09/25/18 10:00am

The photo at top shows Cypress Ace Hardware attempting to label its most obscure class of goods, the odds and ends customers know they want but struggle to put a name on. Turns out they’re actually top sellers at the 11655 Jones Rd. store: “We have so many people that walk in with a random part in their hand,” co-owner Susan Murff tells the Chronicle’s Rebecca Hennes. Their question: “Do you carry these doohickies?

Installed about 8 months ago, the DOOHICKIES lettering matches signs that aren’t visible in the photos but run horizontally to the left and right of what’s pictured, advertising the rest of the store’s offerings: tools, paint, electrical items, plumbing supplies, a fudge bar, and an on-site post office. (There’s also an “indoor grilling center where customers can schedule a time to cook their favorite meat on a grill they are interested in buying,” reports Hennes.) As for what corporate’s got to say, each Ace store is individually owned, so local management gets some editorial power over its own décor.

Photos: Karen M. (storefront); Cypress Ace Hardware & Feed (sign)

The Writing on the Wall
02/14/18 4:00pm

Here’s a good spot for people doing business in both Cypress and Houston: new coworking space The Work Well. The 23,000-sq.-ft. shared workspace takes up the top floor of the 3-story office building shown at top on Wortham Center Dr., just off the northwest tentacle of Houston’s jurisdiction, which runs along the Northwest Fwy. and links the city to Cypress. The red arrow on the map above indicates where The Work Well sits at 13100 Wortham Center, east of Goode Co.’s Cy-Fair location and just inside the city’s territory. Nearly all structures beyond the red shaded zone — save for a few along other major roads Houston keeps for itself — are outside of Houston city limits and inside unincorporated Harris County.

The Work Well’s first business day was back in December. A grand opening is now planned for March.

Photo of 13100 Wortham Center Dr.: LoopNet. Map: Houston Map Viewer

The Upper Reach
06/30/17 10:30am

We only count 1 basketball court, 1 stuffed elk head, and 3 faux finishes in the 9.74-acre setup at 17020 Cypress Rosehill Rd. —previously kinda-sorta-abandoned by Anna Nicole Smith (the listing agent tells the Chronicle’s Fernando Ramirez) during some part of the bankruptcy proceedings that followed her billionaire husband’s death (and the news that she might not inherit). But maybe the relatively tame suburban stylings aren’t so surprising, given that the property has been de-vandalized, remodeled, and expanded by the current owners since the home’s last sale in 1998 (years before Smith’s death, the posthumous Supreme Court ruling, and the debut of the opera cataloguing a few of the more storybook-scandalous aspects of her life).

The property, “income-generating equestrian operation” and all, is up for sale now for $2.842 million. Also new, since Smith’s departure: a modest backyard sports complex (including a gym building, multi-use court, and putting green). Make the full circuit:

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Room to Horse Around
09/15/16 10:30am

Tin Hall Dancehall, 14800 Tin Hall Rd, Cypress, 77429

Tin Hall (the building itself, anyway) is now back in the hands of pre-2014 owner Fred Stockton, report Shawn Arrajj and Emily Donaldson. The Tin Hall property was bought by Mark Martinez in 2014, who sold the land to MHI McGuyer Homebuilders later that year; Martinez was allowed time after the Hall’s closing to relocate the structure, and made plans to move it down to a spot off Spring Cypress Rd. just east of Dry Creek — a process slowed down by issues with finding water for the venue and its planned nextdoor retail development.

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