Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Virginia College was the follow-on operation in this Columbia Mall outparcel to Toys-R-Us. As you can see in that post, the college did some major work on the building before opening in 2010.

The whole chain ran into trouble in 2016 when the Federal Department of Education withdrew recognition of its accrediting body. (As I recall the feds were in a bit of a snit about for-profit schools in general at the time). They tried & failed to find another body that would accredit them, leading, as far as I can tell from the Wikipedia article, to the whole chain shutting down in 2018.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

I read recently that Richland County had totally dropped the ball on redevelopment of Columbia Mall, and had no idea what they were going to do, despite already buying all the anchor locations. Certainly on a brief partial walk through last Sunday, many shops were shut during regular mall hours, and the number of vacant spaces continues to grow. Stocking even looked a bit sparse in Macy's.

When I visited the food court, it appeared to me that only one vendor, Cynthia's Soul Food, was actually open at the time, though I think at least two other storefronts looked to still be populated and would probably be open on weekdays. I don't know anything about Sarku Japan, but google suggests that there is still one at Columbiana Mall.

I think the King Pizza sign can come down now..

(Hat tip to commenter Sidney)

Footaction was on the lower level of Columbia Mall at the foot of the winding staircase, underneath the old Lowery Organs location, across from the former Radio Shack and adjacent to the former JC Penny.

According to their door sign, Footaction had initially closed due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, but rolled that into a permanent closure at some point, and they have already stripped the store. As reported by commenter Rashaad, the other Footlocker brands have also left the mall, and will probably feature here in due course.

As an aside, social distancing is not an issue at Columbia Mall:

(Hat tip to commenter Rashaad)

I never did a closing for Zale's Jewelers, but it was a long time occupant of this second level storefront, just out of Macy's going left. After that, it was Jimmy Jazz for a while, as you can barely see in the second picture above. Most recently, it was an airbrush shop for tee-shirt customization. Judging by the google reviews, they did a good job, but were gone by sometime in the late summer of 2019. I'm not entirely sure, but it looks as though they may still have a location elsewhere in the area.

Well, Victoria's Secret has sashayed out of Columbia Mall. Interestingly (or not) theirs is the second store-locator website I have visited lately that is very parsimonious about listing stores (though it is inspiring in other ways). At any rate, locally there are remaining stores at Sandhill and Columbiana.

I find the mall self-promotional poster interesting in that not only did they not take it down when Victoria's left, but in that it still touts Charlotte Russe, which has been gone for about a year now. I have not seen anything about the County plan for the property lately. It seems like whatever they are going to do, they should start it soon.

(Hat tip to commenter Rashaad Egister)

I noticed in my visit to Columbia Mall back in March that there was an empty storefront on the upper level for Frontline Hair Designs.

As it turns out, they have moved, and have been open again since April in their new location at 9557 Two Notch Road Suite H. This is in the Sesqui Center shopping center just east of Spring Valley. You can check out their Facebook page here.

Here's another empty counter in Columbia Mall's food court. I don't know anything about it, but google does suggest that there was a Mano's Express in the Dutch Square food court. It seems an uncommon enough name that I suspect they were related, though the other one seems to have focused on soul food, while this one went the burgers & dogs route.

I noticed when I was in the Columbia Mall food court recently that China Max was closed. It's been quite a while since I was at the mall last, so I'm just tagging the date as 2018 for lack of anything more precise. I presume this China Max was connected with the China Max at Richland Mall, but I don't know for sure.

What I find especially interesting is the sign proclaiming that the place will soon be a King's Pizza. This pizza chain seems to be making a big splash all of a sudden, with a store on Forest Drive in the former Charlie's Wings, one opening here, and one opening in the old Chickadee's Diner on Marshall Street.

According to Wikipedia, which has what seems to be a reasonable summary, Charlotte Russe filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 4 February 2019, in the event, no rescue was forthcoming, and the chain announced on 7 March 2019 that it would be closing all its stores.

There are two Charlotte Russe stores in the Midlands. This one at Columbia Mall and another at Columbiana Centre. The Columbia Mall store is centrally located on the upper level, in between the old Dillards and Macy's above the mall's center court.

I'm not sure what's going on with the lights dangling down in center court. I guess they could be leftover Christmas lights. At any rate, I'm sure they would be more attractive if they were lit rather than hanging there dark like that.

As I remarked to my sister, they have been closing this store for years. You could say it started when they did away with the roasted nuts counter, part of the classic heritage that had followed them from Harden Street, but that half-joking aside, it was really apparent in recent years that the store was being hollowed out: there was less and less stock, and more and more empty space. It never got as bad as Belk at Dutch Square with a whole floor abandoned, but it was impossible not to notice. Then, several years ago, they decided it wasn't worth keeping the store open for all the hours that the mall was, and you'd find the mall doors drawn during normal business hours. This year, Sears as a whole finally put Going Concern language in their financial report, and when the latest list of store closings came out, I can't imagine anyone was surprised to see this store on it.

The closing of Sears will leave Columbia Mall with only one anchor store, and Macy's isn't looking that robust either lately.

UPDATE 13 September 2017 -- The place is now emptied out, though there seemed to still be a good number of trucks and other hauling type vehicles in the parking lot on 9 September 2017 when these pictures were taken:

UPDATE 29 February 2020: Add tags, address, map icon.