Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

Commenter James reports this Sparkleberry Lane church closing and notes that you don't often see such. That's fairly true, I think, but if you add in relocations, it's not *that* uncommon. Think, for instance, this. Anyway, this is a fairly large property, which the real estate sign indicates is now under contract. I wonder if we're looking at a new church tenant, or a bunch of new houses?

(Hat tip to commenter James)

This church sits on top of a hill at the corner of Arrowwood Road & Gracern Road. Their driveway, in fact, connects those two roads, and winds through a pretty big lot. (The real estate sign says 13 acres). As far as I can tell from the church website, they had a very focused mission and must have closed up shop in late July or August of 2012. (I'm guessing that if they had moved, the site would reflect that, and a new location).

(Hat tip to commenter Justin)

UPDATE 4 April 2013: Fortunately, it looks like they may be moving to Assembly Street rather than closing.

This building on the South side of Shakespeare Road near Columbia Mall has been a number of things over the years, none of which really made an impression on me.

Judging from google, the last two seem to have been a hair salon, which closed sometime before 2009, and a church, which seems to have moved last year.

As far as I can tell, at least going by the lack of signage, the building is currently vacant, but also as far as I can tell, it does not seem to be for sale.

I first wrote about this building when it was NAPA Auto Parts. By September of 2010, Triumph had moved in, after repainting the place.

I'm not sure whether Triumph disbanded or simply moved elsewhere. Google suggests they were on Taylor Street before they were here on Millwood, but I'm not pulling up any hits that suggest a followup location. Their Facebook page (which I can't fully access without joining Facebook) seems to say that they were having events here at least until 17 October 2011.

Surprisingly, given its location at the corner of Two Notch & Faust Street, this building was apparently once connected with a church or some sort of religious personage. I can dimly remember seeing the Merita store there, and Titlemax seems to have been the most recent tenant, showing up in the February 2007 phonebook, but not thereafter. According to Richland County the place is currently owned by Midland Holding Corp who are apparently trying to sell it.

The lot is also home to a 30 Sheet Poster billboard, and if you click that link, you can see the place with the Merita store in operation, and a different paint job.

This LoopNet listing says that this building on the South side of Frink Street west of 12th was originally a grocery, and that is especially clear in side views. I don't know what chain it was, but the LoopNet statement that it was built in 1995 looks wrong to me -- I would put it in the 1960s.

Since then it has apparently been a lot of things: Two different churches, a construction company, a bingo parlor and a cellphone store. It is currently vacant, but as you can see, there is a building permit in the door, so presumably it will soon undergo yet another incarnation.

UPDATE 6 July 2011: Changed the post title from "Grocery" to "Piggly Wiggly" based on the comments. Also added "Ace Hardware" to the list of tenants.

UPATE 5 June 2014: Added Red & White to the post title based on the comments.

This much retailed (and once churched) spot on Cross Hill Road next to the former Kroger Sav-On has never seemed to catch fire for any of its many tenants, most of which I have only a vague recollection of. Aside from all those listed above on the post title, I'm pretty sure it was a menswear shop also at one point, and I either got or thought about getting a suit there. (Something I hate like posion).

This PDF at the City of Columbia website suggests that the city was thinking about buying the building back in the 2006 timeframe and wondering what the absestos and lead paint implications would be, but apparently nothing came of that. The document describes the building as being "used as a former antiques store" -- that's certainly an odd turn-of-phrase, but implies that the building was vacant at that point, with Fletcher's having been the most recent tenant.

Cross Hill Road is an odd little stretch whose name I never could remember. For years growing up, I thought that Beltline Boulevard ran all the way to Garners Ferry Road instead of turning off towards Rosewood. I can only think that at some point a lot of road work must have been done to make the setup so illogical. (Of course it didn't help either that until last year, I thought that Garners Ferry started where Cross Hill runs into Devine Street and Fort Jackson Boulevard -- I never realized that Devine Street runs all the way to Wildcat).

At any rate, whatever you call it, this lot, along with the Kroger lot, is now Interstate feeder property (which neither was in the beginning), and I expect that eventually a hotel or national chain restaurants will take the real estate.

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