Carbon-izer.com - West Houston Roads

WEST HOUSTON ROADS

Welcome to the West Houston Roads page! This page covers the parts of Houston off of and beyond Beltway 8 between US-59 and US-290. Version 3.0 fixes the placement of IHOP and Brenner's Steakhouse and makes minor typo edits, with other changes...

Additions: McDonald's (Highway 6), 7-Eleven, Rainbow Swing Set Superstore, Chevron/McDonald's, Food Town (former Auchan), The Home Depot, Waffle House (Westheimer), 12400 Westheimer Road (former Homer's/Ross Dress for Less/24 Hour Fitness/etc.), 11940 Westheimer Road (former Sprouts/Sports Authority/HEB Pantry, among others), ClearChannel Outdoor - Houston Offices, Jollibee, Burlington (featuring a short-lived Sam's Club!), Planet Fitness (Barker Cypress), 14540 Memorial (former Safeway/Drug Emporium/HEB) and 3350 Rogerdale Road.
Updates: CubeSmart Self Storage, Dog Haus Biergarten, Little Caesars, Viet Hoa International Foods, and Alief Center for Talent Development (more info on West Oaks Mall).
Removals: Houston Garden Centers


BELLAIRE BOULEVARD

Bellaire Boulevard is a long road from its genesis at the western border of Southside Place (where it becomes Holcombe Boulevard, but keeps the numbering system) and continuing to Grand Parkway, its disparate segments finally connecting. This page will cover Bellaire Blvd. west of the Southwest Freeway, but there was only one entry completed by press time.

10839 Bellaire Boulevard
This was built in 2000 as an Eckerd (on the site of an old Shell station dating back to the mid-1970s) but CVS wasn't interested in the site, converting it briefly but closing it by fall 2004.

From 2005 to around 2009 this was Advance Auto Parts, which, unusually, featured Chinese characters on the signage! Around late 2014, Isingtec (moved from 11360 Bellaire) opened as "Super Isingtec". Super Isingtec, which apparently, was not a pun on "surprising tech", operated here until around 2020. The place certainly looked interesting, with a color scheme of lime green and orange), featuring "FURNITURE • APPLIANCES • MATTRESS • KARAOKE" (one of these is not like the others)...but the reality was mostly just a furniture store (nothing "super-ising"). Isingtec still has two locations in Garland and Duluth, GA.

In 2021, it was renovated into a new strip center building ("Bellaire Crest"), with "The Hotpot Ice Cream" being one of the first tenants.


FM 1960 ROAD WEST (WEST OF HIGHWAY 290)

This small section covers FM 1960 Road West from Northwest Freeway to Hempstead Highway. Not covered are the items already mentioned in the Northwest Freeway page, namely the Shell station, the Travelodge (and the defunct pad in front of it), IHOP, Texas Roadhouse, or any other restaurants/hotels on the south side of FM 1960...which really leaves only CubeSmart. The rest of the road heading east can be seen here.

CubeSmart Self Storage / 13340 FM 1960 West
Trying to put the pieces together has been a bit of a challenge. The largest building (13328) opened in 1980 as a Woolco and shut down less than three years later when F.W. Woolworth closed the chain.

In 1984, it reopened as Home-Pro Warehouse, which was soon rebranded as Builder's Square (following the purchase of the chain by Kmart Corporation). In 1994, Builder's Square closed and was replaced by a store closer to Willowbrook Mall (see the FM 1960 West page).

The smaller store space was 13330 FM 1960 West and was J. Brannam, an off-price clothing store also owned by the company. This would become Academy sporting goods from 1983 to 1995.

The modern self-storage center takes its address the office—a former Grandy's that operated from the 1980s to around 1997. With the closure of Grandy's, the whole complex became Devon Self Storage, later In & Out Self Storage (c. 2003), U-Store-It (2006), and finally CubeSmart (2013).


HIGHWAY 6

I do not have the personal connection to Highway 6 as depicted here; I have never even driven on the section of the road with the exception of a short excursion to visit an El Pollo Loco back in 2015. I had intended to make a full page on Highway 6 between Beltway 8 and Northwest Freeway, revisiting one of the site's inspirations, "West Houston Archives" (the site still exists but lacks a domain name and links within the website don't work). What I wanted to do was a total re-invisioning of the page, adding my own personal touch, while still holding true to its original vision. A few entries were completed as such with most of the photos are his, not mine--and are indicated as such. The italics indicate original text from WHA. In the end, I decided not to pursue a complete "re-do", but I didn't throw out what I had. That's why a few entries are different, though these will be phased out.

Extended Stay InTown Suites / 9155 Highway 6 North
The March 2009 picture from John seen here has this InTown Suites in a slightly different light (hilly and grassy) that makes it seem more like a motel in a New England seaboard town or perhaps Galveston. The Houston Highway 6 InTown Suites was opened in 1998.

Charleys Cheesesteaks / 8491 Highway 6 North
This former Carl's Jr. opened in January 2011 as the first Carl's Jr. restaurant in Houston (at least, not in decades), and initially set record-breaking sales when it opened. Ultimately its success was fleeting and closed sometime in late 2019. Charleys Cheesesteaks (of mall food court fame) replaced it by fall 2022.

Dog Haus Biergarten / 8422 Highway 6 North
This Fazoli's restaurant operated from 2000 to somewhere around 2009-2010 and operated as El Rey from 2011 to around 2019. Dog Haus opened in November 2020. As of around July 2023 Google has listed as "temporarily closed". We'll cross our fingers, but it sounds like it's gone for good.

Dunkin' / 7510 Highway 6 N.
This opened in 1998 as a co-branded Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin-Robbins (on equal terms, the companies have been under common ownership since 1990). It still has a Baskin-Robbins, as newer developments have tended be "Dunkin' (Donuts) with a Baskin-Robbins inside".

Fuddruckers / 7250 Hwy. 6 North
The Copperfield Fuddruckers, shown here in 2007 (John's picture) originally opened in 1996. Sometime between 2008 and 2009 it was painted burgundy from what is depicted in the photo. While it placed a bit back from the road, the parking lot to Fuddruckers and others in the strip can be accessed from the signaled intersection connecting to Sugar Ridge Drive. There was another picture on WHA where you could see both the Copperfield McDonald's and Fuddruckers restaurants from the road.

McDonald's / 7302 Highway 6 North
West Houston Archives reports the Copperfield McDonald's being built in 1986 and rebuilt sometime around the late 2000s. The original decor photographed is very similar to how McDonald's restaurants generally used to look, and was already an endangered species by 2014, hence the creation of the article In Search of a Mansard Roof McDonald's.

Black Rifle Coffee Company / 7086 Highway 6 North
Black Rifle Coffee Company opened its first Houston-area location in this former Boston Market store in March 2022. WHA has a picture of the original tenant (Boston Market, built in the mid-1990s) here, from 2009.

JCI Grill / 6614 Highway 6 North
Better known as James Coney Island, the Copperfield location of this dying hot dog chain is still in business. This location opened in 2000.

Shipley Do-Nuts / 6400 Hwy. 6 North
If you read the chronology of this former Toddle House on West Houston Archives it's a little off in several places. While it did open around 1984, Toddle House seems to have gone into 1997 before it closed, and the business that opened in 1999 was "Rosie's" (probably remembering "Roses" wrong). In 2003 Rosie's closed, with "Koffee & Stuf'd Biscuit Company" (not "The Coffee & Biscuit Co.") operating from 2006 to 2010. Shipley has been here since 2011, however, which moved from a different location.

Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers / 6015 Highway 6 North
Raising Cane's #99 opened in February 2012 (the website used to have opening dates but they no longer do). West Houston Archives has taken pictures in (presumably) early January and it is quite impressive considering the state of the building was in.

5854 Hwy. 6 North
West Houston Archives tells the story of this restaurant starting out as a Dairy queen then became "Dairy Country". While I cannot find much on these restaurants, its next phase in life really did open as a Church's Chicken/Wienerschnitzel combo in 1999 (the two chains did not share ownership), and after dropping the Wienerschnitzel menu at some point in the early-to-mid 2000s, closed around 2016 and reopened as Captain D's in January 2018. It seems that Captain D's closed in late 2022.

Louisiana Famous Fried Chicken & Seafood / 5436 Hwy. 6 N.
This restaurant was originally a Whataburger that operated from the late 1980s to around 2016-2017. The current restaurant opened in 2018.

Little Caesars / 4998 Highway 6 North
Long John Silver's opened c. 1980 and closed sometime around 2005. El Pupusodromo (#4) operated from 2007 to 2008. Little Caesars has been here since around August 2009. West Houston Archives has photos of this restaurant as Long John Silver's.

Texaco / 4974 Highway 6 North
This was photographed as a Valero in March 2009 (see here) with Corner Store, and was stated to be a former Diamond Shamrock, presumably with Stop N Go, and indeed, it does have the same Stop N Go architecture. After 2014, it lost the Corner Store name. According to Google, the legal name of the convenience store is "Shree Food Mart".

4330 Highway 6 North
Fiesta Mart #56 opened here in 2001 as the anchor of the shopping center at the northeast corner of Highway 6 North and Clay Road, but was basically underwater during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and the Fiesta (heavily damaged by flooding) was not reopened. From 1978 to 2001 this was Gerland's Food Fair.

Bear Creek Inn / 4202 Highway 6 North
John writes that "this motor lodge used to be Travelodge, which was built over 30 years ago. It is now the Bear Creek Inn [as seen] in this April 2009 photo". The next entry below is Waffle House. Where it becomes Highway 6 (not North or South) is between Addicks Dam and Buffalo Bayou.

Waffle House / 1015 Hwy. 6
Waffle House opened in 1996 as an outlot of the Sam's Club parking lot. The late-2000s construction of the Highway 6 overpass over Katy Freeway made access to it and Sam's Club difficult, and the conversion of the Sam's Club into a car dealership practically cut the Waffle House out except for a narrow driveway near the front.

It's understandable why Waffle House didn't have access to the freeway frontage directly when it was built (still a railroad) but no excuse when the freeway was built.

Sewell Mercedes-Benz of West Houston / 1025 Highway 6 South
The Sam's Club here relocated to 13331 Westheimer Road in September 2013 (this store closed in January 2018). In 2016, Sewell Mercedes-Benz opened at the site. The building was substantially modified (including a large new addition in front of it, and a removal of some loading docks).


KATY FREEWAY

This covers Katy Freeway beyond Beltway 8, continuing from the main Katy Freeway page.

Arrabella / 10902 Katy Freeway
In 1972, Levitz Furniture began construction on a furniture warehouse (1009 Brittmoore) that featured a railroad spur crossing Old Katy Road. At some point, a showroom was built into the store. In 1996, Levitz was still operating it as "Levitz HomeMakers" but the store likely closed in 1997, with RoomStore operating the furniture store by 1998. All during this time, the railroad paralleling Katy Freeway was removed, but the railroad spur was removed ahead of that. According to a 1995 aerial picture, the spur to the store had the proper railroad crossing markings on the road, as did Brittmoore's crossing and another crossing at Old Katy Road near the Igloo facility. Those were left intact (with the railroad crossing being paved over and signals removed, of course) with the remnants still remaining until the construction of the freeway proper, but Levitz/RoomStore's was already paved over.

In early 2012, RoomStore closed down shortly before the parent company closed the remaining stores later that year. By 2013, the building was torn apart for Arrabella Townhomes, an apartment complex advertising itself as "luxury townhome rentals" (the development uses the same signage from RoomStore). Arrabella also used 10902 Katy Freeway as the address rather than the Brittmoore address. Ironically, Arrabella's clubhouse and main office is directly off Brittmoore while the RoomStore faced Katy Freeway.

Brenner's Steakhouse / 10911 Katy Freeway
Brenner's goes way, way back, back to 1963 according to first newspaper mentions (HCAD says 1960). Originally "Brenner's Steak House", then "Brenner's Restaurant" by the early 1970s. In late 2002, the restaurant closed when the family retired but Landry's reopened the restaurant, consulting with the widowed Mrs. Brenner to recreate some of the recipes.

Exxon / 11035 Katy Freeway
Originally, the Exxon and McDonald's (both built in 1994) were one structure until it was closed and rebuilt in 2016, with Exxon (Timewise) only remaining.

McDonald's / 940 N. Wilcrest Drive
This McDonald's was built in 2016, replacing their store in the Exxon. The gas station and the restaurant rebuilt on the same lot, however.

Arlo Memorial / 935 North Wilcrest Drive
As late as June 2019 this apartment building was known as The Slate but sometime later that year got its current name. Construction on The Slate began in 2014 with the demolition of several buildings on the premises, including Philips 66 (11103 Katy Freeway) at the corner, a small strip center building behind it with Sunny's convenience store (which moved across the street) and a flower shop, a La Quinta Inn (La Quinta Inn Houston Wilcrest) at 11113 Katy Freeway, a former Steak & Ale restaurant at 11109 Katy Freeway (likely closed in 2008 and was demolished in 2010), and a restaurant on the premises, last operating as "Brunch Kafé". It even had a website.

IHOP / 11225 Katy Freeway
This was originally a Gallagher's Restaurant from 1979 to 1989, then briefly "Jack O'Neil's" before becoming International House of Pancakes (now known as IHOP) in 1992.

Twin Peaks / 11335 Katy Fwy.
Dirty's, a Houston-based restaurant with about two other locations, first opened here in 1994 and closed around 1999, replaced with Mesa Grill (Tex-Mex restaurant that had another location at 1971 W. Gray). In March 2001 it closed (the West Gray location remained open for a while longer) and was replaced with King Fish Market eleven months later.

A letter in the Houston Chronicle in early 2006 mentions that the bar was full of chain smokers, as even though smoking was still allowed (until September 2007), many restaurants banned the practice, leaving King Fish Market as a congregation spot. It didn't even last until the ban, and in 2007, the building became a location of DiMassi's Mediterranean Buffet. In 2009 it closed and remained boarded up for a few years before Twin Peaks opened in 2014.

Carrabba's Italian Grill / 11339 Katy Freeway
Carrabba's Italian Grill is a Houston original, though this location opened in 1993 as part of a partnership with Outback Steakhouse Inc. to expand the brand in Houston and in Florida (Outback's home state) before OSI purchased the chain entirely.

Ethan Allen / 11431 Katy Freeway
This store opened as Georgetown Manor in December 1994, a retailer featuring Ethan Allen furniture. By 1999 it was already rebranded as Ethan Allen.

Taco Cabana / 11441 Katy Freeway
Taco Cabana opened in 1995. Like many other Taco Cabanas, it has ditched the classic black-and-neon sign for a pink one and is not open 24 hours anymore (this one closes at 10 pm).

Mac Haik Chevrolet / 11711 Katy Freeway
Built as Tom Peacock Chevrolet in 1970, and eventually sold to Mac Haik in the early 1980s (rebranded to "Mac Haik's Peacock Chevrolet" in 1983 and eventually Mac Haik Chevrolet, though before 1988 as Wikipedia suggests), the peacock logo (suspiciously similar to NBC's long-running peacock logo) from the Tom Peacock days still is part of Mac Haik Chevrolet to this day. Nearby was Kirkwood Gulf, at the direct corner of Kirkwood and Katy Freeway. It opened in 1968 (11701 Katy Freeway). Kirkwood Gulf later became Kirkwood Chevron in 1987, and in 2006, it closed. Sometime around 2007, the gas station was demolished and turned into an expansion of Mac Haik with little trace left except the Chevron sign shape, now used as an additional sign for Mac Haik.

Pappy's Cafe / 12313 Katy Freeway
Pappy's Café was known as a somewhat grungy restaurant coming off as a roadside cafe (part of their charm) serving steaks and hamburgers. Fearless Critic Houston Restaurant Guide gave them a C (between a D- and A+), despite congratulating them for homemade hamburger buns and bacon-wrapped foodstuffs. That was back in 2008 in their old location (described above, 9041 Katy Freeway). The new location opened in 2018 in a former Texas Land & Cattle restaurant (operated from 1999 to 2017). The building opened as a Shoney's, which operated from early 1995 to around fall 1998.

Courtyard by Marriott / 12401 Katy Freeway
Built as a Hilton Inn (presumed to be a lower-cost version of the hotel chain) and internally Hilton Inn West, like the Hilton Inn on the modern-day Beltway 8, featured a restaurant ("The Veranda") in its early years of operation. In 2002 it was renovated and reopened as The Courtyard by Marriott (better known as just Courtyard by Marriott).

Hyatt Regency / 13210 Katy Freeway
Opened in November 1983 as Hyatt Regency West Houston (one of the larger hotels in the metro, and the one farthest out), the Hyatt Regency, like many of the businesses on the north side of the freeway was on Old Katy Road, though in the case of the area around Eldridge, Old Katy had to be redirected around the underpass Eldridge had for the railroad, and around the time the Hyatt was built, Old Katy Road simply turned off to Dairy Ashford, which turned west and connected to Eldridge. For the hotel, Old Katy Road merely provided access to the hotel's parking and a small subdivision behind the hotel (which later had a buyout offer due to the expansion of Park Row and also flooded during Harvey, likely the remaining houses aren't long for this world). Additionally, a stoplight at Dairy Ashford also originally provided signalized access into the parking lot. In 1992, it became Marriott-Westside and in December 2000 rebranded again as the Omni Houston Hotel.

Moreover, due to the Katy Freeway rebuild it meant Old Katy had to be upgraded to the new westbound frontage road (allowing highway-side access for the first time) but making the former Old Katy entrance from Eldridge right in/right out due to that section of road needing to be rebuilt at grade due to the railroad underpass being removed. In the mid-2000s (2007?) the tennis courts, a feature since day one, were removed for reasons unknown.

In very late 2015 or very early 2016, the north part of the parking lot was reconfigured for the extension of Park Row behind the hotel. Finally, in 2021, the Hyatt Regency name returned to the hotel, becoming Hyatt Regency Houston West.

More recently, 10919 Katy Freeway, a small office building, was torn down for additional parking.

At Home / 19420 Katy Freeway
While At Home has been rebuilt to half of its former size (rebuilt in 2017), this was originally home to the "Buyer's Market" outlet mall and then Garden Ridge (Pottery) for years afterward (including housing corporate headquarters), this is covered at The Houston Files. It only recently got a Katy Freeway address post-rebuild...up until 2015 it was actually impossible to access from Katy Freeway directly!


WEST SAM HOUSTON PARKWAY NORTH (SOUTH OF US-290)

The page where this road is described north of US-290 can be seen here. It becomes West Sam Houston Parkway South at Buffalo Bayou, not Katy Freeway. Addresses count down.

7-Eleven / 5606 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. N.
This self-branded 7-Eleven opened in 2023 and features a Laredo Taco Company inside.

Rainbow Swing Set Superstores / 5330 W. Sam Houston Pkwy N.
Rainbow Play Systems with their iconic wood and red/blue/yellow fabric awnings, has independent dealers scattered around the country, and this one was built in the early 2010s. We've mentioned Rainbow Play Systems before on this site, with the mention of HOMEFIELD College Station at the Highway 6 South page, and more to come.

Chevron/McDonald's / 4390 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. N.
This Chevron/McDonald's has been here since 1997. For now, anyway. The McDonald's (still with mansard roof), is moving to 4320 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. where it will rebuild a vacant James Coney Island/JCI Grill (2008-2021).

Chick-fil-A / 2267 West Sam Houston Parkway North
This Chick-fil-A restaurant opened around July 2018 and largely replaced the Flamingo Gardens plant center. Flamingo Gardens moved here in early 2000 from its old location at 9600 Katy Freeway (9600 Old Katy Road) and was between 2121 W. Sam Houston Parkway N. and Hammerly Boulevard (except for a small portion where Jack in the Box was). By early 2015, they scaled back their operation to the "back" part of the property and it appears that they closed after the 2016 season.

The former Flamingo Gardens was completely replatted. The front part of the property became a Chick-fil-A, but required shaving off part of the parking lot from 2121 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. N. (Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America, now known as Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas Incorporated). In exchange, Mitsubishi built a new section of parking lot in the back part of the property, while leaving part of the property undeveloped for drainage reasons. Flamingo Gardens still operates a location in Galveston.

Palace Inn Blue / 1307 West Sam Houston Pkwy. N.
This replaced a small shop (Man's Best Friend) at 10727 Clarborough Place, a dog grooming, training, and boarding center, which was evicted and demolished in January 2014. Within a few months, construction was underway for Palace Inn Blue (Palace Inn Blue CityCentre), the more "upscale" version of the notorious local motel chain (opening in 2015).


WEST SAM HOUSTON PARKWAY SOUTH

The road becomes West Sam Houston Parkway North north of the Buffalo Bayou. The addresses count up from starting at Buffalo Bayou, going south.

The Phillips 66 Company / 2331 CityWest Boulevard
Technically, it has a non-Beltway 8 address, but Phillips 66 moved here from the location listed from four separate offices in July 2016. The move happened four years after ConocoPhillips (which was formed with a merger between Conoco and Phillips 66 in 2002) spun off "The Phillips 66 Company" to handle their downstream assets (as ConocoPhillips continued to focus on the upstream side of the business).

The Fusion at Rye 3030 / 3030 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. S.
Like its twin off Northwest Freeway, this started out as Homestead Village in 1994, a chain of extended-stay efficiency apartment hotels and in 2001 it was sold to Accor, the parent company of Motel 6, which converted them to Studio 6. While Studio 6 as a chain is very much alive, both of the former Homestead Village locations were sold in the early 2020s to become studio apartments. As an apartment complex with studio apartments, The Fusion at Rye 3030 opened in 2022.

The Home Depot / 6800 W. Sam Houston Parkway South
This Home Depot opened around April 1996. The Chick-fil-A in the parking lot (6840 W. Sam Houston Parkway South) was built a number of years later--January 2016.

Viet Hoa International Foods / 8300 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. S.
This opened as a Venture in July 1995 and closed a little over two years later when it was sold and reopened as a Big Kmart (#3913) which itself closed in June 2002. When it was transformed into its current form in late 2003 and early 2004, a number of strip mall stores were built directly in front of the building. Viet Hoa is technically suite 100 but occupies the entirety of the former Venture/Kmart. Remarkably, most of the interior is still intact.

Food Town / 8800 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. South
Food Town only occupies a smaller space (suite 140) of what used to be the mega-store Auchan, which opened in October 1988 and operated until early 2003. A pre-existing page that I made (yes, I realize HHR wrote something slightly more extensive) can be seen here.


WESTHEIMER ROAD (WEST OF BELTWAY 8)

Westheimer continues beyond Beltway 8, and even farther all the way out to the Grand Parkway (paralleling Westpark Tollway, though it's not called Westheimer Road at that point).

Waffle House / 11240 Westheimer Road
This Waffle House opened in 1999 and is 24 hours.

11940 Westheimer Road
The main anchor of Kirkwood Shopping Center has been a variety of grocery stores over the years. In late 1979 it opened as a location of Continental Finer Foods. Between 1981 and 1982 it changed hands to Westheimer Minimax, later Kingmart Minimax, and in May 1984, became Jumbo, another local Houston supermarket. Jumbo was still there in 1988, and after a brief stay as Sak-N-Sav, opened as H-E-B Pantry Foods in June 1993 and closed in December 2001 with the opening of a full H-E-B at 11815 Westheimer Road. In late 2002 it became Oshman's SuperSports USA (later rebranded to Sports Authority) until around 2012, at which point it was announced it would be Sprouts Farmers Market. In spring of 2023, after less than a decade, Sprouts exited the space along with two others in the Houston area.

12400 Westheimer Road
This opened as "Homer's", a hardware store chain in Houston (see Katy Freeway page), in 1982, but the chain went under in 1984 and this store reopened as Ross Dress for Less later that year, but that location, too, closed a few years later. By 1994 it was Repeat! Consignment Superstore and was 24 Hour Fitness starting around January 1997 and closed in 2007. It served very briefly as Christ Embassy before becoming Christ United Ministries International in the early 2010s to 2020.

Denny's / 12405 Westheimer Road
This has been Denny's since 1997 except for a brief time in 2017 when it was Steve's Kitchen. Houston Historic Retail describes it here: "Houston's rogue Denny's—the tale of Steve's Kitchen".

ClearChannel Outdoor - Houston Offices / 12852 Westheimer Road
This was originally JoeAuto when it was built in 2001, a huge independent auto service and repair center (27 bays!) and built a few more Texas locations before going under in 2004. Sometime between 2007 and 2011, It became the Houston offices for Clear Channel Outdoor by 2011. At the time, it was a subsidiary of radio company Clear Channel Communications (later known as iHeartMedia), but Clear Channel Outdoor was spun off in 2018 as an independent company.

13155 Westheimer Road
The red "CINEMA" signage is still there, but Windchimes Cinema 8 operated from 1981 to 2018 in this mostly-empty strip center. It was a dollar theater for many years but it is not known when exactly they became such.

Jollibee / 13347 Westheimer Road
Jollibee opened in early 2021 in a former Pollo Tropical (opened in 2015 as Pollo Tropical and closed in September 2017 as was one of the last Pollo Tropical stores to shut in Houston).

Burlington / 13441 Westheimer Road
Burlington opened here in 2018 (moved from 14411 Westheimer Road), with Party City occupying the rest of the building. The building was originally Gander Mountain, which operated from November 2014 to its bankruptcy in August 2017. It faces Eldridge but is one of the few tenants at Market Square at Eldridge (see site plan, archived from this link) with a Westheimer Road address. On the far side of the parking lot is 13331 Westheimer Road, which does face Westheimer (albeit a good setback away), which was home of a short-lived Sam's Club. That store opened in September 2013 but closed in January 2018.

Alief Center for Talent Development / 14411 Westheimer Road
This building actually faces west toward Highway 6. In July 1993, Venture (#122) opened a new discount department store here. Kmart (under the "Big Kmart" brand) replaced it and all but three Houston stores bought the stores in 1997 and closed it in summer 1997, reopening it in November 1997 under its own name. In April 2003 it closed and reopened in September 2004 as Burlington Coat Factory. Burlington (as it was later known) moved out in 2018 (to 13441 Westheimer Road) and the building was sold to Alief ISD in 2019, with a renovated structure opening in 2021.

The defunct West Oaks Mall is across the street at the southwest corner of Highway 6 and Westheimer. It operated from 1984 to June 2023, with only the exterior tenants (Dillard's Clearance Center, The Outlet, Fortis College, and Crazy Boss) remaining open. The original department stores on opening were Foley's, Mervyn's, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Lord & Taylor, but by the time the fifth anchor (Dillard's) opened, Lord & Taylor had been replaced by JCPenney, and Saks with a Sears concept called "Sears: The Apparel Store" (a clothing-only Sears concept, later expanded and converted to a full Sears store).


OTHER POINTS OF INTEREST


Planet Fitness / 6960 Barker Cypress Road
This opened in fall 1998 as a concept H-E-B Pantry (featuring a drive-through deli, "The Roost") and rebranded to H-E-B in the early 2000s (adding a fuel station at one point) before closing in 2006 when a new store opened at 24224 Northwest Freeway.

14540 Memorial Drive
This opened as a Safeway September 1, 1970 and shuttered in 1986, with Drug Emporium opening March 29, 1989. In February 2000 it opened as the very last H-E-B Pantry Foods. It was 28,000 square feet but featured a full deli counter, along with seafood and a bakery, which H-E-B Pantry stores did not typically do. Within a few years it was rebranded as H-E-B, though in 2018 closed down to become a delivery distribution center.

Topgolf / 1030 Memorial Brook Blvd.
Sports company Topgolf opened one of their "high-tech driving ranges" in December 2012.

3350 Rogerdale Road
Back in 2017 I wrote up a topic on this warehouse. It's a bit inaccurate in some aspects (cross-reference with Houston Historic Retail's research on their short-lived grocery brand, Home Town Foods) but it's a good overview. It had rail access, building off of an existing spur.


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