Well, it happened again, the rate of posts was completely unsustainable for the last three months (certainly not worth the effort I put into them) and I crashed out. (See Editor's Note). Today we're doing 404 University Center, with the last of the pictures I used from the summer 2014 set. The rest of the photos are below.
The center was built in 1980 and this article mentions that there were additional warehouses behind the center that were intended for tenants but I'm not sure if that's still the case now.
The problem is, without a main anchor, the center is just a bunch of little smaller tenants that have moved in and out over the years. Some of the first tenants included Conway's (moved from Downtown Bryan)1, The Loading Zone restaurant, Italian restaurant Cenare (which operated up until March 2019), Harold's (at suite A), and Kelly's Toylane (moving from Townshire), DeAngelos (a gourmet food store with wines, meats, and cheeses, similar to Ira's).
It would be difficult to go over the full history of this center when places entered and exited, but Cashion-Cane (aka Cashion-Cane/The Christmas Store) moved here in the late 1980s from 504 Harvey Road. If it was originally a year-round Christmas store it wasn't by the late 1980s, and while it had a big seasonal influence it was mostly the "gift" department featuring silver, bridal china, stationary, and collectibles (see clipping). This occupied suite D before disappearing sometime around the mid-1990s. Suite A is currently (as of 2026 and since 2011) Thorn Music Center. In the late 1990s they opened Scott & White Pharmacy here, a S&W-owned pharmacy (not much in the way of other non-medical items) before moving it to 1100 Earl Rudder Freeway next to their clinic.2 By 2000 it was already the home of Wiggles & Wags, a dog grooming boutique which later moved to Bryan.
404 University Drive East (Partial Update Shown) There was a TCBY location from at least 1991 to 2005. There are other defunct tenants I dug up in trying to find stuff, there was a storefront for McCaw Cablevision in the mid-1980s3 and a locally-owned sandwich shop called Deb's Deli (owned by one Debbie Sherman), and numerous others.
Going around the shopping center as of 2022 (not much has changed since that time), apart from the aforementioned Thorn Music Center, we have Brazos Coin & Jewelry (B, still there), Fast Signs (C, still there), Century 21 (D, extra offices), a vacancy at E (last home to Nit Not (2018), lice clinic), Vixen (F, still there...we're moving onto the next building now), Attitude Dance Boutique (G), Myra's Custom Framing (GG), and Century 21 (H, main storefront).
The last building a bit strange, Anytime Fitness (I'm not sure if it moved from Tower Point, as one used to be next to the H-E-B there, if it moved from Southwest Crossing, or a new operation altogether) replaced Cenare/Mr. G's Pizzeria. Cenare was an Italian restaurant (one of the first-generation tenants, as mentioned above) and in 1997 went under the same ownership of Mr. G's Pizzeria in Bryan, and in 2007 the restaurant was expanded with a full Mr. G's addition. There was a full storefront (I believe I took suite Y), though the restaurants were connected together on the inside. At some point they disconnected, the Mr. G's signage was removed from the pizza side and the doors were moved to the main entrance before closing in 2019. Chef Cao's at Suite Z opened around 2004.
1. Their old address was 103 N. Main Street, for future reference.
2. This closed around the late 2010s.
3. McCaw sold its cable business a few years later (ultimately, it fell to Suddenlink/Optimum) in order to focus on the burgeoning cellular phone industry. McCaw's ultimate fate was being sold to AT&T ("Ma Bell") in 1994, which they already had a part ownership in, and ultimately forming the foundation for the modern AT&T Mobility we know today.
UPDATE 07-23-2026: Mild rework by adding a paragraph of the existing tenants (which added a few tenants I didn't previously talk about, plus elaborating on Cenare a bit). One unnecessary footnote has been removed, as well as the Editor's Note, which apologizes for burnout and outlines future plans.
