Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I noticed on Shakespeare Road the other week that two SCE&G properties are up for sale. First there is the Gas Measurement Operations Center at 5921, and second the Operations Center at 6011.

If you look closely at the real-estate signs, you can see something I was unaware of: Apparently SCE&G is its own real estate company. I'm not sure which way the incentives from that cut..

As reported by commenter James R, Republic Finance has left this little corner plaza at Fairlane & Sunset. Apparently they have moved to 1856 South Lake Drive in Lexington.

I really like the streetside signboard here.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

Noticed this nice old-school brick warehouse on Shop Road the other week. They list in the Feb 2007-Fe2008 book, but not the Feb 2010 one, so I'm tagging it around 2009. This building has the stair-step facade that was very common on older businesses for some reason.

The real-estate listing says it was built in 1940, which I can believe and is 52,313 square-feet on 2 acres.

Sara's Produce was the follow-on operation in this spot to Wood Produce. It seems to have had a fairly short run, opening in May or June, and closing probably in August.

The main shed is now empty, but there is a new ice depot.

JP's 4 Corners was the followup operation to Arizona's and kept some of the same menu after the switchover. Since you could get a burger there, I would have been happy enough to try it out, but in the event never got around to it, especially as both Five Guys and Red Robin are also located at Sandhill.

I have to say that the reviews at Open Table are interesting to say the least, and almost prompt me to add a Sign #7 to the Signs Your Favorite Restaurant Is About to Close list:

7) Your restaurant is in Columbia South Carolina, and has no air conditioning during the month from Mid July to Mid August.

As far as I can tell, the Greenville location is still open, or at least no reviewers have noted it as closed yet. I believe that one also was once an Arizona's. The Web Site does appear to be down however as at least one review does note.

(Hat tip to commenter Steve)

As commenter Sidney noted, the Food Court at Columbia Mall is getting rather sparse, though I suppose you could consider Auntie Ann's Pretzels right around the corner to be part of it, which would bring the count up a little bit.

To the best of my memory I have never eaten at any of the restaurants now in the Food Court proper. If I had had to guess just by the name, I would have expected Maleo's to be Italian, but unless there is pizza in the & More, I guess not.

I threw in the current Mall directory, and a few random shots just for "FUN".

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

I'm not exactly sure when this happened, but I noticed the other weekend that hard luck Dentsville shopping center Capitol Centre has been reflagged as The Meeting Place. I had been in that parking lot on 15 July 2017 to take some pictures of the rainbow over Columbia Mall, and I'm pretty sure I would have noticed had it already been changed then. (Though I admit to being oblivious about a lot of stuff I *should* have noticed).

The place is actually not all that empty with a number of small one-off businesses and a church, but it's definitely nowhere near full either.

I'm a little surprised that nobody has taken up Movies Behind The Mall for a bargain cinema on this side of town. I think the idea is sound: St. Andrews seems to do OK.

This has already been discussed, but Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse has closed on Harbison. This store opened in 2012 and replaced Rugged Warehouse (interesting that both names contain Warehouse) which closed in 2010.

As you can see in the final picture, Harbison Court will not lack for shoe stores due to this closing as the adjacent storefront (which was at one time Regency Beauty Institute, though I'm not sure that was the most recent tenant) is being upfitted to become Shoe Carnival.

Commenter Homer sends in these shots of the Meineke across from Seven Oaks Shopping Center. This is right next to the Former NAPA that moved into the shopping center, although when I was doing that one, I somehow managed to take the long shots to completely miss this building except for this one:

and pretty nearly in that case too.

(Hat tip, obviously, to commenter Homer)

I noticed that this Wells Fargo branch at Spring Valley Commons was for sale when I drove by the other week. I went back to get some pictures, and I see the ATM is still online, and looking through the drive-through window the place appears to be not yet stripped, so I guessing this is a very recent closing. The sign directs people to Sparkleberry, but there is also another Two Notch Branch at the old Dentsville Kmart.

I know Wells Fargo has had some trouble lately, which they brought on themselves, but it's also the fact that the Internet has branch banking in a general decline.