Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I noticed this vacant outparcel building when I was at the Broad River Publix a few weeks ago.

It appears that Allstate agent Lee Gamble has moved his office to 1724 Bush River Road, which is between the Best Western & Persis Biryani Grill near the I-20 interchange, and for now at least, I see no signs of anything else moving into this space, though it appears to be in pretty good shape. If you have $21 per square foot, it could be yours, per this LoopNet listing.

I had never heard of such a thing, but the Waffle House near the I-20 interchange on Broad River Road has gone delivery only. I enjoy eating at the House every now and then, but I can't even imagine having waffles or hash browns delivered. Given that it's certainly not the standard business model, I wonder how many people it will even occcur to...

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

As a Columbia guy, I was not really aware that Lexington's Old Cherokee Road went back this far -- I had always thought of it as a short strip between North Lake and Sunset, but it goes on the other way, takes an odd turn and continues through a number of different types of areas, from school to medical to residential to retail. Jessamine Quilt Shop was a bit of the last two, being a retail business in an old (well, not that old) house.

Looking at their archived pages, I can say that they sold Pfaff sewing machines as well as other quilting supplies, and on 14 June 2025, their goodbye message said:

Closing Our Doors

"Established in November, 2018, our purpose is to encourage, equip, and inspire fiber artists who are beginners or experienced hands."

Those words once greeted visitors to our website and for the past 6 and a half years we have had the joy and privilege of watching and helping thousands of makers create and express themselves in our shop and online through our Facebook and Instagram pages.

It is with a saddened but hopeful heart that we must announce the closing of our store and our website as of today. We have enjoyed laughing and learning and teaching and making with each and every one our the visitors - no, friends - to our shop. Friends that we will miss immensely. We are sad that we must go but hopeful in that we hope you will still continue to create wonderful stories and memories at each and every opportunity!

One of those opportunities will be a new fabric shop opening soon:

Feed Dog Fabrics

Watch your favorite search engine for more news later this summer!

Take care of yourselves and, as always:

Keep Stitching!!

Jann and the Makers @ Jessamine Quilt Shop

(Hat tip to commenter Brian)

I'm pretty sure that this Pizza Hut was the same operation which used to be in a little plaza further towards Dentsville more or less across from Columbia Mall. That whole set of buildings was razed and I can't quite recall what was built there afterwards.

Anyway, that was a classic-era Pizza Hut and I had enjoyable meals there many times. I never ate in the new location, and pretty much gave up on Pizza Hut years ago. The owners of the chain just destroyed everything that made it enjoyable and ran it into the ground. I think that owners who knew what they were doing could bring back the red cups, the distinctive buildings, the salad bar, the table cloths, in-house cooking and make a good return on retro stores.

Oh well, that rant aside, I can say that this location closed on the 16th, and has yet to be cleared out. You can read about it in The State and the Post & Courier.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

Dollar Tree moved in here sometime in 2011, a year or two after Eckerd's closed shop.

It's a decent enough location, with stop-light access to Saint Andrews Road & Broad River Road, but the area has struggled in recent years, and the catty-cornered CVS closed last year.

It's a good sized building and still looks to be in reasonable shape, but I don't have high hopes for a new tenant. Perhaps a gym?

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

The signage on one side of this corner lot at Covenant & Beltline still says C & J, but I believe that is the result of the latest tenant, A Golden Automotive stripping their branding from that wall when they closed and that the two businesses were not the same.

Google reviews suggest Golden was open into Fall of 2025, but as you can see (if you squint) the building has now been ruled unsafe by the city, and the place is vacant.

The Sub Station II slot in the Columbiana food court has already been, well, not boarded-up, but the curtain based equivalent -- That's it behind the black backdrop left of Dragon's Breath.

I've never really warmed to Substation II -- I've tried the Cedar Terrace location several times, and have never been too impressed -- I would rather have Jimmy Johns or Subway amongst the sub shops.

According to The State, this location opened in 2024, so it did not have an especially long run here.

(Hat tip to commenter Dustin)

I don't have much to say about this other than this is another GameStop caught in the general downsizing. This one is on Killian Road in the newish strip-mall by the Walmart, just to the West of the I-77 interchange.

(Hat tip to commenter Lavender)

Friends House (no apostrophe apparently) was the follow-on in this Publix plaza suite to Chen's.

Commenter James R notes that the rent on this place went up and the owners opted not to renew. Currently the storefront is empty.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

This former Dairy Queen had been the Eggroll Station for 35 years before it closed in December due to the this, the adjacent Capitol Square shopping center, and the old Al's Upstairs location being bought for redevelopment.

I never ate at this place, which is connected to Eggroll Station / Eggroll Chen on Crowson, but my sister reported it as very good.

You can read about the closure and redevelopment in The State, The Post & Courier or Westmetro News.

As for the redevlopment, it sounds very ambitious, but one property I conspicuously did not see mentioned was House Of Raeford, which, if the breeze is right, can put quite a kibosh on activities in the area.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)