Hardee's, 5417 Forest Drive: Mid March 2013 10 comments
I was quite surprised to see this Hardee's, more or less at the corner of Percival Road and Forest Drive, closed.
As far as I could tell driving by daily, it seemed to do a reasonable amount of business. What's more, this section of Forest Drive is now an Interstate exit zone, so it should have been drawing from more than just the local area.
My first thought was that the opening of Cookout just a few slots down the road was the cause. The problem with that theory is that Hardee's does a brisk breakfast business, and Cookout, as far as I know, doesn't have a breakfast menu.
The more daylight shots above are from commenter kholler: Thanks!
(Hat tip to commenters Mr. Hat and Kholler)
UPDATE 12 July 2013 -- As mentioned in the comments, this is to become a Sonic:
UPDATE -- The place opens for business this morning (9 Sept 2013) at 6AM. Here is some more of the work from a few weeks ago:
UPDATE 19 June 2021: Adding tags and map icon.
Trader Joe's Is Here no comments
In lieu of a new post today, I thought I would direct your attention here where I have finally added a lot of broken-out pictures to go with the photosets.
It's been an interesting transformation.
Sunbelt Properties, 2332 Airport Blvd: late 2012 / early 2013 11 comments
I've always liked this little extreme 'A' Frame building on Airport Boulevard just east of the airport entrance.
It appears that it switched real estate businesses from Sunbelt Properties to Lindy, Inc. sometime late last year or early this year as Sunbelt is still listed in the February 2013 phonebook.
I know the building predated Sunbelt by a good deal, but don't know what it was originally built for. The only other 'A' frame in town I can think of was a Mr. Swiss on Beltline but the look isn't really that similar.
Mae's On Main, 121 East Main Street (Lexington): March 2013 (moved/renamed) 2 comments
Although I didn't realize at the time I did that closing, apparently Mae's On Main in Lexington has moved to the Round Robin location on Devine Street. I'm not sure where Devine Robin fits in -- as of yet, the Round Robin marquee is still up.
The Lexington location has a classic "old retail" look. A lot of interior work is ongoing there, so hopefully something new will go in before too long. Or before the fat lady sings, anyway.
Dianne's On Devine, 2400 Devine Street: 18 March 2013 5 comments
Big Thursday, 460 Town Center Place Suite 4: 28 February 2013 4 comments
Here's the Village At Sandhill location of Carolina/Clemson sports memorabilia store Big Thursday.
As you can see this is in one of the best parts of Sandhill -- on the main drag and right next to Five Guys so I don't expect it will stay vacant too long. This was a fairly nice day if not yet really "Springlike" and there was a good deal of foot and car traffic.
Taco Bell, 515 West Main Street (Lexington): 4 April 2011 (moved) 10 comments
As mentioned in the comments on the Lexington Blockbuster this adjacent old-school Taco Bell moved to a new store a couple of years ago. Personally I like these Southwestern style locations more than the "modern" style they have adopted recently. Several in Columbia have been repurposed recently (though the one on Knox Abbott is still vacant), but this one looks as though it may be too far gone for that.
UPDATE -- Work is underway:
UPDATE 17 February 2014 -- Now a Cook Out:
T.G.I. Friday's, 3400 Forest Drive #1024: 15 March 2013 21 comments
Steak 'n Shake, 340 Columbiana Drive: 2009 24 comments
Although this Steak 'n Shake was open well past the time I moved back to Columbiana, I can't recall seeing it open at all. Indeed, I didn't even realize until it came up recently in Have Your Say that this building was the former location.
Steak 'n Shake is one of those chains I've always been meaning to try but somehow never get around to. I guess I've been closest once in LA when I used Yahoo Travel to book myself a hotel for a Van Morrison concert and found myself in an almost totally non-english speaking part of Koreatown (the hotel room phonebooks were in Korean [though the staff couldn't have been nicer!]) and it looked like a place I could understand. Somehow that didn't quite happen, and somehow I've never connected in Florida (where they have a big presence) either.
At any rate this store listed in the Feb 2008 phonebook, but not in the Feb 2010 one, so I'm saying they shut down in 2009. The building has really delapidated quickly since then, and it looks like it would take major work to get a standard second-use restaurant (Asian buffett, Lizard's Thicket etc) into there.
UPDATE 2 May 2013 -- Some of the boards have now been prised off the windows, and we can take a bit of a look inside:
UPDATE 14 March 2016 -- Somewhere I have some pictures of this lot as vacant after the tear-down, and will post them, but as of now, it is rebuilt and open as M Kitchen (and has been for a while):
Mattress Source, 107 Harbison Boulevard: 11 December 2012 (buyout) 12 comments
As detailed here, on 11 December 2012, Mattress Firm bought out Mattress Source and all the Mattress Source stores were closed temporarily for re-branding.
I missed the buyout news, not being in the mattress market currently, but noticed the new banner over the old marquee when I was driving down Harbison recently. Since I don't have a dog in the fight, I'll say that I like the name Mattress Firm better than Mattress Source as it works (presumably intentionally) as a play on words.
I'll also say that while I have no opinion yea or nay on their mattresses, I continue to admire the Tempurpedic logo.
You wouldn't think that you could get away with plastering a shapely undraped female derriere all over your marquee and front yard, but they do. Granted they have toned down the, um, cleavage from a few years ago:
UPDATE 19 September 2022 -- As mentioned in the comments, the building has come down. Also there seems to be a lot of land clearing behind the old site as well:
Also updating tags and adding map icon.
UPDATE 7 October 2022 -- Here are a few shots from the start of the teardown:
