Long John Silver's in College Station

Long John Silver's has been gone for years and replaced with this unexciting strip mall building. (Photo by author, 4/20)
Before the current strip center here was built around late 2005, the site at 1808 Texas Avenue South was originally Long John Silver's No. 5347 in 1980¹, and closed in early 2005.²
The strip center originally had a Verizon store (still here, though changed logos after the parent company did), Systek Computing, and a restaurant space. Systek moved to a strip center behind the newer plaza when it was built by 2011 (later on it moved and eventually merged out of existence), with its space here being replaced by "Cash Store" (payday loans--and apparently that IS its legal name). The restaurant space started as Doc Green's, a soup/salad/sandwich chain out of the Atlanta area. It made its first stand in Texas here in late 2007 (and in Austin a few months later) with a logo that is no longer used by the company. Unfortunately, neither one did particularly well. The Austin one closed up in less than a year due to back taxes being owed, and the College Station one was shuttered by the end of 2008.³

Doc Green's closed at the end of 2008 with Naked Fish replacing it in early 2009. Naked Fish continued to operate for about fifteen years before closing in April 2024, with Tikka House Indian Eatery opening in December 2024 to replace it. Cash Store was also not an original tenant, it was originally Systek Computing. Systek moved to a strip center behind the newer plaza when it was built by 2011 and ultimately moved on and disappeared.

1. Like Bryan's store, this originally gone by the chain's old name "Long John Silver's Seafood Shoppe", though like Bryan never updated to new logos beyond their 1994 logo. It looked just like it (before it was torn down and rebuilt, anyway).
2. Previous versions of this page refer to it being a drug front; the article was actually referring to the Conroe location. LJS closed around that same time here (while that Conroe location remained open for another five or six years).
3. In July 2012, Jenny Jenkins wrote in to say this: "Doc Green's opened February/March 2007. I worked there for a very short time (March to May/June). It was run by some disgruntled former Freebirds managers that thought they could run a restaurant better than Freebirds (where I also worked for a couple years). They couldn't have been more wrong. They were so horribly disorganized that I can't believe they lasted. For example, they were open for months and still hadn't installed paper towel dispensers. They couldn't keep up with ordering and wouldn't order the same things so the menu changed constantly just because they'd run out of stuff. It just was really poorly done. I'm not sure when exactly they closed, but I know it was longer than expected. They were pretentious for a restaurant that casual but the food was pretty good."

UPDATE 05-11-2025: Made some changes including some more details about LJS and integrated previous updates, with some rewriting done. Renamed post to "Long John Silver's in College Station" to complement the post Long John Silver's in Bryan.

Ramada Inn / University Tower / Plaza Hotel

University Tower, taken from a car parked catty-corner at what was Diamond Shamrock (Project HOLD)

This post originally was a stand-alone post written in the wake of the demolition of the "Plaza Hotel" but a 2026 rewrite integrated it as a sub-article to Northpoint Crossing. This post has also gone through many, many revisions. It got an extensive update in June 2019 after fifteen previous updates, and another one on October 9, 2025 ("Doing a bit more research, the hotel was Ramada Inn until 1988 when it became "University Inn" then reopened in 1989 as University Tower with hotel and private dorm facilities. Some new labels added.").

College Station's original Ramada Inn was built on the personal request of James Earl Rudder, recruiting restaurateur Joe Ferreri (who had success running two other restaurants in town, Triangle Drive-In and Sugar 'N Spice. The site was chosen in 1962, at the northwest corner of Highway 6 and Sulphur Springs Road (Texas Avenue and University Drive, as they would later be known), wrapping around an existing Gulf station (see the main article) and announcing it would include "between 100 and 120 rooms, a convention hall accommodating approximately 600 people, the Ramada Inn Pancake House, two other dining rooms, a series of meeting rooms, a swimming pool and a playground area for children." (It would end up being built with 169 rooms, and the ballroom to host 800 people).

I grabbed this from the YouTube video on the previous page, it's a scan of a postcard. Looks great!

A classified in July 1962 mentions that there some buildings to be moved off the Ramada Inn site, including two garage apartments and two houses "one small and one 14 room house"). If you look at the existing aerial of the site before the Ramada Inn was built, you can see more than just four structures (not including the gas station) and with the exception of the structure at University Drive and Meadowland, I can't see anything that resembles a 14-room house (it also looks like there's another commercial business next to the Gulf).

The hotel was the first chain hotel in town (Ramada was well on its way to completion by the time Holiday Inn was even announced. The hotel opened in late 1963 with Jim's Ramada Inn Barber Shop and Ramada Beauty Salon opening soon after in January 1964. I did find a dinner menu for the hotel restaurant in spring 1964 but I'm not sure if the "pancake house" operated at the same time, or this was just what they did on dinner hours. A May 1964 ad also has something for the "Ramada Florist", yet another business that operated out of the hotel. During the 1960s and 1970s the Ramada thrived. For a time it was the only place in town (due to dry laws) where one could order mixed drinks, and retail tenants in the 1970s included a travel agency and a hair salon (The Hair of Affairs).

In December 1980¹, at the height of the hotel's success, Joe Ferreri announced that the hotel would be renovated, with a large 15-room tower with 140 additional rooms and on the first ten floors and the top five floors featuring larger condominiums ("15 large office-apartment condominiums at 1,605 square foot each and five smaller efficiency office-condos"). From reading about it some of the features promised were changed. While the pool area was enclosed and glassed in, it was to feature a retractable roof to be opened weather permitting (if this ever happened, it rarely opened). A rendering showed the north building behind the tower (this was demolished, the tower replaced it). The tower was 17 floors, not 15. There weren't balconies as promised, nor an elevator on the outside as originally planned. There was talk of additional fireproofing and fire safety, citing the recent Las Vegas hotel fire disaster that killed 85 people, as well as the fact that Ferreri had secured a 20-year renewal with Ramada Inns, Inc., which was closing down or selling older motels. This renewal was unusual as Ramada only granted 10-year contracts and did not typically offer exclusivity contracts, as they did with Brazos County. Coincidentally, there has ever been one Ramada (Inn) in Brazos County since. While this deal should've operated through 2000, it didn't operate for that long.² The red brick of the original exterior was redone in grey stucco, however.

Around this time, a Hilton proposed by Sunbelt Hotels Inc. was planned for the southwest corner of the intersection, which would be leased by the campus³ but killed by the Attorney General at the time. It was a relief to Ferreri when this happened in May 1982 as the hotel was still under construction, but in October 1983 groundbreaking began on the current site.⁴

According to a June 1982 progress report, the tower topped off in June 1982 with the swimming pool enclosure (the "Sun & Fun Dome", no doubt capitalizing off the "Holidome" projects some older Holiday Inn hotels were undergoing) still building its new structure. But by the time it actually opened (probably late 1982 or early 1983) the area was in recession, and most of the condominium buyers were also going bankrupt. While it boasted 300 rooms (another article from 1988 says 363, but this seems to be wrong), the downturn in the economy had reduced hotel occupancy, meaning that the hotel was no longer filling the rooms it once did. In January 1985, Joe A. Ferreri Inc. filed for bankruptcy⁵, and in April 1987, the hotel was seized by Unitedbank-Houston, which failed itself just a few weeks later, putting the hotel in the hands of the FDIC, with plans to auction it off.⁶
In 1988, the hotel became University Inn (all the evidence suggests that Aggieland Inn at 1502 Texas Avenue bought the Ramada Inn rights) and sold to a company acting as a subsidiary of LA-based financier Leonard Ross's Rossco Holdings, after buying the Bryan Holiday Inn and renaming to Bryan Inn after not renewing the contract with Holiday Corporation.

Announcing that the hotel would become "University Hotel and Convention Center", the hotel was renovated and in 1989 was named University Tower after renovations, featuring a restaurant, a section holding luxury student dorms, and a computer center for guests. I wonder if they actually had Compact Macs or if that's just the picture they decided to go with to represent computers.
With new UNIVERSITY TOWER signage shining in red to afar, the hotel quickly fell apart. It went from advertising as an upscale hotel (see page 4) to becoming student dorms entirely by early 1994. As Ferreri ended up going back to restaurants and opened an Italian restaurant in the former Ira's in the Kmart parking lot, Ross continued to run University Tower into the ground; the horror stories of students living in the tower are talked about to this day throughout message boards and real life. Tales of no hot water or broken down elevators live on and you'll be hard pressed to find someone who lived in and enjoyed the Tower after maybe the first or second year it opened.

In 2003, some of the dorms were converted to hotel rooms, with the gala held in one of the penthouse suites and Buzz Aldrin as the guest of honor. In 2005 the building was rebranded as the Plaza Hotel & Suites, both to mark the occasion of the dorm rooms turning back into hotel rooms, and to try to market it to the city as a convention center site. I have to assume that Leonard Ross was hoping to cash out with the Plaza Hotel, as around this time he had acquired the defunct Kettle (see the main Northpoint Crossing post) and was hoping to get rid of these in the redevelopment. In 2007, a child drowned in the pool (bad publicity), in 2008 the restaurant scored 47 on health reports due to no hot water (among other things, this was a private cafeteria back in the University Hotel days) and in 2010 the troubled hotel shut down entirely.

Vandals and trespassers began to attack the building, smashing out some of the windows (which were patched by plywood). Leonard Ross and his companies became insolvent in 2011 and in late 2011 the hotel was sold off.⁷

Although new owners initially planned to renovate it as student housing again with "the design [being] complementary to the Texas A&M campus", the decision was made to go ahead and demolish it. After donating any furniture that could be salvaged, recycling any material they could be recycled, and letting the police and fire departments use it for training, it was gutted, making the building resemble a parking garage (albeit a tall, narrow one) more than anything.

A massive crowd gathered to watch the demolition, conducted by the mayors of Bryan and College Station, John Sharp, and an elderly Joe Ferreri, and the main tower structure came down on May 24, 2012 at 6:40 AM. Soon after posting the original version of this post went to press, reader John E. of Southern Retail sent in some shots of what was left. Thanks!




There's also a great video on YouTube on the history of the building and the backstory of Joe Ferreri. There's great period music too, though I couldn't identify all of it.

1. The Eagle, 12/14/1980
2. If we assume that the 20-year contract was sold to Aggieland Inn and renewed for ten years as was suggested in the 1980 article, even if the Ramada brand had changed hands a few times by this point, the new Ramada opened in 2010 and the hotel had reverted to the Aggieland Inn name then. Either way it's a heck of a coincidence that these things still held...
3. Knowing what we now, I guess that trying to sell out TAMU is just in their DNA.
4. As of this writing, the Hilton article still needs a rewrite. It hasn't been updated on the site in over a decade, and much has changed since then.
5. I'm not sure if that bankruptcy was connected to the smaller Rodeway Inn Ferreri also owned, but it was lost to foreclosure either way.
6. By this time, Joe Ferreri was manager of the Aggieland Inn (see note #2). I'm sure that he had something to do with Aggieland Inn becoming a Ramada, though he didn't hold ownership.
7. Not long after Rossco went bankrupt, Ross listed his iconic $165 million mansion in Beverly Hills up for rent, then for sale before being foreclosed on and sold for $70M at auction in 2021 , a record price for an auctioned property, but far less than the $195M asking price in 2016.

UPDATE 08-16-2026: Complete rewrite as part of the new Northpoint Crossing article with the labels removed as it is now a sub-page.

Sunset Gardens

Welcome to Sunset Gardens!

3020 South Texas Avenue

Quick, what's between Sonic and Wings N More on Texas Avenue? A bunch of things, actually, including the old location of Petal Patch, a Domino's Pizza, lawyers offices, a fitness place, a pool store, and a burned-out greenhouse/garden store that has been more or less untouched since the late 1980s.

Yes, this is Sunset Gardens. Considered an unclaimed property since 1992, Sunset Gardens was destroyed in a fire in March 1988 by reasons unknown, and supposedly, according to MyBCS, due to the fertilizer contamination, would require lots of cleanup dollars invested if that area was to be ever utilized again.

I have no idea what Sunset Gardens looked like before its devastating fire: seems that there's no readily accessible satellite imagery from those days. However, I do have this ad, which given the original October 1985 publication date, indicates it first opened in 1983. Notice the logo: you can still see in the modern pictures, three decades after it opened. I took a trip out there in spring 2012 to take pictures.

Something MAY be happening out there, I took a trip in late 2017 to see that the site had been cleared, and the sign knocked down. I tried to pull out the iron(?) "sunset" logo but it was bolted in from the other side. Additionally, the fire date is sourced from the fire department yearbook.



Same area, different view


The sign, relatively untouched, even with some of a labelscar attached, in a similar font to the "Parkway Square" font near the Kroger. Unfortunately, it's been marred by the anti-bevel crowd, which is a stupid issue I care little about.


Looking out.


A bit of foundation visible.


This structure was saved, except for the burned puncture.

UPDATE: Added opening date, and the ad based upon which this was derived.
UPDATE 6/17/18: Added fire date and site update. A duplicate picture was also removed.

Southwest Crossing

The sun angle was bad, plus it was taken on my old cell phone camera (circa 2011-2012)
Southwest Crossing was built in the mid-2000s, I believe it was late 2005 or early 2006 when it was completed. As far as a 20-year-old center goes, tenant turnover is surprisingly low, so here's what we got so far, starting from the side closest toward the university (from the left, should you be looking at it head on) and ordered in terms of addresses. You can see a PDF here (archived from here) of the center. Note that they call it "Southwest Crossing at Bee Creek", though the creek behind it is not Bee Creek, though it does drain into it.

The first thing to see is the stand-alone Layne's Chicken Fingers (which I don't have a photo of), the second Layne's ever and their first expansion. Still branded as "Layne's of College Station" as it was known when it opened in November 2006, and was far more modern than their Eastgate store. This has the address of 1301 Wellborn Road. When it opened and for many years before the franchisee bought the parent company, it offered nothing but chicken fingers, Texas toast, fries, and small containers of potato salad and sauce. The cups didn't even have Layne's branding. With the purchase of the stores by the franchised version, they now offer milkshakes and additional sauce varieties.

Behind that was originally C.C. Creations at 1311 Wellborn, and the first big tenant to open, moving from their warehouse center on Holleman. Interestingly, in 2013, they moved out, consolidating with the Trophies location (Harvey Mitchell Pkwy. and Southwood) into the former Red Oak Sportswear building (very close to where they were before). Later on, this became a fly-by-night tutoring operation (one-on-one, not a group "here's how to pass the tests" type) called Aggieland Tutoring. Around 2017, part of the space became Texas State Optical (now MyEyeDr), and another part briefly became Vivint Smart Home. In 2025 that was filled with the new location of MaretHouse Fitness (see next section) but never even got around to installing new signage before it was locked out in July 2025 for lease non-payment.

The next building, 1411 Wellborn, has four spaces. The first one (Ste. 100) was originally (2006-2007) The Beverage Oasis, a liquor store, then Haix Stores, a shoe store that operated from summer 2009 to 2013 (the signage remained up for a while after that). Tacobar replaced it in fall 2016 and closed in late 2021 in preparation of moving to 404 Jane Street. Nick the Greek opened in suite 100 in February 2023 to replace Tacobar. It is the first Nick the Greek location in Texas (and the gyros are excellent).



Suite 200 was originally New York Subs (1411 Wellborn Ste. 200) which opened in 2007 (reported as "New York NY Fresh Deli" but the signage was New York Subs). I can't confirm or deny it was the same restaurant at 301 College Main. In early 2009 it was rebranded as Sub Culture (legally overnight, likely because the master franchising company out of Arizona went under) and finally closed in 2011. In early 2012 it became "Harold's Hot Dogs & Ice Cream", a local outfit serving hot dogs and ice cream. Harold's itself was also a rename from the displaced Maggie Moo's from Rock Prairie Crossing. Harold's also expanded the menu to hot dogs but it closed in June 2014. (While some bemoaned the loss of its oatmeal cookie ice cream, promises to add a fryer to add french fries went unfulfilled...how could you serve hot dogs but not fries?). In spring 2015, it reopened as another Kolache Rolf's location but closed permanently in 2018. After their first opening got delayed, Mochinut opened for the first time on March 27, 2024. I was their first customer.

The next tenant (Ste. 300) opened in January 2006 as University Book Store, one of the first tenants to land in the center. It only lasted a few months before the chain went under and ended up being a leasing office for the Woodlands of College Station apartment complex for several years. It ended up being Anytime Fitness, then Aerofit Express (closing before the chain was sold), and finally Marethouse Fitness, a locally-owned fitness center that had signage up in 2020 but later opened by late 2020/early 2021. This moved in early 2025 before closing. Suite 500 (no 400) The Beach Tanning Salon (Ste. 400) was one of the original tenants opened in 2006, but it closed by the end of 2014. Later it became the similar Tiki Tan, but it closed in the summer of 2019. It was later Palm Beach Tan (as of 2022), but in August 2024 Half-Baked Goodness, a cookie shop, opened in the space.

The last building has two tenants with the address of 105 Southwest Parkway, holding a C&J Barbecue (third location) and Hungry Howie's Pizza, the latter being the first College Station-Bryan location in town. Both opened in 2006. The Hungry Howie's is still the only HH's Pizza in the county, as a second location in town closed after a few years). Here's two more pictures from 2012 of the center building.




Additionally, connected to the parking lot is Copper Creek Condos behind the shopping center at 301 Southwest Parkway (built in 2016, years after the center was built) and Citgo, predating the center by about twenty years.

UPDATE 07-22-2025: Another full update was done, integrating Mochinut and Half-Baked Goodness, the demise of MaretHouse Fitness, and removing Citgo. Some post labels were changed or updated.
UPDATE 06-26-2026: As the Southwest Parkway page is back online, [residential] and Copper Creek Condos are removed.
UPDATE 08-29-2026: According to their Instagram, Mochinut closed August 10, 2026. When Layne's moves (and if the Citgo is incorporated into Southwest Crossing) this article will get a full re-do again. Some missing line breaks were added.