S. one (thanks to Mike A.)

Unfortunately, by the early 2020s it was closed and will become a Star Stop.

Travelodge / 13290 FM 1960 West
Located behind the Shell was a La Quinta Inn from 1986 to sometime prior to January 2022, when it changed to Travelodge (another Wyndham brand).

The empty space out front wasn't related to construction right of way, it was originally a Kettle built with the hotel. The franchisee of the store, Harry L. Chambers, Jr. (his father had founded Kettle, coincidentally) shut down the restaurant in June 1998 as the restaurant had suffered both the loss of parking spaces and business in the FM 1960 overpass construction.

Harris County Smokehouse, the restaurant that opened in September 1998 in the former Kettle space, bore little resemblance to the Kettle except for the same owners. In 2015, the restaurant relocated across the street to the southwest corner of the intersection and was torn down that same year.

FM 1960 WEST to JONES ROAD

Speedy Stop / 13155 FM 1960 West
Sitting at the southeast corner was a Chevron for years before it rebuilt around 2007 with a Speedy Stop convenience store instead of its under-the-canopy "Food Mart". It was not a Speedy Stop that was sold to 7-Eleven in 2013, and by December 2014 Mobil had rebranded the station (still with a Speedy Stop, of course). In late March 2023 it rebranded as a full Speedy Stop (self-branded gas) with the last day to get Mobil rewards in early April.

IHOP / 13335 FM 1960 West
The first in a cluster of restaurants sitting behind a strip mall and along the freeway, the IHOP was built in 1996. Sometime in the mid-2010s, the signage was updated from "IHOP Restaurant" to "IHOP" with the "red smile" underneath.

Texas Roadhouse / 13345 Farm to Market 1960 Road West
Texas Roadhouse opened around late 2000 here, after construction of the overpass. Behind that was Comfort Suites (13355 Farm to Market 1960 Road West), which opened in late 2014, after being delayed and having to be rebuilt due to a fire in July 2013 that consumed the original unfinished building. The West Houston Archives page for Highway 6 / Addicks Satsuma Road has some photos of the fire's aftermath. Behind that is Best Western Windsor Suites (13371 FM 1960 West), opened in 2000. Unusually, the name "Windsor Suites" is prominent instead of the usual Best Western brand. It should also be noted that about where the Best Western and Comfort Suites are located was a bank in the early 1980s (possibly opened late 1970s), Texas Commerce Bank (13445 FM 1960 West) but closed and was completely gone by 1989 and remained undeveloped until the Best Western was built in a portion of its space years later. It was almost unnoticed until an aerial photo of Northwest Freeway's construction was published on West Houston Archives, leading to a search for this bank.

19820 Northwest Freeway
While the restaurant still maintained it's "Carino's Italian Grill" from a time when Johnny Carino's briefly rebranded, the restaurant opened in 2004. It closed in early 2023 as the next to last Johnny Carino's in the Houston area (the other is in Baytown). In early 2025 it will become a new location of Fogo de Chão. The parking lot connects with the Academy parking lot (along with the restaurants in this stretch) as well as the Speedy Stop next door.

19710 Northwest Freeway
Also opening in 2004 next door to Carino's was a building that houses a location of La Madeleine. The second suite held Skeeter's from 2004 to 2010, Genghis Grill from 2010 to approximately 2021, and since July 2022, Sumo Sushi, an all-you-can eat Japanese restaurant. Two other suites are in the building.

Chili's / 19825 Northwest Freeway
HCAD says this Chili's Grill & Bar was built in 1999.

Mamacita's Mexican Restaurant & Cantina / 19831 Northwest Fwy.
The original restaurant here, Las Rosas Mexican Grill (no other locations) operated from 2003 to 2010. The current restaurant opened in early 2012.

Black Bear Diner / 19823 Northwest Freeway
This restaurant opened in 2020, replacing an Applebee's that was built in 2004 but closed by April 2019. Black Bear Diner often moves into old chain restaurant spaces, but they changed the address—under Applebee's, the address was 19821.

Chuy's / 19827 Northwest Fwy.
Chuy's Tex-Mex opened here in 2008, but it wasn't the first tenant. In 2006, it was the home of Barton Springs Grill, a Houston-based (not Austin) restaurant with one other location in Tomball, the latter of which may or may not have actually opened.

Harris County Smokehouse / 19811 Northwest Freeway
Built in 2015 (almost a decade after the others), this restaurant moved from an old Kettle located in front of the La Quinta Inn (behind the Hampton and the Shell).

Wells Fargo / 19704 Northwest Freeway
This Wells Fargo bank was built around 2004.

Luby's / 19668 Northwest Freeway
This Luby's opened in 1996 (as Luby's Cafeteria, within a decade this would be dropped).

Tesla Service Center / 19820 Hempstead Highway
The first Gander Mountain store in Houston opened in October 2004 (link) and closed in spring 2017. It never had direct access to the Northwest Freeway frontage road since it didn't exist at the time (you had to use the driveway between Chili's and Applebee's, then use the parking lot access roads). In late 2016, this was fixed with the construction of a new continuous frontage road but it didn't help Gander Mountain's fortunes much.

It was announced in January 2020 it was to become some sort of entertainment facility, but it was 2020, and a nightmare was coming where having fun was all but outlawed. Instead, the facade was partially dismantled and the main section painted blue (for three years, the facade, complete with the name, remained untouched), with it being leased as a warehouse for PPE equipment by Bighorn Manufacturing. As of October 2021, the space has been gutted and became a Tesla service center/showroom in 2022.

Academy Sports + Outdoors / 19720 Northwest Freeway
This Academy was opened in late 2002 as the anchor to Crossroads Plaza. Nearby is a small strip center where the second Philly Connection "of 290" was visible.

19714 Northwest Freeway
Staples operated here from 2008 to 2020 and built directly next to Academy.

Baker Nissan North / 19630 Northwest Freeway
This car dealership opened here in 2013, replacing Champion Lincoln Mercury Isuzu, and moving from a location further down the street. This property marks another change in Northwest Freeway, in which the landscape becomes largely dominated by car dealerships. Before the 2009 recession (and an ordinance that largely phased them out), there were usually giant balloon structures (gorillas, the like) on top of these dealerships. Only one actually closed, Jim Archer Chrysler Jeep, but that's described in the next section...

Champion Lincoln Mercury Isuzu was previously Texan Lincoln Mercury Isuzu (later rebranded) when it moved here in 1997 from FM 1960, though I can't find proof of that name being here.

Furthermore, although the link says 2013, the building in the back near Wortham Blvd. was built in October 2012.

Northwest Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram / 19616 Northwest Fwy.
This hasn't changed too much since it opened, in 1997 it opened as "Northwest Dodge Inc.". Like its neighbor, it was built between Crossroads and Wortham.

19550 Northwest Freeway
Most recently this was Volkswagen Cypress for a brief time (period of about three years, basically late 2019 to late 2022), formerly Momentum Volkswagen (and before that Advantage Volkswagen) since 2002.

CarMax / 19500 Northwest Freeway
This CarMax location was built in 2000, joining several others in the Houston area.

19300 Northwest Freeway
Now abandoned, the former location of Northwest Hyundai was one of the oldest dealerships in the area, dating back to April 1986 when it opened as Leo Jarnigan Hyundai. By its one-year anniversary it was under new ownership (Rick Case Hyundai). In early 1995, it became Hub Buick Company (which kept the phone number) at had been at the corner of Westheimer and Kirby many years ago. It did still have Hyundai vehicles (at least as of 1996) and by 1999 was known as Hub Buick-Hyundai, which advertised separately in the newspapers (Hub Buick and Hub Hyundai). By September 2005, it was known as Hub Buick Hyundai Mitsubishi (another location off of Katy Freeway was just a Hyundai dealership). Sometime around 2008-2009, the Buick name was finally dropped, and after the Mitsubishi line was dropped, around 2022 it became Northwest Hyundai.

SPX Flow Technology / 19191 Hempstead Highway
This actually has no access from 290 anymore, it now requires entrance through the back. For years, it had a driveway connected to the frontage road (and the railroad crossing was equipped with lights and gates, no "crossbucks only" here) but in 2015, the crossing closed when the frontage road did and never reopened. The gates were removed, but the rest of the infrastructure is still there. Apparently the SPX Flow division separated from the parent company as an independent company in 2015.

The address is a carryover from a time when the part of Hempstead Highway that ran parallel to the railroad directly became the new frontage road (remember, the frontage road wasn't continuous), which was the case up until around 2014.

Emerson Process Management / 19200 Northwest Freeway
This is home to Emerson Process Management (Valve Automation division), which was formerly the home to Jim Archer Chrysler Jeep, built around 2004 but closed about five years later owing to a downturn in the automotive business. The current business (built 2012) demolished just about everything except for a few parts of the parking lot.

Northwest Hyundai / 19120 Northwest Freeway
This car dealership moved from a few spaces down as a vertical car dealership with a parking garage and glass-encased cars on the top level of the garage. It's quite unique!

Joe Myers Toyota / 19010 Northwest Freeway
Joe Myers Toyota absorbed 19100 (Baker Nissan North) after it moved in 2013 and built new facilities there. The other two buildings on site were once two different car dealerships but they were merged at some point in the past. One of these was 19100 Northwest Freeway, which in late 1988 was Charlie Thomas Nissan.

Lone Star Chevrolet / 18900 Northwest Freeway
In 1997, Eldridge Fast Stop, a Shell station at 18990 Northwest, was built on the southeast corner of Eldridge and Northwest Freeway. In 1999, a new car dealership, Lone Star Chevrolet, was built also at the corner, and wrapped around the gas station. Around 2003, the gas station closed and was absorbed into Lone Star Chevrolet's space, with the driveways to the frontage road and Eldridge removed, and the structures paved over.

An expansion was also done on the south side, taking over what was Lawrence Marshall Oldsmobile at 18800 Northwest Freeway. This became "Lone Star Preowned". LMO was only in operation from around 2000 to 2001, presumably closing when they consolidated with the mega-dealership in Hempstead.

Somewhere around this point, on the south side of the highway, south of John Eagle Honda was Phobia Haunted Houses (18777 Northwest Freeway). It moved after 2014 (supposed to move after the 2013 but stayed open for one more year). My August 2013 picture (from a video) isn't all that great, but it shows the sign (on the property, not in the 290 right of way), lots of trees, and the dirt road railroad crossing you have to maneuver to get in there with no gate whatsoever. I imagine that if you did go, a train surprising you at that point may be the scariest thing you saw that evening. Hopefully no one's gotten hurt there. WHA points out that this was based around an actual old house. By December 2014, the sign was gone, replaced by a "Clown Moving Co." which can only be seen seasonally (due to foliage overgrowth) or if you were looking for it. As of January 2020 the Phobia billboard is still visible on the other side of the freeway (but partially fallen apart). The railroad crossing is closed and the buildings have been completely demolished. Pre-construction, this was one of the areas where you could clearly see the US-290 metered ramps (which I never saw operate).-->

John Eagle Honda / 18787 Northwest Freeway
Built in 2003 and relocated from Eldridge and FM 1960, the John Eagle Honda dealership has a Northwest Freeway address but no access from the frontage road, and unlike SPX Flow Technology, never did.

Sterling McCall Collision of Jersey Village / 18700 Northwest Freeway
This used to be a Saturn of Houston dealership before around 2009.

Altex Computers & Electronics / 18670 Northwest Freeway
Altex is here, built in 2000, is an electronics store similar to Fry's Electronics (RIP) or Micro Center. I personally have never been, as it was farther away from either when I've lived in Houston, and it's smaller than either of them.

Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen / 18550 Northwest Freeway
A lonely Popeyes sits by itself, built in 2001, but it has remained in business (it didn't have the "Louisiana Kitchen" name initially, that came later starting with a late-2000s rebranding).

Bobcat of Houston / 18340 Northwest Fwy.
Bobcat of Houston (construction equipment) opened here in 1999. In 2015, the building was partially reconstructed to allow for freeway right of way, tearing down the front of the building but adding a new addition to the side.

Public Storage / 18106 Northwest Freeway
This sprawling self-storage complex has been here since the 1990s. In the early 2010s, it assumed its current brand, Public Storage (previously Morningstar Mini-Storage). It sits at the northeast corner of Steeple Way Blvd. and Northwest Freeway, the other side has an apartment complex, a building of which faces the freeway. Unlike some of the apartments beyond Beltway 8, these apartments have no access from the freeway. However, the apartments, currently Kessler Jersey Village Apartments (11011 Pleasant Colony Drive) This used to be The Promenade Jersey Village and between February 2020 and early 2022 changed the name to what they have now. It was Trails of Steeplechase at least from 2000 to 2006 but had the Promenade name as of late 2007. The apartments were built in 1995.

AutoSavvy Houston Northwest / 17930 Northwest Fwy.
As AutoSavvy is a chain (and has a location at 7620 Bellaire), this is also known as "AutoSavvy Houston Northwest".

This building has been a used car dealership for several years. In 2016, the building was renovated from its previous use to become DriveTime. Between 2020 and 2021 it became "ASM Cars" (with a repaint), then became AutoSavvy by late 2021.

Prior to DriveTime's renovation, there were two buildings, the building on the south side having an overhang on the left side. In 2014, it was "Smart Choice Auto Group", and before Smart Choice consolidated the two buildings, there was All American Customs (now at 17650 NW Freeway) on the right side and Capital Pawn on the left. Both shared the address.

Just to the west of AutoSavvy (and east of Kessler's property) was 18002 Northwest Freeway. This was a small used car dealership called Standard Auto Sales, featuring a little shack with the Texas flag painted on the roof. In 2016, the same year DriveTime opened, Standard Auto Sales closed. By 2021, the site was razed and eventually repaved for an expansion ASM Cars/Auto Savvy's space.

Gulf Pacific Rice Company / 12010 Taylor Road
Gulf Pacific Rice Company (aka Sarita Rice or Gulf Rice Milling), a rice milling operation here since 1954 and built by the Moore family as a rice dryer (the grandson of the original builder still had a role at the plant as of January 2015). Unfortunately, my pictures of the rice mill (Gulf Pacific since '89, when the company was founded) aren't that good. Gulf Pac has dozens of clients (even big ones like Udi's and Kelloggs) and makes most of the bagged store brand rice (not just H-E-B, but even farther away chains like Hy-Vee, and there isn't a Hy-Vee in probably a thousand miles) since switching to domestic production in the 1990s. There's trucks going in and out all the time (most of the rice is grown in Arkansas area). Gulf Pacific also has Taylor Laboratories at their address, which is an in-house testing lab for QA and testing. I visited this plant, I should know (but they never called back about the job they said they were going to offer me, a pity). There used to be a billboard for "Perry Pools" that's been there as long as I can remember, though it was torn down in 2015. I'm guessing it was torn down for the frontage road rebuild. You can see it in WHA, Google Street View, or a YouTube video I made entitled "Northwest Free" to see it though! At some point in the early 2010s, they replaced the static Gulf Pacific logo (facing south) with an LED board advertising Sarita Rice and occasionally other advertisements (job openings, employee of the month, their Twitter handle).

There's also an active railroad spur that has a few cars on it at any given time.

Tuff Shed / 7935 Wright Road
Tuff Shed moved here in 2013, and features a sign that blinks rapidly (deliberately). has created a sign that blinks rapidly. It shares the address with "A Discount Storage" (or "A Discount Mini Storage") and Two Men and a Truck (a business-within-a-business at the self storage place). Tuff Shed's place prior to 2013 used to be "Houston RV Center".

SignCo America / 7938 Wright Road
This one's a bit of a tragedy. Sparkle Sign Company was one of my favorites. Unfortunately, they don't offer tours to the general public, and in summer 2018, rebranded to Signco America, presumably as part of a buyout. This not only removed all the unique and colorful signs on the 290 side of the building but even seemed to clean up the "sign graveyard", which included an older McDonald's sign (among others). Was it, and others, destroyed? From October 2015, here's a night shot (regrettably very blurry) of all the signs in action. Here's a bonus picture, of a Landry's sign visible from Wright Road, taken earlier that year.

Quality Suites / 17550 Northwest Freeway
The Comfort Suites here was rebranded as Quality Suites sometime between 2011 and 2017.

17504 Northwest Freeway
This small strip has a Starbucks Coffee and for a period of at least seven years had a "Philly Connection" cheesesteak place (still around in 2015, long after others on the route had closed--it was the third one visible en route), and word is on HAIF that the plaza used to be one of the "unmanned gas stations" with no store and no attendant. It was a Shell, though because it was demolished in 2003, I don't remember it.

JONES ROAD to FM 529

Exxon / 17438 Northwest Freeway
The Exxon here at the corner of Jones Road and 290 was originally not branded as a convenience store brand but by the early 2010s gained the Timewise brand a few years before it had to go for freeway widening. The Exxon sign was covered with a tarp for months before re-emerging with a new logo on the rebuilt station. The new slightly downsized lot featured a new Timewise convenience store but a permanent casualty was a drive-through car wash.

Northwest Village / 17414 Northwest Freeway
You can see a PDF of the center as it appeared around late 2020 here. Some notes regarding that:

• The Chick-fil-A (17430) is a small building by Chick-fil-A standards (somewhat unusual layout, no playground) and replaced a building of the strip center containing a Subway, ACE Cash Express, and a few other tenants. The whole building was 17430, suites A through F. (Subway was suite F). The original building was demolished due to freeway widening.
• The Concentra Urgent Care takes up the right side of a building also anchored by Dollar Tree and Spec's, as well as a smaller space next to it, but the address, 17410, was used for a Randalls that used to be here (#10) from opening in the 1970s up until sometime in the 1990s.
• When the Whataburger (#501) was first built back in the 1980s, it was a Del Taco (check it out on the former restaurants page). In February 2016, that building (was torn down for freeway widening and a replacement was built, opening in May 2016.
• Exclusive Furniture started as Handy Dan Home Improvement but it moved out before the end of the 1980s. Exclusive Furniture closed in 2018 around the same time (though I think they overlapped) the Cypress location opened. The space, 17390, is now a Ross Dress for Less.

Los Cucos Mexican Cafe / 17386 Northwest Freeway
Los Cucos was a Monterey House back in 1989 and became a Monterey's Tex-Mex Cafe soon after, finally transitioning to Monterey's Little Mexico in 1994. It closed in 2006 and became Los Cucos in 2007.

17340 Northwest Freeway
Hartz was a Tinsley's Chicken 'n Rolls back in 1981 but closed sometime around the mid-1980s following the chain's dismantling and sale to Church's Chicken (which operated from 1985 to 2005). It became a restaurant known as Burger Depot in 2005 which closed less than two years later. It became Hartz Chicken Buffet sometime around 2008 (from 2005 to 2007 it was recently-closed independent shop Burger Depot). Sometime in 2024 (or very late 2023) Hartz closed.

Shell / 17342 Northwest Freeway
Super K Food Mart (with Valero branding) was previously here, having converted from a Diamond Shamrock with Stop N Go (it's unknown as to why the convenience store went independent as opposed to converting to a Corner Store, as almost all of the others did). It did end up closing due to the freeway construction in 2018 but it rebuilt as a Shell with a new convenience store (Fuel Time) with a new fuel canopy between it and Hartz.

The convenience store's lineage starts with a 7-Eleven in 1983 which was sold to Stop N Go in 1987. Presumably the gas station went from Citgo to Diamond Shamrock in the 1990s. There's also a strip center that continues back from Shell which I admit I have not covered before.

Moonlight Inn & Suites / 17140 Northwest Fwy.
This cheap, off-brand motel was Executive Inn & Suites until 2015. If it had any other name between 1999 (when it was built) and 2007 is unknown.

Superior Subaru of Houston / 17100 Northwest Freeway
This property was believed to be used as a location of Houston Garden Centers in the late 1990s and much of the 2000s (link) but archived searches say it's for Houston Plants & Garden rather than Houston Garden Centers, which seems more likely given a different sign and the lack of HGC's characteristic red and yellow striping. In 2017, work began on the site for Superior Subaru of Houston.

The Church @ Jersey Village / 16518 Jersey Drive
What was Jersey Village Baptist Church for a number of years uses a side street as a main address instead of Northwest Freeway, since originally it was a small church at the corner of Jersey Drive and Rio Grande Street. (We'll leave it here anyway). Only around 2003 did it add a large parking lot and facade off of the freeway and in 2008 the new sanctuary building was built. According to Southern Baptist Convention's records the church was founded in 1955, but in 1953 Jersey Village hadn't even begun building the streets yet. In 2016, it became part of Champion Forest Baptist Church, and soon renamed to "Champion Forest Baptist Church - Jersey Village". However, in 2024, the church spun off as a nondenominational separate campus.

Red Roof Inn / 16884 Northwest Freeway
Built in 1985 as a Comfort Inn (which it was at least as of 1989), it changed hands in the early 1990s and was rebranded as Motel 6, which it would be until the summer of 2018, when it became Super 7 Inn. By 2021 it was a Red Roof Inn, returning to a branded hotel name.

Taqueria Arandas / 16822 Northwest Freeway
Located in front of the motel, the facade of this Taqueria Arandas got mauled in the construction (it looked similar to what it does now, except it had curved "solarium" windows). It was originally a Kettle (closed sometime around 1996-1997), and opened as Taquerias Arandas around late 2001.

Joe Myers Ford Pre-Owned / 16700 Northwest Freeway
This might've been the "main" Ford dealership at one time but now it's the pre-owned center. Another future version perhaps...

Joe Myers Ford / 16634 Northwest Fwy.
The sprawling Joe Myers Ford complex also includes Joe Myers Mazda (16500 Northwest Fwy.) and Joe Myers Kia (16484 Northwest Freeway). The center has been here in some form since the late 1980s.

FM 529 to BELTWAY 8

Community Impact - Houston / 16800 Northwest Freeway
The Houston area offices of Community Impact built here in the early 2020s. It had operated in the area before; I've cited it for restaurants/openings closings.

15830 Northwest Freeway
This address relates to a long-abandoned Chevron (only remnants are a vandalized convenience store, all the rest gone); with the area until around 2012 featuring a number of large signs, with the north side featuring Chevron and Jack in the Box (the Chevron featured the old solid red-and-blue design until its closure, then the sign stayed up until 2014), and the south side featuring McDonald's, Wendy's, and Taco Bell. I've covered some of the south-side stuff here with another tenant lost, Carpet, Texas (later Jack's Carpet) here. More entries may show up on Numbered Exits in the future.

As a closing note, here's something interesting: two pictures from the perspective almost a year apart, on the WB frontage road under the five-stack before the first stoplight. There's a big difference, and it's not just between the stoplights...

Picture from March 2015 - from under the five-stack

Picture from January 2016 - from under the five-stack, same place

That's not all!! The journey continues beyond Beltway 8 at this page. You can also see Beltway 8 (eastbound) by clicking here.