Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

From what I can gather, Bluff Road warehouse was a SCANA property that then went to Dominion Energy.

According to this realty flyer it is a 9000 square foot building on a on a 1.6 acre site. Obviously Dominion is still in business, but I guess they just decided they didn't need this facility for whatever SCANA needed it for.

Veranda Grill was at least the third restaurant in this Elgin-ish spot on Spears Creek Church Road. I wasn't really aware of it, but apparently it was a well regarded Chop House. Based on the timing, I would guess it was a late casualty of Covid-19.

The spot is now occupied by a Peruvian Tapas Restaurant, Ratio, whose fixtures you can see on the paito. (For some reason, I barely got a shot of the actual restaurant storefront -- it's on the right).

The Marion Street Highrise was part of the Columbia Housing Authority's portfolio, and was built in 1975. Recently the Authority has been evaluating its properties (one imagines due to the deadly problems with some of its units), and has decided that the cost to refit this building is so close to the cost to do new construction that keeping it doesn't make sense.

I was mainly aware of the place because I would often park on Marion Street during the Greek Festival, and always had the feeling that it didn't really fit in with the area. (Though it is not a bad looking building, really).

Given that the building is not to be rehabilitated, I assume it will be taken down, but I have not seen at date for that, or a plan for what is to follow (I assume the land will stay with the Authority).

This WLTX story has more details, and says that the residents started being moved out in May of 2021. It appears that they are now all gone.

As an aside, I had assumed that Marion Street Highrise was just a description of the building, but according to the street sign, that is the actual name.

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

To me, AAMCO always brings to mind a distinctive radio ad from the 60s or 70s. It went like:

Double-AY (beep! beep!) EM-CEE-OH!
AAMCO

That said, I've never been to a place that specialized in transmissions, though I might have if my '96 hadn't ended up getting totaled again. Anyway, this building is in Lexington at the point where US-378 splits away from North Lake Drive, and is now Tint World, which does "Automotive Styling and Window Tinting".

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

I see that the Woodmen Of The World lodge by the US-1 fleamarket has finally given up on Bingo for good.

For months, their sign "thanked" COVID-19 for the temporary suspension of the games, but sometime around the New Year, they decided they are not going to bring them back.

O-19.

This building was home to Keller Williams Realty (KW Columbia, SC), who have now moved to 1 Harbison Way.

This LoopNet listing shows the building before demolition and indicates it was built in 2000, so it was not that old. This LoopNet PDF flyer indicates that before the demolition, both this building and the adjacent T-Mobile office at 128 Harbison were for sale. I guess there were no takers for this one.

What is interesting is that they are really basically just one building. There may technically be an additional wall between them, but they are going to have to work carefully to leave the T-Mobile building alone while knocking this one down. I should go back and see how it turned out.

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I'm afraid this is yet another place I never got around to eating at, despite the fact, according to they closing sign, they were here ten years. They were pretty quick to get the butcher paper up too -- I really was unable to see inside the place at all.

Here is a ColaDaily article on the closing.

(Hat tip to commenter Ellen)

I noticed on a recent drive-through of Boozer Shopping Center that First Credit on the north side of the plaza is vacant. I can't really find any information on it, but I'm guessing that I went by that storefront a number of times in 2021 without noticing a vacancy, so I will tentatively place it in that year.

Driving Old Bush River Road between Saint Andrews Road and North Lake Drive, I noticed that the train tracks which used to cross the road between Kiawah & Bilton are now gone. My surmise is that this has something to do with the changeover in Lake Murray operations from SCE&G to Dominion since the old tracks seem to go to a big facility, but that's a total guess.

UPDATE 14 June 2022 -- As mentioned by commenter Homer, here is the other end of this rail spur, also now taken up, which used to cross Saint Andrews Road near C&J Automotive:

Also adding "Railroad Crossing" to the post title as that seems more descriptive than "Train Tracks". Adding "Saint Andrews Road" as well.

The last closing I did for this location was in 2012 when it ceast to be Discount Furniture. I'm not sure when Green Dot moved in, but they apprently moved out in late 2021 as reported by commenter Gypsie. It looks like they are a small Carolinas chain, and still have offices in the Charleston area and Wilmington.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)