Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I noticed this decrepit office trailer, which appears to be a car-lot type of thing on the lot next to Century Glass the other week, and I assumed that I had run across the remnants of a small used-car operation that I had never really noticed while it was operating.

However, when I checked StreetView, I can see that as of January 2024, this was simply a vacant lot, so the decrepit trailer must have been hauled there as a decrepit trailer sometime this year. The stop-work notice suggests that someone was trying to develop the spot, but it seems an odd way to start. Does anyone know what was going on here?

Art Smart Academy has moved from their Broad River Road location to 571 Chapin Road as of November 2024.

LoopNet says it is a 2 acre lot, and the aerial picture shows impressive depth, so I'm sure some sort of commercial future is ahead for the property.

(Hat tips to commenters Gypsie & Tom)

Cars & Beyond set up shop on the old National Pride Car Wash lot after the existing structures were razed (other than the sign, which was re-purposed). From the name of the place, I assume they were connected with the nearby Tires & Beyond, which closed in 2022 with a promise to re-open, though that appears to have fallen through.

Actually until commenter Gypsie mentioned that this place had closed, and that it had definitely had had an online presence as open, I had it in the "never opened" category in my mind. I saw some guys setting things up, as you can see in the first picture, but after that, it never actually seemed to be a working car lot -- at least I never saw any stock there when I would drive by.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

It's unclear to me whether this is a new operation or just a reflagging, but Chicki's Wings on Broad River in the old Taco Bell/Atlantic Seafood building is now Wings House.

Curiously, though the Grand Opening flags are out, the place was not open during their posted Saturday hours.

Commenter Gypsie speculates that Craft Auto Mart might be gone.

By the time I got there, it was pretty much a done deal, as the office trailer itself has vacated the premises.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

Red Carpet was the follow-on in this space to used car dealership Capital City Rides, and opened in June of 2023. I noticed recently that the place was up for sale, and it appears the event center closed around August of 2024. You can see their grand-opening video, and their services here.

There are a number of vacant buildings in this stretch of Broad River, so we will have to see what happens here. The building does seem to be in better shape than some of the other nearby vacancies.

I'm not sure when Kyle closed, but the last google reviews are from "a year ago", and obviously the building itself has been vacant long enough to go downhill, so I will put the date as Summer 2023.

I don't smoke or vape, so I don't know a lot about the place, but interestingly, it is apparently a chain with other locations largely, though not entirely, in Florida.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)

Staying in the same area as yesterday...

BGR8 dojo was the follow-on in this roundish building to at the corner of Broad River Road and Royal Tower Drive to Ed Robinson cleaners. Judging from the state of construction at the site, it has been at least several months since they moved to 130 Hunter Village Drive, so I am just going to put a late 2023 date on this.

As for that construction, it appears that Brooklyn Express pizza is moving from Friarsgate Plaza into this building:

This tire outfitter in Irmo near Friarsgate Plaza closed down at the end of March. I went by one time and saw they were storing a lot of vehicles there and wasn't sure they were closed, but the second time I actually read the note on the door, which announced the closure.

It's not the easiest lot to get in and out of, but I expect someone will take it up before too long.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

This building is the former home to The Ballistic Cener, TJ's and Videos & Beyond, the last of which closed in 2011.

I don't recall anything being here between that and Michael's, but I could be wrong. At any rate, Michae'ls was here by 2019. Judging by the Google reviews, they had decent food, but it tended to come a bit slowly, and they weren't filling up the whole space (though room rentals were available).

I can't pinpoint the closing time from the reviews, but commenter Gypsie suggests it has been around a year by now. As she also notes, there is some sort of construction or gutting going on with the building, so perhaps we will see something new soon.

(Hat tip to commenter Gypsie)