Raintree Inn & Suites / 3675 S. Loop West
Cheap motel that opened in 2006. When it originally opened, it was half the size it is now. The side closest to the freeway was built in 2009.

Doggett Ford South Loop / 3440 S. Loop West
Russell & Smith Ford opened here in December 1970. At some point Mazda was added to this facility (their Honda dealership is just east of here). The newspaper mentions an "old timer" (their words, not mine) theme with the opening festivities, with a 1915 Ford car and other relics on display, a barbershop quartet, a banjo band, and free snacks (ice cream, cookies, popcorn, and hot wassail). In September 2025, Russell & Smith Honda and Russell & Smith Ford was sold to Leslie Doggett Auto Group and rebranded soon after.

Denny's / 3332 S. Loop West
This Denny's has been here since December 1976 and with a few notable exceptions, has always been open 24 hours.

Taco Bell / 3155 S. Loop West
This Taco Bell opened in early 1999.

Arby's / 3055 South Loop West
The 2010s had a renaissance of Krispy Kreme in the Houston area and construction began in 2015 for a Krispy Kreme in the parking lot of Golden Corral (which of course was open at that time). However, for whatever reason, the construction was mostly finished but it never opened (rumors were something was wrong with the actual building). It remained built not finished out after two years of construction. By January 2018 it opened as an Arby's (may have been open the last week of December 2017), store number 8610.

Spark / 3033 South Loop West
Golden Corral (#2446) opened here in 2002 but closed in 2020. Even into June 2022 the sign was still up and the website said "operations temporarily suspended" though it had been boarded up for a while at this point. By June 2023 the restaurant was demolished and by March 2026 reopened as a Spark gas station with Izzi Market.

Discount Tire / 2990 South Loop West
Discount Tire opened a shop here in 2003. It has not been anything before, or anything since.

Doggett Honda Med Center / 2900 South Loop West
This opened in 2000 in Russell & Ford Honda (see 3440 above). It received its current name after it changed hands in September 2025 (again, see 3440 above). A mid-2010s expansion added a connection to Buffalo Speedway.

Chacho's / 2700 South Loop West
This was a Bennigan's from 1982 to 2008. Chacho's has been here since mid-2009, and it's still 24 hours.

2646 West Loop South
This is one of several identical office buildings. Current tenants include (but are not limited to) First Choice Ambulance, The Brow Doctor Studio, Chad Henderson Law, Royal Tipz, Houston Medical Testing Services, and Sirte Med Primary Care (these are all from Google as of August 2026). In the mid-1980s, El Pollo Loco had regional offices at suite 670 (before they pulled out in 1985).

Original Timmy Chan / 2596 West Loop South
This started out as Danny's Orleans Kitchen around 2010, then became Sapid American Grill & Bar by 2013, then Fat Boy's Bar & Grill by 2014 before closing around 2017. It then became Hoops afterwards (by mid-2018), then in 2021 became the new location of Timmy Chan (moved from 2360). Interestingly, tax records indicate Danny's, Sapid, and Fat Boy's were all the same ownership, just different concepts.

Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen / 2525 South Loop West
Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen opened its fourth location here in 1990.

Pappasito's Cantina / 2515 South Loop West
This Pappas-owned Mexican restaurant chain opened in 1991.

Cavender's Boot City / 2505 South West Loop
This Cavender's Boot City opened in 1990 and still has the original block-letter logo on the building itself (though the highway sign is the "smiling neon cowboy" mentioned in the Northwest Freeway page).

Davis Chevrolet / 2277 South Loop West
This car dealership moved here in 1993. Just to the east of it was AstroWorld, the real AstroWorld (not anything associated with a misanthropic rap artist that will encourage rowdiness and not care when eight people get trampled to death...we're not naming names here)...and before its closure in October 2005, the rides were easily visible from the Loop. You can see my page on it here. There will a page dedicated to Astroworld and the nearby hotels soon.

Shell / Burger King / 1620 S. Loop West
This gas station (with Burger King) opened around 2003. The Handi Stop name is original but it was a Shell as of at least 2007.

McDonald's / 1619 S. Loop West
McDonald's opened here in summer 1989. It renovated to the current prototype in late 2016.

1615 West Loop South
This opened in March 1988 as Sam's Wholesale Club (later the "Wholesale" name was dropped) but it continued for almost thirty years in its 100,000+ square foot space. In January 11, 2018, this Sam's Club closed without much notice along with 62 other Sam's Club stores nationwide. Briefly, in the early 2020s, the parking lot held "Houston Grub Park", though this disappeared within a few yehars.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car / 1406 S. Loop West
This has been here since at least 2007.

Crystal Inn / 4343 South Loop East
This small motel (Crystal Inn) was built in 1996. It does not appear to have changed names before.

5305 South Loop East
Defunct Burger King. This was demolished circa 2015, though it was believed to be abandoned in the mid-2000s.

YES Prep Public Schools Southside Campus / 5515 S. Loop E.
YES Prep (charter school whose headquarters were built right next door at 5455 South Loop East) built a grades 6-11 charter school, the Southside campus here in the late 2010s. Originally, it was Mangurian's Furniture Showcase & Distribution Center, based out of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, but originated out of Rochester, New York. It opened in December 1971 but its parent company pulled the plug on the 176,000 square feet store in spring 1974.

In the summer of 1979, the former Mangurian's reopened as Trading Fair II, an indoor flea market (Trading Fair I was originally at Town & Country Village and later at North Shepherd and Crosstimbers. Ultimately, there were four--Trading Fair III at 12236 Gulf Freeway, and Trading Fair IV at 630 West Little York.) Promising goods that were from beyond Houston, Trading Fair II advertised in even the tourist guides in the late 1980s.

At some point, an arena (aka 610 Arena) was built inside for live events (boxing, concerts, etc.), but it never had any big names, mostly amateurs and locals. While Trading Fair II closed in 2008 (it seems the other Trading Fairs closed around this time), it was far more successful than Mangurian's had been.

Direct Scaffold Supply / 6059 South Loop East
This building was built and opened in December 1969 as the very first Target store in the Houston area (but not the first store in Texas, a Garland store beat it by a few months). Like many discount stores of the time, it had an adjoining grocery store with the discount store name's but not operated by it, in this case, "Target Foods" was operated by Weingarten. It's shockingly low store number (T-15) was an indicator of its age with less than two dozen Target stores in the entire chain when it opened. In 1987, with Target as a chain grown substantially with 14 others in Houston alone, parent company Dayton-Hudson decided to close the store, citing that return-of-investment reasons (losing money, either through shoplifting or lack of business).

In November 1990, "Flea Market of America" opened at the site and by 1994 was known as Eastmart Indoor Flea Market. It was also sub-divided with 50-Off Store, which also occupied a space in 1991. 50-Off Store renamed to LOT$OFF in 1998 but it ended up closing soon after. In 1981, Target Foods (6063 South Loop East) became Weingarten, but Weingarten sold out in 1984, with Rice Food Markets taking over. It appears that Rice then closed the store in 1988 for its new concept, Price Buster Foods, which ran until 1996.

From September 2000 to May 2003 it was Auchan (which absorbed the Price Buster Foods space), but save for some temporary uses like FEMA using it in 2008, never saw use again until Direct Scaffold Supply in early 2016. This is the best that I can understand the building chronology. It's possible that Auchan and LOT$OFF may have co-existed at one point early on, and I'm not sure the chronology of the grocery store side, either.

Also, visit on HHR's coverage on Auchan here.

6137 South Loop East
This Wendy's operated from 1986 to around 2012, at which point it was boarded up and flattened a few years later.

Valero / 6155 South Loop East
This gas station was built in 2005 as a Chevron with a Stripes convenience store with a Laredo Taco Company inside (one of the earlier Stripes stores in Houston, and survived past the ones sold to "Ice Box"). The gas portion converted to Sunoco around 2014-2015 and the convenience store converted to a 7-Eleven sometime between March 2021 and March 2022. In 2025, however, it closed and reopened as a Valero with a generic store soon after.

Habitat for Humanity ReStore / 6161 South Loop East
The current tenant is part of a Habitat for Humanity-owned chain that sells salvaged building supplies. Fun City Toys (later Playworld Fun City after Lionel Corporation bought the chain) opened here originally in 1978. It was the successor to the Kids' Kounty chain (see the Katy Freeway page) and closed in 1982 with the other three stores in Houston as part of new parent company's Lionel bankruptcy filing. From 1984 to 2001 it was a location of Weiner's, and reopened as its current use in 2004.

Space Saver 8 Self Storage / 6333 South Loop East
This has been a self-storage facility since the late 1970s at least, though probably not under this name.

7210 South Loop East
Nothing more than a parking lot today. Spanky's (pizza) was here from 1976 to September 2014 when it was destroyed in a fire. The building was demolished in 2015.