Westchase / Houston Texas

Westchase is a business management district, with some residential and retail elements, located in western Houston, Texas, United States. The district is bounded roughly by Westheimer Road on the north, Gessner Road on the east, Wilcrest Drive on the west, and the Westpark Tollway on the south (although some portions extend as far north as Briar Forest Lane and as far south as Bellaire Boulevard). The Sam Houston Tollway and Richmond Avenue also connect the district to the rest of Houston. Westchase is considered a “Special district” under Texas law; the district has its own board of directors (composed of key leaders from businesses in the immediate area) and provides supplementary marketing, planning and public safety functions for local residents and business. Westchase is adjacent to the Sharpstown, International (which includes part of Chinatown) and Energy Corridor management districts, as well as the master-planned Royal Oaks Country Club subdivision; Westchase is immediately north and east of the Alief community, a largely residential and commercial district, and is sometimes considered part of Alief.

 

More than 1,500 businesses reside in Westchase. Several are associated with the petroleum industry, of which Houston is considered a major capital. Major employers that have offices in Westchase include ABB Group, BMC Software, Chevron, Dow Chemical, Halliburton, and Jacobs Engineering.

 

John Nova Lomax of the Houston Press said in a 2006 article that the segment of Westheimer in Westchase contains “virtually all chains — a Geography of Nowhere wasteland of Boston Market, Borders, Kroger, Randalls, Taco Bell, Citgo and Sonic. Several of the six CVS outlets we passed are there, as are a few of the uncountable Starbucks.” He added that the segment of Westheimer Road in Westchase does not have “the sleaze of the Highway 6 area and the tacky exuberance of mid-Westheimer, the area between Chimney Rock and Fondren.”