Columbiana Centre, Irmo (Columbia), SC

     Columbia, SC is a bustling college town and the state capitol of South Carolina. Population figures include a city of 135,000 and a metro area of 825,000. Columbia formed at the convergence of two rivers, and is a recreation center for the state. Today's Columbia is a quickly growing metropolis sandwiched between Atlanta and Charlotte. Interestingly though, the retail is pretty lackluster and leaves much to be desired.

Here are a few opening exterior shots. The outside storefronts form some weird harmony that is pleasing to the eye. F21 joined in 2011, and was once I believe a restaurant looking at the older Sky City post.

      To elaborate on this comment about the dark history of Columbia retail, I should probably first note that a little stupidity was involved. Richland probably needed to enclose itself but not completely upscale. Dutch Square was right to redevelop, but Burlington and Planet Fitness isn't attracting a whole lot of retail money. Columbia Place was late to react to the original problems, and currently has an infamously bad owner. Village at Sandhill was big enough to do damage, but small enough to steamroll for decades, and has been having some vacancy pains as of late. Columbia could probably live with three malls given the solid economic base, growing population, and lack of demographical problems (generally low crime, not very many "bad" neighborhoods). Instead, Columbia has no lack of dead retail and one mall, which one could say doesn't capture the full audience, rules king. That mall is Columbiana Centre, located at the corner of Harbison Blvd. and I-26 in the northwestern 'burb of Irmo. 

Directory shots of an originally plain mall. No Apple stores, H&Ms, William-Sonoma's, Banana Republics (prev. two were once at Columbiana), or Cheesecake Factories. Expansion? This makes me wonder how well Columbiana serves the market.

     The 1990 opening revealed two things: Dutch Square was screwed, and the future of Columbia retail was a plain two-anchor mall. Those anchors were Belk and Sears, two stores not near unique to the market. Further increasing silliness of retail king was the rural area Columbiana was located in and lack of draw. Nothing truly hometown or valued heavily in Columbia had a spot there, nearly making the mall's rise completely unexpected. Seems as if Lake Murray money does wonders.

I love these entrances. Of course JB White and Mercantile Stores should be thanked, but the elegance and simplicity shine through here. Belk basically blends in as an inline tenant, and synchronizes with the arches at the same time. 10/10.

While original Belk/Parisian/JCP looks different and unique, Dillard's is as usual. The latter entrance at least sorta accents the mall.

     For being such a young mall, it wasn't long before changes came to the newcomer. Dillard's joined on a northeastern wing in 1993, giving the layout much more flavor and a tad more upscale mall. There were two anchor pads built at construction, but Dillard's added on for an interesting reason. The mall is in both Richland (Columbia) and Lexington (Lexington) Counties, which comes different rules. Lexington County was rural at the time, and had vastly different Sunday laws at the time. Dillard's location meant it could open an hour-and-a-half before Lexington County section opened. I believe that these laws have since been signed out of favor, given Lex. County's recent growth spurt, but I live 210 miles away, so I can't confirm this.

Dillard's exterior shots. Believe or not......Dillard's looks the same. Are there any non-traditional Dillard's stores in the Southeast? I would love to know.

     These changes kept continuing into the better part of the decade, and past. JB White joined the scene in 1995 with a stunning store that I have no photos of. This would fill in an anchor pad with a familiar store that still had enough love to do well, but wasn't terribly small and had no idea how to run a store. Problem was, three years later, JB White reached its fate in a merger with Dillard's. With the latter in existence at the mall, the White's was given to Belk, which closed its original spot to be handed over to Parisian. This would be the last SC Parisian constructed (or well, opened), ending a short era of kicked off with LJH. 2005 called for the end of Columbiana Parisian, to be replaced with JCPenney. Things gradually slowed down to the end with Sears departing in 2014. This was swiftly replaced with an expanded Belk Men's and Dave and Buster's.

Here's Express Men, BB&W, and Pro Im....Dead Sports!? If you're a kiosk and you close, wouldn't you remove the sign? These full signs are usually in dead malls which is understandable.

Food Court with dead Burger King? Definitely a dead mall...

And, yes, that was sarcasm. BK is temporarily closed, FYI. There's the carousel in this photo.

     While Columbiana is a nice mall, and doesn't make me fully question what is happening in SC, it has room for improvement. Whenever JCPenney says goodbye, that should be replaced by the state's first Nordstrom. An expansion could be possible between the food court and Dillard's wing. With the parking cut off and lost there, a parking garage would be completed in the middle, between the new wing and the original wing. In the expansion, the aforementioned stores would be located there, turning Columbiana into a superregional powerhouse and effectively killing off the Columbia competitors. Again, while I believe Columbia could support 2-3 malls of different sizes, the others aren't doing a whole lot to help.

While I apologize for the semi-tilted photos, I had one free hand - one for camera and one for an aptly-named Eclipse Frappuccino. [Photos taken Aug. 21, 2017]

Looking down to the shady food court.

Nice, bright, and inviting. Explains the modern-renovated mall.

     Even where it is, Columbiana's place as Columbia's best is cemented. The other players will probably die out in not too long, and with only one true choice, Columbians will probably flock there. What is probably going to hold back the mall is the distance from downtown and the university. Of course, if it was closer the incomes wouldn't be as high, though nothing in Columbia is truly far. Irmo residents wouldn't hurt to head just a little farther south. But in this case, the UoSC Bookstore, like many others, is the only place for the non-car inclined students to shop. If the mall was closer, a whole new world of shopping awaits. Instead that "closer" mall is Richland Mall, or more to fit, Belk, given the four remaining stores. So, in a way, it isn't a question of survival, it's a question of audience and who is being reached.

Here's three views of the Dillard's wing. Everything pretty much molds together architecturally. 

Here's where the proposed expansion begins.

Here's looking back from Dillard's.

Our last photo is actually one of the first, with a view from the main entrance, then turn left at the central corridor.