Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I only remember this building (across from Dutch Square) as a Visionworks eyeglass operation and not at all as ReMax real estate.

Perhaps that's because I wear glasses but have no interest in property. Anyway, it was apparently Visionworks longer ago than I would have thought -- it appears from the phonebooks I have at home that they closed shop or moved sometime between 1998 and 2005. This LoopNet listing shows the place in operation as ReMax, which apparently moved out in 2011.

According to WIS, Bella Vista closed their doors in late August filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

An update to the story notes that the owner plans to sell the inventory during the bankruptcy procedings. Unfortunately it seems that this inventory includes already spoken-for (and deposit-paid-on) wedding dresses for soon-to-be-brides. Certainly not a good situation. When I took these pictures on 8 September 2013, that sale had apparently yet to take place (though signs for it were in place), as the store, while closed, looked fully stocked.

The adjacent bakery, Lady Antoinette's, is apparently associated and also involved in the bankruptcy.

(Hat tip to commenter Tom)

Interesting tidbit in The Sun News.

Here's the thing, this store, the one at Pawleys Island / Litchfield Beach and the recently closed store on Garners Ferry Road are all relatively new and upscale stores. This one in Forest Park is especially nice, and the one at the beach is in the same class (though a bit smaller, I believe). When you're abandoning your best stores, that can't be a good sign.

Interestingly, while I never really heard of Mac's On Main (I was vaguely aware it was there in the Walker building), the upcoming closing of the place was big enough news to make both The State and The Free Times, with The State story apparently one of their most popular for the last few days.

Clemson Road eatery CW's Grill will be opening their second location in the Mac's building while Mac's owner (whose name is "Barry", not "Mac") will be concentrating on his fruit cobbler and catering businesses.

I happened to notice this vacant building driving down Bluff Road today (how it got behind the wheel, I'll never know..)

A bit of googling says that it was the location for RSC Equipment Rental for those times when you draw Fork Lift from the what to bring to the party list. Google suggests, and the fact that the RSC site now redirects to United Rentals seems to confirm that RSC merged with United, which is located a whole number down the street at 1500 Bluff Road.

I believe the El Cheapo branding for this Millwood laundromat is fairly recent. Before that, it was Suds or something like that. I don't think the convenience store was an El Cheapo until recently either.

At any rate, apparently both were now under the same ownership and failed together early this month.

I wonder if they will sell off the commercial washers -- those can be quite hardy units.

Well, the support I got from Godaddy for the comments problem amounted to:

Yeah, we deleted your database, why don't you restore it yourself from your 36 day old backup. Have a nice day.

Soo...

Posts and comments from 8 August through the present are gone. I will be trying to restore what I can from google cache and the emails I get when anybody makes a comment, but it's a manual process, so bear with me here..

Folks,. I don't know what has happened to all the comments. I am looking into it ...

Update: I have a trouble ticket in to godaddy.

This little house, just past Null's Exxon on Two Notch Road was built in 1945 according to this listing, and that seems about right. To me it looks more like a city house than one for what was I think a pretty rural area at the time. I'd say the left side with the big window has been remodeled a good bit. This listing has some interior shots.

While I'm sure that the place has been many things since it was last a residence, apparently the last tenant was Cedar Printing & Office Supply (sometimes listed as Cedar Terrace Printing & Office Supply, which is in the February 2005 phonebook, but not the February 2007 one.