Former Walk-On's (Waco, Texas)

From Loopnet, see link below.
As of this writing (6/25, though will change in about...five days from now), I've got this listed on the Loop 340 page, but today's subject is on 5601 Crosslake Parkway, developed as part of "Legends Crossing", a development of mostly restaurants surrounding what is now the Baylor Scott & White Hospital.

This opened as Walk-On's Bistreaux & Bar (as it was formally known back then) in July 2018 and operated for a few months shy of seven years, closing in May 2025.

As it's a vacant building and on the market, I got a picture from Loopnet in case they decide to take them down in the future. (They also have some pictures of the empty restaurant).

Former CEFCO #47 (Bruceville-Eddy, Texas)

Google Maps Street View c. 2016, cropped
Another gas station today, but this time it's one removed from Carbon-izer (the "Carbon-izer"/"original" posting system is no longer in effect). This entry originally appeared on the "Interstate 35 in Waco" page, though since adding it there were some updates. From what I can tell this opened as CEFCO #47 in 1996 featuring a Texaco gas station (evidence to suggest this was that many Shells in this area were Texaco stations prior to 2003, and an older gas canopy that remained was similar to Texaco's) and had a Subway inside, with the station converting to Shell in 2003 (it was a Shell in 2007). However, the station closed September 2012 (source: a since-dead Foursquare link) and although the convenience store and one of the gas canopies survived, they were demolished between 2019 and 2021. There wasn't any parking in front of the actual building anymore, and the conversion of the frontage roads to one way westbound made access very difficult for local traffic or eastbound travelers.
Obviously this location did not and will not convert to a Casey's. I'll be in the Midwest this summer, though, so hopefully there's some born-and-raised Casey's I can visit and report back on.

7-Eleven at 8124 Forest Lane (Dallas, Texas)

From Google Maps (Alan Calderóon), with minor color touch-ups and cropping done.
One of my plans for Carbon-izer circa 2023 was a Dallas page to complement the pages on Bryan-College Station, Houston, Austin, and Waco-Temple-Killeen, and one of the things I was to write about was this particular 7-Eleven, which I had previously made notes about. This gas station started out as a RaceTrac in 1994 (though may not have officially opened until early 1995). However, by the 2010s, nuisance and crime issues led RaceTrac to shut down the store (this happened between April 2015 and August 2015) with the store boarded up a fence erected around the property. So according to this RetailWatchers comment after the nuisance issues shut down the store, neighborhood pressure eventually had RaceTrac do a full renovation and reopening of the location in 2017. Around late 2020/early 2021 the property was sold to 7-Eleven. 7-Eleven never did add permanent signs as the photo above was taken in March 2023. Bad sign—between February and July of 2024 7-Eleven vacated the property, leaving it empty once more, with the gas canopy demolished by February 2026.

Albertsons at Kings Crossing (Houston, Texas)

The former Albertson/H-E-B, sitting empty. (Picture by Mike A., 2024).
The following article is a split from the original The Grocery Heart of Kings Crossing article at Houston Historic Retail (I traded with another article I wrote on H-E-B Pantry in the Heights). As of this writing the original post is still there. The photos however, aren't mine—they're from Mike of HHR.

The first grocery store to be built at the intersection of Kingwood Drive and West Lake Houston Parkway was Holiday Foods, which anchored the Kings Crossing shopping center. It opened in April 1985 as a 45,000-square-foot store. Holiday Foods was a new chain, having been split off from the Minimax co-op and Fleming less than a year prior (see HHR's page on Minimax). There aren't any pictures of what the Kingwood Holiday Foods looked like; however, based on aerial photos of the shape of the store, it almost certainly looked like their Santa Fe store spread over a larger footprint.

Holiday Foods would operate for the next decade (even as a massive Randalls opened in 1992 across the intersection) and outlived all the other locations of the small chain. In February 1995, Frank and Sam Glass, the owners of the store, announced that they would switch to being IGA-affiliated. (I assume the ad announcing as such was supposed to be Wednesday, March 1. By the end of April, however, the store was liquidating the last of its fixtures. What likely happened was that despite Holiday Foods cutting ties with Minimax, they didn't cut ties with Fleming, who owned the store itself, and thus when Holiday Foods tried to go with IGA, Fleming reacted. Over the next two years, the building would sit vacant, and Albertsons, who was looking to expand in the area, purchased it.

Albertsons assigned its stores numbers, by this point its pre-existing Houston-area stores had gotten the 27xx numbering, and while its numbering suggests it should've opened in 1997, it wasn't opened until a few years later. The new Albertsons wasn't in the original Holiday Foods; it was demolished, along with the Eckerd next door, to allow for a much larger, fancier supermarket on the site of the old store, and opened the modern 60,000 square foot store in January 2001. Just about 15 months later, Albertsons announced it was pulling out of the Houston market with its stores to be sold or closed. The Kingwood store was one of four stores to be purchased by H-E-B and reopened later that year.¹

H-E-B was building its own full-size stores in Houston around this time with some unfortunately tacky designs with the former Albertsons looking much nicer, and in my opinion, the Kingwood store was the best looking of all of them (by extension, the entire H-E-B chain). In 2016, H-E-B relocated to the northeast side of the intersection where Kings Crossings Apartments used to be (more on that later), building a far larger store that they owned rather than sharing a shopping center with other tenants.

Looking at the other tenants, they're a fairly standard mix of typical strip tenants. The center itself² received a facelift in 2022 the rest of the center received a facelift, mostly changing the ridged concrete facades (like what Kmart used to have) to stucco and some new construction (it also changed an old leasing requirement about only using all-white signage). Going down the list as of 2024 from the former Albertsons / H-E-B we have Trek Bicycle (4311, formerly the home of Sylvan Learning prior to 2019), Hallmark Gold Crown (4313), Domino's (4319), PostNet (4321), the new location of Sylvan Learning (4323), Hunan Garden Express (4325), Ann's Teahouse (4327)⁴, The Flying Biscuit Cafe (4329), Parry's Pizzeria & Taphouse (4331)⁵, Pet Ranch (4411), Club Champion (4417), Yonutz (4421), S&A Nails (4423), H&R Block (4425), Subway (4427), Lynn Tailoring (4429), Next Level Urgent Care - Kingwood (4435), and Walgreens (4445). The Walgreens opened in 2000 to functionally replace the old Eckerd; the original tenant was a Crafts Etc. store.

But what of the former Albertsons? In April 2026, a Sprouts Farmers Market opened as part of an expansion in Houston (a few years after closing some locations in the Houston area that weren't working). It uses the address but not all the space.

While I don't have any pictures of the center, there are a few other pictures of the former Albertsons/H-E-B specifically. (H-E-B tore out much of Albertsons' decor).

1. The only store of this type to remain as an H-E-B is at Kempwood and Gessner with their Clear Lake store closing in 2021 for a modern store and their Pasadena store being converted to Mi Tienda.
2. The best I can find is this one that touts the redevelopment of the center, likely created around 2022, when the center received a facelift renovation, here and archived here on Carbon-izer.) It doesn't help that the former Randalls center is also apparently called "Kings Crossing" (archive), but this seems to be entirely different ownership).
3. The PDF previously linked indicates that there was to be a tailor between the former Albertsons and Trek Bicycle but it didn't seem to be there in reality, there's no door for it.
4. This part of the strip center was one of the sections reconfigured. Previously this address was used for Famous Footwear, which faced south.
5. The original 4331, Hunan Garden, was located in the demolished section. It closed in 2021 (not 2025, look at the bottom of the article).

Cedar City Neon Sign Company (Cedar City, Utah)

Don't be fooled by the dusty, exterior front, the real prize is in the back.
I stumbled across Cedar City Neon Sign Company while looking at Cedar City, Utah and its diverging diamond interchange as seen in this Road Guy Rob video. It's not much...it's at 563 North Airport Road and looks to have been located here for years. It's got a "sign graveyard" in the back (clearly visible from Google Street View with the older Chevron and Shell signs I like. (Sparkle Sign Company in Houston used to offer a similar sort of thing but it looks like a change in ownership "cleaned up" the lot). I'm not sure if they offer tours but it looks fun.

Bagby Quik Pak (Waco, Texas)

Picture courtesy MCAD from 2003. As I continue to change things around in Carbon-izer, it's time for another Waco story (originally seen on this page). Quik Pak opened its gas station and convenience store at 5601 Bagby Avenue and Loop 340 sometime around 1997-1998 when this was a somewhat isolated area, and I have fond memories of the store being here (looking like the picture above) from when the way to get to my grandfather's new house (he lived in Waco before, but he moved over five miles away as I got to see a different side of Bagby Avenue en route to the new place, an emptier, newer side, as it was before the major developments Central Texas Marketplace or Legends Crossing, or reconstructing the interchange at I-35. By late 2007, it was a Chevron/CEFCO. Quik Pak had switched brands to Chevron by 2006 (when Citgo pulled out of Waco) and they sold most of their stores to CEFCO that year. (1702 West Spring Valley Road was the exception and was sold later).

In December 2021, CEFCO opened a new store at 6201 Bagby Avenue less than a mile away. By early 2026, this was Waco's first Casey's, while Casey's has kept this CEFCO here for now (likely staying as such since it's a smaller store).

Barton Springs Road McDonald's (Austin, Texas)

Picture by author, February 2023 (cropped)
One of the things I mentioned on Carbon-izer and took out to focus on South Lamar Boulevard was a building that was on the corner of South Lamar and Barton Springs (but had a Barton Springs address), the Barton Springs McDonald's at 1209 Barton Springs Road. This operated from 1979 to 2022 and was the original building (the metallic roof came sometime around 2003-2005, when those sorts of buildings were being upgraded before their demolition). In 2022 it abruptly closed and was expected to be rebuilt (as this sort of thing was quite dated by that time), especially as the Golden Arches remained with the old "Billions and Billions Served" signage.

The restaurant was demolished in early 2023 with the sign going last. Much speculation has been on Reddit and its enigmatic owner, the "State of Texas Youth Council" which appears to be nothing than the owner of the land at 1209 Barton Springs Road.