Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

It appears to me that Carolina Rides may now be in Orangeburg, while I am not able to find out much about Connection Auto Sales at all.

Before the car operations, this spot was an insurance agency (or two agencies -- I'm not sure if there was an ownership change or just a name change in there somewhere). LoopNet, has an interior picture from those days. It also implies that the agency/agencies may have moved out, though I don't know to where.

This office plaza across the street from Dutch Square has been purchased by either The Midlands Housing Alliance or Transitions Homeless Center depending on which news article you read, but the upshot is that, as Columbia Business Report says, it will be converted into housing for distressed individuals:

WLTX adds something a bit at odds with what I saw when I drove over:

It appeared to me that the front two buildings, at least, still had a good bit of activity.

Construction work is slated to start this month or next and run into the fall.

Commenter Gypsie puts this demolition down to the ongoing Interstate construction, and it would be the closest part of the property to the highway, but I haven't found any news stories about it. The building was in Browning Business Center, and was at one point ITT Technical Institute as you can see here. I don't know much about Southeastern Institute, other than their website is still online, but totally blank, but apparently it was a healthcare trade school as described in this superpages listing.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

I was unaware of this Lexington place, tucked away on North Lake Drive between Main Street and US-378 until commenter Heath mentioned that it had closed.

The Lexington Chronicle says that they

served breakfast items such as biscuit sandwiches and chicken and waffles, along with lunch dishes including chicken pot pie, burgers and sandwiches. The location also emphasized baked goods including cinnamon rolls and mini bundt cakes.

It's unclear exactly why they closed, but they are looking for another location, and so don't intend for it to be permanent. For now the web site and Facebook are still up.

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

This WLTX article (which is actually mostly about another used car dealer closing) mentions in passing that American Car Center closed in February. The story also calls it a subprime auto dealership, a term I am unfamiliar with, but which doesn't sound like something you would care to be called.

The property is fairly attractive. It's elevated with a nice view, and the buildings still seem to be in good shape. Assuming the economy picks up some, I expect another dealer will move in soon.

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Main Street stalwart Drake's Duck-In has made a temporary move from its Main Street location to 1840 Hampton Street while repairs & renovations are made to its permanent home.

Contrary to the signage when I took these pictures, the actual opening of the temporary site did not take place until 21 April, as reported by The Free Times.

The Hampton Street spot has featured here twice, as Nathan's and Hampton Street Diner.

According to the link commenter Heath found, Drake's has been around in one form or another in various locations since starting on Elmwood in 1907.

So waddle on over...

(Hat tip to commenter Heath)

Griffin Chophouse replaced Kingsman Restaurant in this spot in 2020 (the Parkland Plaza location of Kingsman remaining open) and closed in mid-March of this year. There was also another location of Griffin Chophouse in Chapin which closed as well. Royal Butcher, also in this building, was apparently under the same ownership as the Chophouse and closed at the same time.

The current plan is that the space will re-open soon as a new restaurant, Bone-Appetite, although the site given for that operation does not seem to exist yet. The Lexington Chronicle has a good article explaining the ins-and-outs of the situation.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

I never got to go to Wild Water & Wheels in Surfside Beach next to the Flea Market. I would have been in my early 30s when it opened, which is a bit old to do a water park without kids in tow. I always figured maybe I would go with a family group sometime, but it never materialized. The official announcement that the place was closed came last November, but it was apparently pretty commonly assumed before that, as the land had been sold in April. According to the owner, it was a completely financial decision: He would have loved to keep it going, but it wasn't making any money with shorter summers and more competition, and he had to retire the operating debt by selling.

Currently, it appears the 17 acre site will go to housing, but that has not been completely finalized yet.

Here is The Post & Courier on the closing, here is The Sun News, WMBF and WBTW.

Here is a promo video, with plenty of shots of the park in operation:

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This sort of gas station, with no convenience store, and kind of isolated restrooms seems to be on the way out nowdays. For a customer it has the advantage of easy access to pay, but from the store side, there's none of the goods where they really make their money. The corner seems like a good location for *something*, so we'll see what happens.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

When I first became aware of this spot, it was a photography studio, and apparently maintained the grounds to have nice settings for photo shoots. I was going to do a closing on it at one point, but somehow never made it happen. I believe that after the photography studio, there was at least one other business on the site before StoneBridge Gardens.

It's a shame they closed before Spring really took hold, as the grounds were quite beautiful in March.

Here is the LoopNet listing where the place was being song as a "Specialty Property". Some nice shots there.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)