This page partially replaces Other Waco Roads by focusing on some of the general retail and restaurants on and near the intersection of New Road and Franklin Avenue. We've already covered some of the restaurants and retail here with dedicated pages, including the former Luby's, a defunct Jack in the Box/gas station store, the former Tony Roma's, Krystal (demolished and replaced with Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers), and of course, the Super Kmart.

Starting from the northeast, we have the Lowe's (201 N. New Road). Unfortunately I don't have an old picture for it, nor do I know the identity of the building it replaced but it opened in summer 1995.

To the southeast is Walmart and three restaurants in front of it.

LongHorn Steakhouse opened in early 2014 on the site of (it was a total rebuild) a former TGI Friday's that operated from 1998 to 2009. After TGI Friday's closed it served as another restaurant, Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi, which operated from fall 2010 to fall 2013).

The picture depicts TGI Friday's after its circa 2005 remodel, the original 1998 restaurant looked substantially different. Both photos courtesy MCAD. Next to it is Chick-fil-A at 4310 Franklin (opened 1996, though modified for CFA's current double drive-through prototype) and to the west of that is McDonald's.

The McDonald's restaurant (4330 Franklin Avenue) opened in 1998 and renovated in 2017. This shows the original 1998 exterior, which shows the original restaurant and the outside playscape (demolished with the remodel). The Walmart of course behind it opened as a Wal-Mart Supercenter in March 1998, replacing a smaller regular Wal-Mart located on North Valley Mills not far away.

Closer to the New Road side is the Peter Piper Pizza (built on the site of Luby's) and TitleMax as previously mentioned.

It is the southwest side that we haven't covered yet. Above, you can see how 101 South New Road looked in its glory days—Wienerschnitzel was here from 1999 to 2008. Afterwards, it was Loan Star Title Loans until around 2018, then Remco Auto Insurance for a few years following that. It is currently vacant.

As far as the rest of the shopping center, Franklin Village goes, it has two main stores, Home Zone Furniture (4800 Franklin) and PetSmart (4600 Franklin), a few smaller shops, and an Outback Steakhouse in front. The Home Zone store has the red Service Merchandise arches out front (which sadly I don't have a picture of, much less a night shot). It's unknown to why Service Merchandise left Richland Mall in 1997, maybe it was a lease issue, maybe the old Wilson's was too large (just a bit). The Richland Mall space was 65,000 square feet while their new Franklin Village digs were 50,000 square feet. Two years later when Service Merchandise closed the store during bankruptcy, it became home to Goody's which painted the arches blue until the chain went under in 2008. Lack's Furniture was there c. 2010-2011 (Lack's closed too) and was replaced by Home Zone, another furniture store. PetSmart has been there since 1997.

In addition to the Outback Steakhouse in front of the center (4500 Franklin) opened in or soon after December 1996, there's also Our Breakfast Place at 4600 Franklin Avenue Ste. 100). This was a franchised spot of The Egg & I from 2012 to the late 2010s. (It appears the spot also used to be Pier 1 Imports, originally--closed in 2005).

I hope you enjoyed this look at Franklin Avenue and New Road, a collection of 1990s retail, some of which has already fallen by the wayside. (Again, check out the pages for Luby's, Jack in the Box, and Super Kmart).

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