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East Coast Pizzeria, 486 Town Center Place: May 2016   37 comments

Posted at 12:04 am in closing

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East Coast Pizzeria was the follow-on operation to Brixx in this Sandhill corner apartment block. Honestly, I was not impressed the one time I ate there. It seemed like the ordering process to just get the toppings I wanted on a pizza was unnecessarily complicated, and the resulting pizza was nothing special. Perhaps I should have given it another shot, but the reason I was a semi-regular at Brixx was because they were open late-night, which East Coast was not.

It will be interesting to see if Sandhill is able to get another restaurant in here. Probably the residents upstairs will be just as glad if not, as Brixx set the place on fire once..

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

Written by ted on June 14th, 2016

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37 Responses to 'East Coast Pizzeria, 486 Town Center Place: May 2016'

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  1. What has survived at Town Center? I don't make it out there often when I come into town, but every place I have ever eaten out there when visiting family has closed already. Is it just a total bust, or what?

    palmettoconnection

    14 Jun 16 at 1:55 pm

  2. Wild Wings, Five Guys, and Which Wich are all still going strong after ten years or so. Red Robin and Cracker Barrel are newer additions but still don't hurt for business either. Blue Fin has stuck around a good long while. JP's 4 Corner's is basically just a re-branding of Arizona's, and that operation's had a long run.

    As far as this place goes, I'm honestly surprised it lasted as long as it did. The pizza was good, but the service was...well, I hate to speak ill of the departed, so I'll just say the service was aggressively hands-off. It wasn't unusual for a "quick" lunch here to wind up taking almost two hours, which isn't what you want out of a pizza place.

    Jason

    14 Jun 16 at 7:34 pm

  3. They need some changes in Sandhills. The first being the rent. I heard from the manager at Brixx that they were paying $12,000 a month rent and they NEVER made a profit at that location. The other thing they need to change, which I think will bring a TON of business to Sandhills, is that they should allows restaurants to make more than 50% of their profit from alcohol. Again, I heard (rumor), that Bar Louie's closed down because they made more money from alcohol than food. I really wish they would change that rule. Sandhills is dead on the weekend nights and the Vista is just tooooooo far to drive from the Summit.

    Sidney

    14 Jun 16 at 10:07 pm

  4. A $12,000/month lease rate would be a killer. They would know that going in. Does anyone know the current rental rate per sq. foot in Town Center?

    Joe Shlabotnik

    15 Jun 16 at 5:54 am

  5. took a drive thru the new apartments last night... very surprised that a lot of cars are in the parking lot there already... so I guess leasing is going very well. could breath new life into some of the restaurants maybe? I agree... the vista is a looooong drive from the north east.

    cheryl

    15 Jun 16 at 9:00 am

  6. I know how you guys feel. I would like to visit The Vista more often but it is a thirty minute drive home thru town and after a few drinks it just isn't worth the risk.

    Joe Shlabotnik

    15 Jun 16 at 9:38 am

  7. The only things that have *stuck* out there have been places folks can get in and out of quickly. Nothing fancy other than the oyster/seafood joint, and I'd bet life hasn't been easy for them.

    As other posters have said above, there are several things that have (in my speculative $0.02) contributed to the "why" of Village at Sandhill never really "taking off".

    -Kahn and others envisioned young professionals moving into the condos there and setting up life. This, by and large, hasn't happened.

    -There's really nothing *out* there. Once you're there, you're hell and gone from pretty much the rest of the city.

    -The young professionals Kahn & Co hoped to attract tend to be denizens of the Vista. As noted above, it's a loooooong ride from the Vista to Village or vice versa. Folks from one place don't often make the travel to the other.

    Village at Sandhill looked on paper to be a great idea. In practice, things haven't gone to plan and there's been a lot of turn-over.

    Lone Wolf

    15 Jun 16 at 11:05 am

  8. It was more a matter of timing-couldn't-be-worse. Not only did construction coincide with a near-depression, it also coincided with a downtown revival program that was designed to attract the very same people that VaS was after, as well as a general national trend of flocking back into cities.

    On top of that, some of the initial delays that led to Target et al. locating on Two Notch instead of in the VaS pulled a LOT of potential traffic away from there and onto a whole new corridor.

    Jason

    15 Jun 16 at 4:32 pm

  9. My problem with the vista is that parking is often problematic for many of the restaurants.

    Several people here have been inclined to write the Village at Sandhill off as some type of failure and I'm having a hard time seeing it as such.

    This isn't the first time people have complained about the lease rates at Village at Sandhill and I know lease increases is a common reason why stores close making me wonder if the current business model of leasing space from a commercial real estate landlord is sustainable over the course of the long term (in general).

    Village at Sandhill fills a need for Northeast Richland as well as Kershaw County but I feel that it'd have to have closer proximity to an interstate to be viable for the other sections of town...

    Andrew

    15 Jun 16 at 5:47 pm

  10. I see a lot of truth to what Jason said...I remember Alan Kahn admitting that some of the tenants he was hoping for at Village at Sandhill wound up developments such as Sparkleberry Square...the most notable one I remember being mentioned is Kohl's (but it sounded like there were some others that remained nameless)...

    Andrew

    15 Jun 16 at 6:57 pm

  11. Another thing that hurt is that Kahn wanted a minor league baseball team playing there, but he and the county council could not make a deal regarding a stadium.

    Tom

    16 Jun 16 at 6:42 am

  12. KAHN!!!!!!

    Mike Mann

    16 Jun 16 at 9:23 am

  13. Man, none of my long posts are posting on the board.

    Sidney

    16 Jun 16 at 9:42 am

  14. @Andrew, speaking of being close to the interstate, Killian Crossing could potentially put Kahn in another bankruptcy. Especially if Killian Crossing can get the restaurants that are RUMORED to be coming. And actually, I wouldn't even call them rumors, more like WISH LISTS.

    Sidney

    16 Jun 16 at 9:43 am

  15. Besides what is there already and looking at the signs of whats to come, I don't think anyone knows for sure what is coming to Killian Crossing. But if those restaurants did come along with a Dave and Busters, TGI Friday's and even some restaurants that we already have like an Outback Steak House, Chilli's, Ruby Tuesday's, etc, Sandhills will die an even quicker death.

    Sidney

    16 Jun 16 at 9:44 am

  16. I had to break those last 2 post down. It wouldn't post all as one. I also have another part to it that won't post at all. Not sure why, there's no cursing in it.

    Sidney

    16 Jun 16 at 9:45 am

  17. I've had several issues where certain store names would prohibit a post from going through so you either need to add a space somewhere within the name (or a special character such as • (ASCII code 0149)) (especially if it's a multi-syllable word, add one of those bullets to separate the syllable...

    Andrew

    16 Jun 16 at 12:43 pm

  18. @Sidney -- not sure what is going on. I don't see your posts in the spam queue or the moderation queue so I'm not sure where they went. Andrew is right that certain brand names do trip the spam filter.

    ted

    17 Jun 16 at 12:36 am

  19. It's no big deal. Thanks for looking into it. It was the middle section of my post that wouldn't post. I may have had too many quotes. I was saying that I hate it when people say they can't wait for this to come or that to come to Killian Crossing. But in reality, none of the stores that they mentioned have even been confirmed.

    Sidney

    17 Jun 16 at 8:27 am

  20. It must be one of the stores that I am trying to mention. I tried listing the shops, stores, restaurants again in the last post and it didn't post. So I took them out and it posted.

    And I tried one more time in this post. I listed them below but it wouldn't post. So it's definitely one of the stores that I am mentioning. Which is crazy because they have been mentioned before on here.

    Sidney

    17 Jun 16 at 8:31 am

  21. Hmm -- OK, I installed the "Antispam Bee" plugin a while ago, maybe I can remove the list of spam words from the WordPress front-end and just let the plugin handle it.

    Done -- we'll see what happens.

    ted

    17 Jun 16 at 3:01 pm

  22. PF Changs
    Dave and Busters
    Cheesecake Factory
    an Outlet Mall
    Costco

    Sidney

    18 Jun 16 at 1:55 am

  23. It worked

    Sidney

    18 Jun 16 at 1:56 am

  24. If they'd just bring in IKEA I would never grumble about Sandhills ever again...

    Jeannette

    20 Jun 16 at 2:14 pm

  25. I'm going to posit that Columbia will never, ever, ever have an IKEA. One of IKEA's primary requirements is population, and they typically look for ~2 million people within a 40-60 mile radius.

    Columbia's MSA sports a population of around 800K, so this market is more than a tad shy.

    Jason

    20 Jun 16 at 4:01 pm

  26. I have envisioned the area at the 12th Street Extension & I-77 as a good spot for IKEA if we were ever to get one as it would be a good draw for I-26 & I-77 and I think it'd be the best combination of space and interstate access they'd need as I think they need as they could draw from 2 interstates. Plus it could easily draw people from Charleston because it would be easy to turn left I-77 and easily zip back to I-77 to get back to Charleston...

    But then again, I'm not holding my breath for IKEA, either...

    Andrew

    20 Jun 16 at 8:34 pm

  27. @Jason and @Andrew, why do you have to crush my dreams? MY DREAMS, MAN!

    I hate driving to Charlotte, but dangit I want my Raskog utility cart!

    Jeannette

    21 Jun 16 at 10:03 am

  28. Think of it less as a dream-crushing and more of a gentle encouragement to focus on more attainable dreams for Columbia. If Nashville can't get an IKEA, Columbia sure isn't about to.

    Jason

    21 Jun 16 at 11:17 am

  29. I'd love for Columbia could get IKEA but don't see it happening anytime soon...I think we'd be more in line for Nordstrom, Crate & Barrel, Harris Teeter, Jack in the Box, LiDL*, Lowe's Foods*, Logan's, Shane's Rib Shack, Krystal Burger or the stores on Sidney's list before IKEA but then again, things can (and will) change...

    * I have encountered articles indicating that these stores have plans to open in the Columbia MSA...

    Andrew

    21 Jun 16 at 11:47 am

  30. *sigh*

    I'll settle for a Tim Horton's or a Mighty Taco. lol

    Jeannette

    21 Jun 16 at 2:37 pm

  31. Tim Horton's and Mighty Taco? You must be from Buffalo Jeannette...

    Justin

    22 Jun 16 at 9:54 am

  32. @Justin *ding ding* You got it! Been here in Cola since 1999. :)

    Jeannette

    23 Jun 16 at 10:08 am

  33. All of Sidney's store requests are in Atlanta and maybe Charlotte.....road trip dude.
    There is an IKEA here in Atlanta and one in Charlotte, so South Carolina will never get an IKEA in Columbia......Charleston maybe.
    Columbia just needs to come to grips with the realization that they are considered a suburb of Charlotte in the eyes of retailers, restaurants, and the music industry.

    palmettoconnection

    23 Jun 16 at 12:54 pm

  34. I don't think Columbia could be considered a suburb of Charlotte as the two airports are 89 miles apart as the crow files plus Columbia and Charlotte are two different MSAs...

    I'm all for a road trip but it does get expensive and time consuming to keep having them...

    Andrew

    23 Jun 16 at 6:23 pm

  35. Even if we got an IKEA in Charleston, that would be great. I love Charleston. However, I really dislike driving to Atlanta (last time I was assaulted by a homeless person trying to jump into the car as I was pulling away from a concert venue) and Charlotte is an OK drive but there's no point for me to go JUST for IKEA.

    I think there's a lot of potential for Sandhills but at the rate it's going it's just becoming a bigger mess.

    Also the rent is so crazy high! I remember looking into getting a small corner shop ages ago and they wanted like 10K a month. If they'd revitalize Decker, that would be good because the rent is cheaper there but it's just too sketchy for me as is.

    I've come to terms that we will probably never get an IKEA, but it's still really annoying that Cola never seems to get anything special in terms of big retailers.

    Jeannette

    24 Jun 16 at 9:40 am

  36. Charleston's population is lower than Columbia's, so in the sense that that's IKEA's primary driver (and it's certainly one of them) they're even further from getting one than we are. It's highly doubtful that South Carolina will ever see one.

    Sandhills will have a better chance once the Clemson widening project is completed. Having its main approach road bottleneck like it currently does (from the I-20 side) has to make driving in there in the first place pretty unattractive.

    Jason

    24 Jun 16 at 2:57 pm

  37. It's to be Hook & Reel Cajun Seafood

    jacob pittman

    15 Feb 20 at 6:03 pm

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