Well, folks, the day has finally come. The former Walgreens at Westheimer and Highway 6 has reopened. This will mark the building’s first permanent retail tenant since closing as a pharmacy around 2017. Now and Forever also marks the return of a gas station to this intersection. Before the most recent expansion of Highway 6, every corner of the intersection, except the mall, hosted a gas station. This gas station, however, aims to be a bit different. The space is huge, and while some area was built out around the checkout, I would wager that 3/4 of the former Walgreens is sales floor for Now & Forever. The gas station is, however, in an obvious soft opening phase. Large spaces are empty, and areas like the pharmacy and photo counter and open and accessible. Houston Historic Retail reached out to Now & Forever to try and confirm an official grand opening date, but they did not reply in time for publication. If you’re curious to learn more about who is behind Now & Forever, check out my last update on Now & Forever (even if you already read it, as only about half the text was published last time).
Glad to see this space getting reused, especially so creatively. Now And Forever definitely has a history of sub-leasing space in their convenience stores, so I would expect to see some of that soon. Still waiting for the Steak ‘N Shake to open in the Westheimer-Joel Wheaton location…