Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I was having lunch at Panera in Sandhill Saturday when I heard someone in an adjacent booth talking about a clothing store that had closed shop recently. I didn't catch the name, but when I stepped outside I saw that it must have been Talbots on the other side of the street that sparked the conversation.

As I hate shopping for clothes in general, and am even more clueless about women's clothes, I really had no mental picture of where Talbots fit on the retail map. A bit of googling however revealed that it is a somewhat upscale chain largely for women over 30, and has been struggling financially for a while now.

There 's an old story, probably apocryphal, about a feed company that hired a top ad agency to design a campaign to sell its dog food. The ads were brilliant, won awards and everyone loved them, but sales plummeted. The company finally hired a troubleshooter who investigated and issued a succinct report: "The dogs don't like the dog food".

The Wall Street Journal gives as delicate a version of that quote as I have ever heard in the words of Talbots's CEO:

The predominant factors impacting our results were an inconsistent customer response to our merchandise assortments..

The article also goes on to posit a lose/lose situation:

The apparel retailer has been trying to freshen the look of its merchandise and broaden its appeal beyond its core audience of older women. But the approach may be turning them off while also not bringing in new customers.

Other papers speculate that the chain may be heading for a takeover, and mention that it is closing 110 of its 568 stores.

Talbots had three stores in the Columbia area. This one, one on Forest Drive and one on Saint Andrews Road. I drove by the Forest Drive store this evening and it is still there. I have not been by the Irmo location.

I was at Schlotzsky's on Parklane having lunch today when a guy came in looking for the DMV. Naturally, I sent him across Two Notch to Decker Mall: D'oh!

I realized my mistake as I drove down O'Neil Court just a little later, and saw that the DMV had relocated to the old Pro Golf of Columbia location in The Shops of O'Neil Court.

I suspect this has something to do with the purchase of Decker Mall by Richland County, though I would have expected the two different levels of government to work out a deal of some sort for the space.

Well, Blue Sky Gallery isn't actually closed yet, but it's already in the news and I took the pictures when I went looking for Mary...

Unless you have a special interest in art, or have a friend who's an artist, Blue Sky is probably the only Columbia artist you can think of and his work has been prominently displayed around town for ages. The first Blue Sky piece I can remember is still my favorite (and probably the favorite of many Columbians): the Road-Runner-ish Trompe-l'œil Tunnel Vision.

The same parking lot off of Taylor Street has his other best known work, which people either love or hate: the giant fire hydrant. Personally, I like it.

The State article says (or implies) that he and his wife are closing the gallery to concentrate on international sales, though at 72 I wouldn't be surprised if he just wants to retire.

(Hat tip to commenter Mike D)

Well, Summer is back, and the Free Times' Best of Columbia poll is here again!

I'm not sure how they pick their categories, but once again local blogs are going up against WIStv.com, which is somewhat akin to The S.S. Minnow going up against The Starship Enterprise (Kirk's, not Picard's!)...

Still, if you like columbiaclosings.com, don't hesitate to vote in category "6": Best Local Website or Blog - News. Put in a good word for your favorite shops, restaurants, hangouts parks etc as well.

I had not really been aware of Mary, a small women's clothing store in Five Points until commenter Mike D pointed out that it had closed.

It's an interestingly non-descript name for a store, not even a possessive as in Mary's. For that matter, the sign is nearly impossible to see for the trees during the summer months.

It appears that another clothing store, the neighboring Wish at 719 Saluda Avenue is ready to move up the street into the old Mary location soon.

(Hat tip to commenter Mike D.)

The LoopNet listing for this building describes it as having one space availabile. The realtor listing which I found and lost in a thunderstom crash described it as "vacant". I'm not sure if that means the Council has moved or closed shop. There appears to be a sign taped to the door that I should have gone and looked at, but I somehow missed noticing that while I was over there.

(Hat tip to commenter tonkatoy)

UPDATE 23 June 2011: Added South Carolina Employement Security Commision to the post title based on comments by Bo & tonkatoy.

I seem to end up taking Pinestraw to Fontaine to I-20 quite a bit, and would notice this little book and gift shop from time to time as I started angling for the left turn lane. A while ago I noticed that I wasn't noticing it..

The property is sandwiched between Satchel Ford and Two Notch just past Mr. Muffler and semi-across from Rogers Car Stereo in a hilly lot that is a little hard to get in and out of. I took a closer shot somewhere, and will add it when it turns up, but my memory is that Suite-D is the far right slot in the building.

I did a closing for this building a while back starting as Antonio's Restaurant and going through a number of different nightclubs and strip clubs.

At the time I made that post, the building seemed to be operating as Club Ego (despite the Studio 54 sign still being up). Since that time, Club Ego apparently shut down, and Club Colorz opened and shut.

I'm putting the closing date for Club Colorz as December 2010 because the flyers posted by the door talk about Christmas events (though I am not nearly hip enough to understand the contests being described), but not New Years events.

The building still has power, and is lighted nightly, so I presume there will be a new club by and by.

UPDATE 4 September 2011 -- It's now Laguna Sports Bar:

I noticed this building a few weeks ago when I saw the realty sign, and really couldn't ever remember seeing it before though it has obviously been there for years.

There doesn't seem to be a street number anywhere on the front of it, and looking for the realtor info seems to lead to it being part of the adjacent Grice's property, which I'm pretty sure is wrong as my mother took me to Grice's a number of times and I don't remember any larger building being involved.

It has a large antenna attached, so it may have possibly been a dispatch location at one time. Any ideas?

UPDATE 20 June 2011: Commenter JB turned up the address for this lot, so I have changed the post title to give it as 1943 Huger Street rather than just "SW Corner of Huger & Senate". Also, with that address I have been able to turn up a bit more info and have added two businesses to the post title instead of just "Building".

First, here is the LoopNet sale listing indicating that the property is being sold as a warehouse.

Next, here is a link from the Secretary of State indicating that this property goes way back and that Barnett Tire & Battery company opened on the site in 1920(!) and was only "dissolved" in 2005. Now just because nobody bothered to formally dissolve the company before then does not mean that it was necessarily a going business to that point, but the fact that there seems to have been a good bit of activity in 2005 makes me think it may have lasted until then.

Also in 2005, Congaree Delivery Service filed for a certificate to be an in-state mover (at least that's what I get out of that PDF).

And finally in 2005 City Council declined to rezone the property so that a religious organization could set up there. I'm not sure if I understand the timeline here though, as the council meeting was in mid-Sept 2005 and Congaree was awarded its certificate in mid-Jan 2006. Unless they planned to share the building with the religious organization it doesn't seem to make sense. (Also the reasons given for denying the rezoning look pretty tenuous).

(Commenter Andrew sent in a link to a much better map [above], than the scan of the handout at the mall I originally used [below], and the numbers are the same, so I'm adding it).

Well, I finally had a chance to go looking in some old City Directories for information about Dutch Square. I was looking at about 5 year intervals, and only had time to get up to 1997 before the library closed, so rather than a "Dutch Square: Then & Now" post, this is a "Dutch Square: Then & Then" one.

The 1971 directory is the first one to list Dutch Square, but notice that it uses completely different suite numbers than the later listings I have here. And all the City Directory listings use different suite numbers than Dutch Square itself uses on its current handout map.

In any event, it's not always possible to do a complete mapping of the old numbers to the current floor-plan as there has been a good bit of remodeling over the years (for example, the Woolco space being broken up), and some of the old exterior-only slots like Jackson Camera and Baskin Robbins don't seem to be pictured on the current map. That said, here is a mapping of some of the City Directory to Map numbers that I'm pretty sure of:

1971:

1977:

1982:

1987:

1992:

1997:

UPDATE 17 June 2011: Added the leaseplan map from a link provided by commenter Andrew.

UPDATE 21 June 2011: Added [at top] an artist's conception of the original Dutch Square from an old Chamber of Commerce promotional book.