Winn-Dixie on 29th Street

Winn-Dixie with prominent "Marketplace" signage, unknown date. Courtesy Michael Gomez (used with permission) Twenty years ago today (February 21, 2005), Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. declared bankruptcy. When I started writing this post back in January, it appeared to be heading toward an ignominious end under parent company Aldi. Earlier this month, though, C&S Wholesale Grocers purchased 170 stores (including Harveys, as well as some associated liquor stores) with the associated trademarks from Aldi Süd. Still, with 170 stores spread across five states and C&S's incredibly bad track record at "rescuing" chains (one reason why the courts X'd their purchase of Albertsons/Kroger cast-offs), the future still looks quite dim.

In better days, however, Winn-Dixie had locations spread across much of the Southeastern United States (with about 1,000 stores in 1999) and that included two locations in the area, and was part of several other major regional and national chains for what was a very small market in the early 1990s, with the chain, along with AppleTree, Randalls, Albertsons, Kroger, and H-E-B Pantry participating. (One article I have when the College Station location closed mentioned it was probably the most grocery store square footage to capita market in the country).

Despite the closure of the relatively short-lived College Station store and spending much of the 1990s sandwiched halfway between AppleTree and Randall's (later Albertsons), it still operated until the chain departed Texas for good in 2002.

Opened in May 1985, the 45,000 square feet store offered the typical supermarket features of the time including a "New York-style delicatessen and bakery". The paper also mentioned a "prestige meat" department, that was what Winn-Dixie called its meat department in those days and I imagine the inside of the Bryan store looked much the same way. This anchored the new Carter Creek Shopping Center.

Unfortunately, by the late 1990s, Winn-Dixie's problems were apparent through the company. Already by 1996, with their competition locally (Kroger, Albertsons, AppleTree, and H-E-B Pantry) having two or more stores compared to Winn-Dixie's one, no stores in any of the major Texas cities except for Dallas-Fort Worth (and at least in 5th place behind Kroger, Tom Thumb, Albertsons, and Minyard) and Waco-Temple-Killeen, Winn-Dixie seemed to finally catch a break in 1999 as they hammered out a deal with Kroger where they would offload the entire Texas Division to Kroger for an undisclosed price (rumored to be $350M), pending FTC approval.

This would allow Kroger entrance to Oklahoma (where it had no stores and still doesn't), Waco-Temple-Killeen, a few smaller markets, and give Kroger four local stores by the end of the 2000, with their new Rock Prairie "Signature" store, their existing College Station store, and their existing Bryan store. Unfortunately for both parties, the FTC did not approve (even though it was trivial compared to the later Albertsons/Kroger merger later attempted (which still failed) with the deal now dead, Kroger walked away. Instead, in 2002, Winn-Dixie simply shut down the division. Brookshire picked up a small number of stores, Kroger picked up even less, but the majority of the stores simply closed.

That of course left Carter Creek Shopping Center without an anchor tenant. The store's address, 4001 E. 29th Street, was shared with the whole shopping center, so it's hard to find much information on other tenants and gain a clear picture of what was going on. Personally, I don't remember much of the center and I don't think it was ever well-populated, but from 2001 to 2012 a location of Tuesday Morning was located here, before it relocated to Post Oak Square. There were a few others (Career Apparel, Amish Furniture for Generations). By early 2004, Workforce Solutions had moved into the former Winn-Dixie (new address--3991 E. 29th Street) and other government offices moved in soon after.

There were/are other tenants in the shopping center as well. There are two buildings near the light at Carter Creek Parkway, one of which holds Pride Cleaners (Pride 1 Hr. Cleaners until the late 2000s/early 2010s). There was a Dollar General at suite 102 from 1993 to 2007, a DoubleDave's Pizzaworks from 1986 to at least 2001 (one of the early locations), and a restaurant, Wokamole Healthy Cuisine has somehow hung on for ten years at suite 106 (opened late 2014). The restaurant originally opened as a hybrid Chinese/Mexican restaurant (it replaced another Mexican restaurant called El Gallito de Jalisco, and the spot had been mostly restaurants going back years) though within a year the Mexican menu was dropped entirely.

UPDATE 03-30-2025: This was actually one of the first Winn-Dixie Marketplaces in the chain. (The third, actually). See the Sing Oil Blog post. It went up a few days after mine but contained some inaccuracies (particularly about Kroger's aborted buyout) but it's been ironed out with some features shared.
UPDATE 07-29-2025: 2001 Dining Guide puts DoubleDave's still here in 2001.

Park Place Plaza

The most activity here in a long time. These and others are the author's photos from 2014.
2501 Texas Avenue South

Appearing shortly after Parkway Square and built in 1985 catty-corner to that shopping center, the center appeared to be the counterpart to the shopping center in many ways. While Parkway Square had its Kroger, Park Place Plaza had its Winn-Dixie Marketplace. While Parkway Square had McDonald's, Park Place had Kentucky Fried Chicken. Both had stores that faced Texas Avenue, and both had stores that faced Southwest Parkway.

Here's a map (from Holland Retail Advisors that shows the shopping center as it was in 2014.

Click for full size.


In previous versions of this post, I had mentioned that the Winn-Dixie Marketplace store that once anchored the center (where Ace Hardware—College Depot on the map—and Planet Fitness is) was "the company's attempt to build bigger, more modern stores", linking an old (but excellent) post from Pleasant Family Shopping. It turns out, however, that the College Station WDM was in fact one of the first. That neon cowboy featured in the annual report? That may have been College Station's store.

Working around the center from "Section A" as of 2025, the first tenant we can find is Suzanne's School of Dance (second location) which opened in 2023. Suzanne's takes up two spaces, in 2015 the north tenant (with a special paint job) was Christopher Michael Salon, closed a few years later, but in 2018 was operating as Laina Salon. Next was Aggieland Supplements (as of 2015), this was absorbed into Suzanne's School of Dance later. Academy of Modern Martial Arts was a karate school back in the late 1990s, closed and became CD Music Exchange for a few years (they also had DVDs) and reopened as Academy of Modern Martial Arts in 2003. Owner Jerry Nucker was arrested in 2006 for sexual assault of a minor and was later found guilty. I'm sure it changed hands, as a two-year prison sentence and a name on the sex offender list is no way to run a business with children and families. It appears to have quietly vanished during COVID or soon after. Perhaps it could be a video store again, predating the 1990s karate studio was Paramount Theatre, a video store which opened in December 1985 and did a large expansion in 1990 (mostly focused on selling music). The next tenant down is Little Caesars, which opened in 1986. This which held fond memories for me through all of its renovations and continued to be the "go-to" pizza spot for my family until the Rock Prairie Road location opened around 2013. Originally, Little Caesars had blonde, 80s looking, wood paneling on the walls, this was removed in a 2000s renovation and replaced with black and white tiles. Eventually, a further renovation changed that, including removing a doorway to the kitchen with a traditional entrance to make the restaurant feel more open. There was also a gumball machine, and for many years had a promotion where if you got a black (grape) gumball, you'd get a free small pizza. I know I won at least once. It was great fun, but probably a bit of a money-loser and it was eventually discontinued (another discontinued item--I last saw the Baby Pan!Pan! around 2005, and even then, the packaging was dated). There were other things that went away, like loyalty cards and the "Brain Teaser" as well. Prices went up and down for the Hot N Ready, sometimes $5, sometimes $6, before finally changing in early 2020s inflation.

Next to Little Caesars at the corner is (as of April 2025) Family Health Weight Loss. This was previously At Home Properties (here by 2012, moved out by 2021, no relation to the chain formerly known as Garden Ridge, though it did pre-date the opening of At Home on Earl Rudder Freeway).
Section "B" is the former Winn-Dixie. While I do have a few hazy memories of Winn-Dixie, it closed in fall 1995 along with a few other stores, leaving just the Bryan store to fend for itself until the chain left Texas in 2002. Victoria-based Lack's Furniture opened in February 1997, and operated until late 2010 along with the rest of the chain¹ (interestingly,). The sign hung around (literally) for a little while longer but in 2014 the space was finally filled with two new tenants. The left side, keeping the address, became College Depot (which moved from Parkway Square), but after the spring 2017 semester, College Depot went out of business. Legacy Ace Hardware & Gifts opened in August 2018, which replaced The Bear Mountain closer to Barnes & Noble. The store (operated by the same owners of Bear Mountain) included a Bear Mountain outdoors store inside the hardware store.² The other side became a Planet Fitness.

Moving onto block "C" (C100) was originally Schlotzsky's Deli before it moved down the street (there may have been a gap, as this closed in 1997) and became a Quizno's Subs in 1998 that survived up until 2012. It reopened briefly as "Big Johnson Deli" but that closed very soon after (previous versions of this post indicated "within a year or two" but I'm not sure of that, probably closer to six months). Following this Lupa's Coffee opened in 2014. In October 2020, Lupa's Coffee was closed and converted to a new location of Gogh Gogh Coffee Company but it closed this location in February 2024. In January 2025 Bunny Bites opened.³

The current tenant at C101 is Howdy Nails, which changed hands from Linh's Nails in the early 2020s, Linh's Nails itself replaced Premiere Dance Academy in the early 2010s. (I'm not sure of the tenant history before that). C102 has been A+ Foot Massage since at least 2015. C103 was Weight Watchers in 2015 to the late 2010s and was briefly Deja vu Day Salon (as of 2022) but as of 2025 is now Tower Loan. C104 has been Laila's Beauty Studio since at least 2015. C105 is Impact Retreat (no relation to Impact Church from this post from what I can tell), a religious non-profit (in the late 2010s it was home of Aggieland Pregancy Outreach). From Google Maps the tenants jump from C-105 to C-107 (Impact occupies both).

In 2015 the C-107 spot was Annex Hookah, then Lit Cafe, then Prime 2125 (all of these were hookah/smoke shops). C-108 is Studio 979 ("Since 2024") but uses the old signage of Studio Noir. Studio Noir moved in the late 2010s to replace Gun Corps. Gun Corps was a consignment store that specialized in firearms. It closed after year end 2016 but there was a catch: their inventory was still locked up, and those guns were all collateral for loans and the bank seized everything during the bankruptcy. Short version was most of the guns were returned to customers through the efforts of the landlord, the bank, the ATF, and Champion Firearms, but some customers were stiffed if it came to monetary issues.

iPhở (writing in Vietnamese HTML is a pain) opened in the early 2020s at C109, Vapegeek was at C110 from at least 2015 to the early 2020s, as of April 2025 this is now Lassie Pet Grooming.

C111 was Spice Bowl for years (2001-2010), then a similar restaurant called Kebab & Curry, then vacant with the others on the strip, then Casa Pachita for a few years, then Fusion Peru since 2017. Sour Apple Repair (phone repair) operated at C112 from 2012 to around 2021. It is currently vacant. Across from this is the "D" block, which counts down. D-104 is the home of Frice (opened 2025), a Chinese restaurant (which replaced 555 Grill, another Chinese restaurant, but had closed a year or two prior). Kumon Math & Reading Center is at D-103 (since around the late 2010s, this moved from Longmire and replaced 4.0 & Go, which moved to Northgate, if briefly. ndians hate cleaning products with a passion. It also shares the address of with CSDS Vinyl (flooring, not records), which was split off from 4.0 & Go's space in the early 2020s. D-102 is Ohana Korean Restaurant (since 2010). At D-101 is Knight Club, which opened in the early 2020s. This gained its custom facade when it opened as Prospector's Grill & Saloon (more nightclub than restaurant) opened in the spring of 2014 with a custom wooden facade. After about a year, however, it closed when the owners stopped paying rent and skipped town, and it stood vacant for another two years before it was reopened as Rockies Night Club, their third location (originally in the mall, later in the former Weingarten in Bryan). In August 2018, a 16-hour standoff damaged the nightclub when law enforcement was forced to drive a vehicle into the restaurant, and although the nightclub reopened, it ended up closing for good in May 2019. Hertz opened around 2014 in D-100.

Finally, Kentucky Fried Chicken (later branded as KFC) opened in December 1986, moving from 110 Dominik. A few more photos from 2014:

Lupa's Coffee can be seen, this filled the old Big Johnson Deli/Quizno's/Schlotzsky's. I read that this used to be a Schlotzsky's Deli back in the 1990s before they moved to near Wal-Mart.
Prospector's Grill & Saloon with its new custom facade.

1. An unrelated furniture chain closer to the border called Lacks Valley Stores d/b/a Lacks Furniture ended up buying the domain name, and later, some of the old locations.
2. In 2025 the store changed hands and is now Ace Hardware of College Station, which functionally eliminated the Bear Mountain store-within-a-store though kept some of the merchandise.
3. "Bunny Bites is the perfect spot for a fun and relaxing experience with friends and family! Enjoy a cozy atmosphere while indulging in a variety of drinks, including aromatic coffee, refreshing teas, creamy milk and snowy drinks, fruity smoothies, and shave ice. Don’t miss our mouthwatering mochi donuts. Plus, explore cute bunny-themed merch and enjoy playful games that make your visit extra special!" - per their website

UPDATE 07-28-2025: Massive overhaul done, previous updates archived.