Before Wal-Mart...before Kmart...there was FedMart. Founded in 1954 in San Diego by Sol Price and later had concepts "borrowed" by the late Sam Walton, including the "Mart" suffix1, FedMart arrived in College Station in November 1973, just a few months before Kmart did.
By the time FedMart opened in College Station, the name was a bit of a misnomer (originally a membership-only store for government employees), but it was a large, modern store open to all. The store featured "one-stop shopping" including not only apparel, sporting goods, appliances (even heavy appliances), and other dry goods, but groceries as well. (It also appears to have lacked a bakery and deli). The November 7th, 1973 edition of The Eagle ran a huge 12-page multi-page guide/ad for the store for the store's big opening on November 8th, mostly talking about FedMart's features (but did not include a map). An auto center/gas station was to open in early 1974. FedMart had a bit of unusual merchandise mix, having both discount store items and food, but not a large selection of either. The grocery component was heavily advertised but only offered a few brands or sizes of a given item that a full supermarket would carry more of, even by 1973 supermarket standards, and lacked a lot of the features that a full supermarket would have (no bakery or deli). The College Station store was part of a small handful of stores opened by the company in the Houston area, as in this era, FedMart had picked up numerous sites from Globe, a discount store operated by Walgreens.
The development also straightened out Tarrow with a new road that connected to University called Fed Mart Drive and cutting off the "old Tarrow" portion that curved around toward the back.
I don't have a picture of FedMart when it was operating, but given an old early '80s map depicts the now-closed store as looking almost exactly like one of the San Antonio stores, it's assumed that the College Station looked like it too.
FedMart's time in College Station would only be for less than a decade, perhaps owing to upper management's merchandising decisions (based out of Germany starting in the late 1970s) to expand to a full "hypermarket", which didn't really work in most of the locations (and the concept was largely untested in the United States). Maybe it was just the fact that at the time, the warehouse foods + discount store concept was not as effective as just having a more full-featured discount store like Wal-Mart and Kmart did. In any case, the College Station store, along with all the other stores in the Texas area (San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, Victoria, etc.) closed in November 1981. The chain's Arizona and California stores went out of business less than a year later.
While the building would never be used by a single retail tenant, it was purchased by local investors and converted into Chimney Hill Shopping Center. The first tenants of these would be Kettle and Hillside Lanes, a bowling alley. Kettle #145 would ultimately close just a few years later but with its opening, for a brief time the area had FIVE Kettle restaurants, all open 24 hours—next to Rodeway Inn, a former Denny's restaurant, the College Station location, and the one near campus.
Unlike the other four restaurants, which stood alone, both Hillside Lanes and Kettle would open into each other. (While Kettle was a bit of a nostalgic experience in the 2010s, a smoky diner connected to a bowling alley sounds like a VERY different experience). Western Beverages moved into the old FedMart Service Center building at the corner of Fed Mart Drive (renamed Tarrow Street East within a few years) and University Drive East. The transformation into Chimney Hill Shopping Center (aka Chimney Hill Retail Plaza) started in late 1983 a 70-foot tall landmark sign was erected to serve as the signage for a brand-new shopping center. That same month it was announced that the Western Beverages would be evicted and remodeled for the new Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce building (later known as 715 University Drive East).
The name of the center was named after a nearby development of mixed-use development built off Tarrow with townhomes and small office suites (the alley off Arguello Drive serves both). By December 1983 David Gardner's Jewelers was operating in the building (it was here at least into the early 1990s). Soon after, Chimney Hill Bowling Center opened. There was also a new addition to the FedMart building that housed the relocated Western Beverages.
Hillside Lanes closed in December 1983 but quickly reopened as Chimney Hill Bowling Center (within a few days).2 In 1990 the bowling alley closed3 and most of the building continued to be a rotating selection of smaller tenants, with the exception of Western Beverages, the second restaurant space, and a second outlot built in the parking lot. This second outlot (besides the Chamber of Commerce) was built as Fletcher's Original State Fair Corny Dogs, which had several small locations in Texas but by the late 1980s they had closed.4 This was briefly (for a few months) Burger Express, then Dogs & Such until 2000.5 From 2002 to September 2010, a location of Shake's Frozen Custard operated in the spot, but after its closure the building was demolished.
The restaurant space (with the address of 707 University Drive East)6 started out as Bill Edge's "Confederate House" restaurant in early 1984 (back when a name like was socially acceptable as Southern hospitality and heritage, and not demonized like it is today), based after a Houston restaurant. Part of the problem was that the area was in recession when it opened, and a "top of the line" steakhouse as it was put was a tough sell in the economy. A name update to "Confederate House '85" and new management (likely other changes as well) didn't help turn things around, nor did another retool (changing it to "Tradition Restaurant & Bar") saved the restaurant. It closed around late 1986 or early 1987. By August 1987, there was another restaurant, Cafe d'Amerique, operating in the space.
Rembrandt's opened in 1992 after a period of vacancy (doesn't seem like there was anything after Cafe d'Amerique) and closed in 1994...and then The Tavern on Chimney Hill opened in 1997 in suite 406 and operated until 2000. Finally, in 2007, The Republic Steakhouse opened in the spot. Shortly afterward, however, in 2008, the City of College Station purchased the strip center as part of a failed bid to build a large hotel/conference center in the spot.7 The early 2010s saw the center start clearing out (Western Beverages went away around as late as early 2014, I seem to recall) and in 2016 demolition began not long after the City gave up on the space and sold it to developers. The idea was The Republic could stay as the lot was redeveloped and be a part of the new development, but plans shifted again and it would move to a new building on the site. (There was also talk of a Black Walnut Cafe being a major tenant). By this point in time, the Chamber of Commerce building had moved out to a new location on Highway 6 (the move happened around 2013-2014) with 2016 seeing the demolition of the structure minus The Republic building, which itself had been new construction. The original FedMart building was gone.
By 2019 new businesses had taken its place. The Republic moved into a new spot at the southwest side of the property (with a bar-within-a-restaurant, Primrose Path). A new Starbucks opened in March 2020 (moving from down the street) with a strip center beginning business soon after, soon filled out with the likes of Five Guys, FedEx Office (opened in early 2022 and moving from its longtime Northgate home), Charles Schwab, and Snooze: An AM Eatery. Drury Plaza Hotel (705 University Dr. East) opened for business around early 2025. In November 2025, Sakura, a Japanese restaurant opened a new building (713 University Drive East) right about where The Republic used to be, sharing its strip mall building with hair salon Drybar.
1. The rest of the concept was lifted liberally from New England chain Ann & Hope, which Wal-Mart forced out of business in 2001. 2. I'm not sure how the Kettle space was reused.
3. I feel like I read somewhere that the lanes were moved to the MSC but I may be remembering how Wolf Pen's skating rink was moved from Bryan.
4. There was another location on Gessner Road in Houston. While no longer a Fletcher's, the building is still the same, and looked identical to the College Station location.
5. A second location opened on Texas Avenue at the short-lived Red Line location.
6. Officially this was 701 University Drive East Suite 406.
7. There were of course, other tenants over the years but I've already covered the major ones. Some of the lesser tenants that were mentioned in the older version of this post included the 1993 tenants like A&M Travel Service, Beneficial Texas Inc. (insurance), Chimney Hill Florist & Gifts, and Qualice Network Services.
UPDATE 01-28-2026: A long-awaited redo of the post has been created, from a new picture to current events to more chronological ordering and so on.
