Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Well, here's the latest McDonald's to undergo the chain's current style makeover. This one is at East Forest Plaza, the Wal-Mart anchored strip at the Forest Drive/I-77 interchange.

In general these upgrades have been going pretty quickly, so I don't expect them to be shut for long.

I do have to say that I have found this store to be hard to get in and out of from Forest Drive. I've gotten coffee there a few times, but have kind of crossed it off my list.

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I noticed last weekend that there no cars at this 24-Hour fitness center at Four J's Plaza, and decided to take a closer look. It turns out that the center in fact had three of the four units at the plaza (an Allstate office has the other), and all are now for lease though the equipment is not yet gone.

As you can see here, the rightmost unit was originally Ela's European Market & Deli, with a Sprint and quick cash stores to the left. (The insurance office was already there then)

I noticed the other day as I made my coffee run that this H. Rubin Vision Center at the corner of Forest & Gamewell Drives is relocating, or maybe consolidating with the Garners Ferry location. I believe they, along with Brueggers were original tenants in this small strip. The middle unit, on the other hand, has turned over several times since the place was built.

UPDATE 17 April 2018 -- It's to be a Marco's Pizza:

UPDATE 13 July 2018 -- Marco's is open:

Gonzales Gardens was a public housing project comprising the tract bordered by Lyon Street on the West, Forest Drive on the North, McDuffie Avenue on the East and Washington Street on the South.

According to The State, demolition of Gonzales Gardens started on 4 October 2017. I took these pictures on 1 October when the place was fenced off, but still standing. I have not driven by lately, but imagine it is all down by now.

I never knew much about the place, except that it had something of a shady reputation by the time I became aware of it in the late 1960s. Apparently it was not always that way, and in fact another State story recounts some happy memories of the place from the early years.

The Columbia Housing Authority has the most extensive writeup with a lot of interesting facts. For instance, the place was originally built largely for Fort Jackson NCOs, and was, in those Jim Crow times, initially restricted to white families only. Another thing I did not know was where the name came from: The project was named for the three Gonzales brothers long associated with The State newspaper, one of whom was murdered in 1903 by the nephew of then Governor Tillman.

I did a closing on this address when the Jiffy Lube shut down. In retrospect, that seems to have been a harbinger for the whole property. There is a nice little landscape of trees still on the corner, but other than that, pretty much everything else is gone. It is a bit amusing that the roadside coffee banners outlasted the buildings by quite a few days. I suspect probably the crews didn't bother to read them and assumed they belonged to the adjacent Sonic.

No clue yet what is planned for this lot, but it's a fairly valuable Interstate exit corner now, and just across from a successful new shopping/restaurant plaza.

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Then here is where your money is going:

A pair of old sewer lines are being replaced by a single, larger sewer line. It will run between Forest Drive and the Quail Lane sewage pump station, near Little Lake Katherine.

Not a closing, and not a complaint, I just wondered what was going on behind Trenholm Plaza, and that's the answer. I had thought perhaps it was the start of a greenway or something.

Well, there has been speculation for a while, what with Gymboree's Chapter 11 filing, but the other shoe dropped today:

SAN FRANCISCO – Children's clothing seller Gymboree Corp. is closing 350 stores as its works to restructure in bankruptcy.

The San Francisco-based company said Tuesday that it's mostly closing Gymboree and Crazy 8 stores. It also operates Janie and Jack stores. The company will have more than 900 locations after the stores are shut down.

The full closing list is here, and includes, unsurprisingly, this Richland Mall store, as well as the one at Sandhill. The closing sales are supposed to start on 18 July.

I took these pictures back in early June and even then, the whole store was 50% off -- I don't think this is a big surprise to them.

I have to admit I had never heard of Janie and Jack or Crazy 8.

UPDATE 3 February 2021 -- Here's another picture I just came across apparently from 26 April 2013:

Also adding a map icon.

I think I have actually had service at this Jiffy Lube twice over the years, and I did stop there last summer when I needed the AC recharged in one of my cars and they were having an AC special but in the event they couldn't help me as the car was too old.

As commenter Matt mentions, the lot is definitely tight, and I too had trouble turning around and getting out that last time.

Somewhat, if not tremendously, interesting is that this building and the adjacent Kangaroo Express seem to share the same street address without any "suite" differentation.

(Hat tip to commenter Matt)

Today's closing comes from commenter Mr. BO, who says:

A strange eclectic shop right across where I enter the office in the Richland Fashion mall. Wine & Design apparently was a place where you can tip a few glasses and do some painting. (odd combo). Some of my fellow workers noted that there were times when the paint would be tracked outside of the door. (Guess things got messy there) I was suspicious about a month ago when I mall maintenance taking out a sink.

Now I see this in pic # 2.

At least it's a move and not a closing.

I admit I was entirely unaware of this place though I have walked the whole Mall at least once or twice in the last year.

What wine goes best with abstract expressionism?

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. BO, obviously)

Since S & S moved out of this Richland Mall slot, nothing has stuck, with both Sadie's and now Jackson's moving on.

In this case we have a move instead of a closing, and JackSon's should now be open at 1213 Sunset Boulevard, which is, of course, the former location of Ms. B's Southern Kitchen and The Southern Skillet.

Man, this wing of the Mall is creepy empty now!

And

I think they want you to go left.

(Hat tip to commenter Mr. BO)

UPDATE 23 January 2017 -- I got by the new location on Sunset last weekend. Apparently they are still not quite open: