Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

You have to wonder how bad things are when The State story on the closing of this motel doesn't even list prostitution as one of the problems:

There have been 169 calls to law enforcement about incidents at the hotel in the past 90 days, city officials said. In 97 of those calls, charges were filed for crimes that included drug trafficking (meth), strong armed robbery and attempted murder, according to the release.

On Sept. 12, Cayce officers filed a report about an alleged rape of a juvenile that occurred at the hotel.

I have actually stayed in a Knight's Inn once. It was somewhere in Florida, and in my opinion was a real dump. The table seemed to have been picked up from the side of a road somewhere and everything was sticky. However, I never felt unsafe, or worried about my car. It was just a very basic, low-end experience.

There is a hearing on 24 October to determine if the business license should be permanently revoked. Whatever happens, I see a re-flagging in the future for this location.

When the Hardee's co-located with this S-Mart closed last year, I figured it was some sort of issue specific to that franchaise, or Hardee's in general, but with the closing of the S-Mart as well, it seems more like perhaps the restaurant lease was just up first and there are plans to re-purpose the whole property.

Looking at the work going on, it appears to be an extensive re-model, but not a demolition and re-build.

(Hat tip to commenter Ed)

I never visited Abbott's, though one shop did suggest once that I take a transmission problem there. Luckily in the event, the problem resolved itself somehow and I didn't have to spend any money on it.

I believe the same family was connected with the Texaco down the road and that, going by their website, they continue to run the self storage units you can see in some of the pictures.

To me this building looks like a former convenience store. The LoopNet listing (which shows a nice shot with the Darrell's branding in place) says it was built in 1971 which seems about right.

I know nothing about Darrell's Place other than a google search turns up a State article detailing a three person stabbing at the place, while mentioning in passing an earlier shooting.

I will say the Yelp photos are unexpected. (If you go left or right from that link, you may hit something NSFW).

The current branding is for WFP which I can find out nothing about, though it also appears to be defunct.

Here's another Fashion Place closing. I don't know anthing about Avenue other than that they sold women's clothes. Perhaps Ross coming to the old Staples location across the plaza was a factor here.

As I mentioned once, I have fond memories of quirky products from childhood visits to the old Pier 1 on Garners Ferry. In recent years, the place has rather fallen off of my radar screen to the extent that I didn't even know that they had had a store in the Sparkleberry area until commenter Andrew mentioned it in regards to the old Dentsville location. The State has a bit of information on the closing -- the main reason given is too many locations for the market.

As you can see from the picture, as of this writing, the storefront is yet another Halloween pop-up store.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

This is certainly not a surprise at this point. In fact, I am more surprised that this store (and the West Columbia one) have stayed open as long as this.

The State says the plan is to close in December, but I don't see how you can get through October and November without already being down to the bare walls. That said, as of Saturday, the store was not too picked over yet, though reflecting that fact the discounts were still fairly low.

You can definitely see the effects of wear and tear on this store in the floor and in other other aspects of the physical plant. Plainly there hasn't been any money for cosmetic maintenence in a good while.

(Hat tip to lots of folks, perhaps commenter Tom was first)

I don't have much to say about this Metro By T-Mobile (formerly Metro PCS) storefront other than once it was here and now it is gone.

You can see the site with branding still up on Google Maps for now.

When I went to take this non-descript picture, I noticed that construction is now ongoing at the old Ruby Tuesday lot and that there is another vacancy in this strip by Bi-Lo, so things are still in flux here.

(Hat tip to commenter Rashaad Egister)

I was checking my Google Analytics this evening (something I don't do as often as I should) and noticed an incoming link from a new site: Cheraw Closings, which aims to do for that area more or less what Columbia Closings does for the Columbia area.

I don't know a lot about Cheraw other than Dizzy Gillespie hailed from there, but if that's your stomping grounds, check them out!

I've been vaguely aware of The Lite House for a long time. I think I even recall them advertising on WIS Radio many years ago. Somehow that never led me to visit either location even though I have needed a lamp shade or harp every now and then.

This site is a little hard to get to, at least during rush hour as it is a difficult left turn off of Two Notch (assuming you are travelling towards Sandhill). While it is further away from me, I like the situation of the Bush River Road location better.

As of now, the site is closed and for sale, but the stock has not been warehoused or transferred across town.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)