Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I have done a couple of other posts on this mostly dead strip mall on Two Notch at Polo called Park Centre. In particular, here is Piggly Wiggly / Harris Teeter (and Bruno's), and here is Pic 'N Pay.

Neither of those was the strip's main tenant however. That was initially Walmart and then after that, NetBank.

Of course everyone is familiar with Walmart and their gradual move to bigger "Supercenter" locations. That, I believe is what happened to this location: It was replaced by the Supercenter at 10060 Two Notch Road.

I was not as familiar with NetBank which moved in after Walmart moved, probably in the late 1990s or early 2000s.

To summarize the NetBank Wikipedia page, NetBank was an Atlanta/Alpharetta based operation which started as Atlanta Internet Bank and Net.B@nk before settling on the NetBank name. It was a very early venture into Internet banking and mainly made its money from mortgages.

It did quite well for a while, but eventually overextended itself and got into trouble as its core mortgage business started to fail (though this was a little before the main 2008 mortgage crisis). After flailing for a while, it decided to sell itself off to another bank, but found it didn't even have enough to bring to the table to pull that off and ended up being taken over by the Office of Thrift Supervision on 27 September 2007, becoming the biggest thrift failure since the S&L crisis of the 80s.

This site was a big enough part of its assets that it was mentioned in the Bloomberg article on its failure as part of the asset base to be sold off. After the takeover, the FDIC insured accounts were acquired by ING Direct.

According to commenter Soxinsc, Blue Cross/Blue Shield leased the NetBank space for a while, and there does still seem to be some sort of front desk with signs of use in there though I find it odd that the NetBank logo was never taken down if someone else did have the building..

I noticed recently that this place, next to the old Galaxy World arcade was vacant, but had no memory of what it was.

The sign was inside propped up against the window, but I didn't want anyone thinking I was fooling around with their car, so I didn't get out. Google says it was a party rental store, Thompson's Grand Rental Station.

I'm sure that wasn't the first tenant though. The building is another one of those buildings "of a certain age" in Columbia with rock facades, and the odd little bay-window nook on the back side looks as thought it may have been a drive-up window at some point.

According to my fuzzy memory, this little stretch of road, now elevated above Two Notch proper was once Two Notch itself before I-77 was cut through. I also think there was a little locksmith kiosk up there for a long time, even after Two Notch moved.

UPDATE 12 September 2012 -- It's now a Harley store:

and we'll be with you in a minute..

This AAA Car Care Center was at the Village At Sandhill on the Bi-Lo side of the stores. I notice that they say they are moving to 4526 Forest Drive, but I think it would be more accurate to say "consolidating", since as far as I know, this place was open along with Forest Drive, until Forest Drive burned down so the end result when Forest Drive re-opens will still be one location where there were originally two. (The sign from the daytime set of pix is more clear).

Read the rest of this entry »

I noticed this building on the East side of Clemson Road the other day as I was heading from I-20 to The Village at Sandhill. I'm not sure when all the various businesses left, but Surgiform Technologies is listed in this year's (February 2011) phonebook, so I'll say 2011. Surgiform, at least, has moved (to Lugoff) so the others may have as well.

It's a pretty bland, warehouse-like building, but I like the fact that someone nonetheless took the time and trouble to put of a birdhouse on a power pole by the road.

I've written about this building before in a closing for D'Lites / Miami Sub Grill. Splendid China Buffet has occupied the space since then, and seems to do a good business. The door sign is a little vague about what is going on. Certainly the construction is happening (and seems quite thorough..), and I don't doubt that something with the same ownership will open here again, but it's not clear it will still be Splendid China -- It looks more like a total refit.

BTW, does anyone have the definitive name for the sidestreet between Splendid China and Lowes? I've see that I've used both "Firelane Road" and "Fire Lane Drive" in the past. Google Maps seems to think "Fire Lane Road", Mapquest goes with "Firelane Road", and I'm sure I got the "Fire Lane Drive" from some source..

UPDATE 17 October 2011 -- Wow! There's *remodeling* and then there's this:

(also added a night picture of the place still operating at top)

UPDATE 16 July 2012 -- It pains my sense of order to stick this update in the middle of the post, and above the 1 February 2012 update, but I have run across these pictures on my drive that predate the pictures in that update. (They are from 27 December 2011):

UPDATE 1 February 2012: Took the temporary? notation off the post title. At this point it is clear that Splendid China is not coming back, but that instead the place will now be known as Jasmine Buffett as these two poorly composed drive-by shots show. Presumably with that name it will still be an Asian buffet:

UPDATE 16 April 2012 -- Jasmine looks pretty close to completion:

UPDATE 15 May 2012 -- Jasmine Buffet is up and running:

New Dealership:

It appears the Columbia Subaru franchaise (though not the dealership itself) has moved down Two Notch Road a few blocks towards Dentsville. The former dealership, Stivers at the corner of Two Notch Road and Calvin Drive (next to the old Zoom Flume location) is currently vacant.

(Hat tip to commenter JohnBom)

Looks like someone claimed all the freight after all!

Or they may perhaps have moved to Blythewood. There is a Bargain Warehouse listed there in this year's phonebook.

I wonder what this place was originally? There are three connected units in this small strip at Two Notch and Calvin Drive. The two end units have this odd, rocky facade, while the middle unit does not. Curiously, the Chinese Wing Restaurant on Two Notch at Fontaine Road also has the same sort of facade. I like the touch of yellow here as it makes the place stand out a bit from its neighbors.

UPDATE 30 September 2011: Add picture of roadside sign at top.