Richland Mall Redevelopment

[emerging.me]

Anyone heard anything on the current status? Who is the new owner, again??

[Trumble]

I don't visit UP.org as often these days, nor do I read The State as much as I used to... just checking in to see if anyone has heard any buzz on RM lately.

[emerging.me]

Not a peep. Maybe I'll make some calls next week to try and figure out what's up. I still contend this Midtown idea could be a major success if somebody really came in and redeveloped it with excellence.

[krazeeboi]

Simon anyone?

[CorgiMatt]

I think it's time to turn it into a business park. Keep B&N, TGIF, S&S, and the food court for public use, and let Belk lease retail space along Main from Hampton to Laurel. Forest Acres's population has decreased more than 5% since 2000, so I don't see it ever coming back as a major shopping destination.

[sonofaque86]

Aren't South Park in Charlotte and Lenox in ATL Simon malls. It would be nice to have something like that in Columbia

[krazeeboi]

^Yeah, but Columbia doesn't yet have the demographics or the population base for all of those upscale stores that can be found in those malls. A scaled down version of SouthPark would seem feasible at this point.

[Spartan]

Even still, I wouldn't expect to see any movement on this site until the economy picks up. It will take a lot more than a shot in the arm to fix this one up. I think that a mostly residential but still mixed use development would be appropriate for this site.

[StevenRocks]

^Yeah, but Columbia doesn't yet have the demographics or the population base for all of those upscale stores that can be found in those malls. A scaled down version of SouthPark would seem feasible at this point.

I think Columbiana Centre has the potential to be a SouthPark type mall, but not Midtown at Forest Acres. Midtown, I could see a s a lifestyle center, not a regional mall anymore.

[Spartan]

The interesting thing about Columbia is that unlike Atlanta and Charlotte, it doesn't have a clear "wedge" of the city that is purely wealthy people (Atlanta's being north, and Charlotte's being south/southeast). As a result, there is not the concentration of wealth like there is in the other two cities. SouthPark and Lenox Square are in what is more or less the heart of those cities' respective wealthy population wedges.

[mallguy]

This whole situation is unfortunate; I always liked Richland although recall even in the mid-90's it was pretty sluggish.

Columbia's problem is that it just has way too many malls but no really knockout great ones.

[Spartan]

Richland Mall / Midtown at Forest Acres is for sale for $37,500,000 or $49.54/sf.

SC RE News

[emerging.me]

Richland Mall / Midtown at Forest Acres is for sale for $37,500,000 or $49.54/sf.

SC RE News

Well... any takers?!?

I really do hope someone with the resources to make this thing into a first class urban village development comes along. There is SO MUCH potential here.

Also... say what you want about Frosted Acres, but the area is relatively affluent, has good schools, it's near downtown, and it's filled with a housing type that is being repopularized (the classic ranch)... The population may have declined in recent years the area's many senior residents have begun to pass on, but it will trend upward in the near future.

I have always felt that the demise of this mall had so much more to do with HORRIBLE design and identity than demographics. It has been unapproachable in every way since the late 80s/early 90s. The branding was awful. The interior layout is baffling. The outside looks like a fortress. It needs to be gutted, and turned inside out, as the Midtown developers had planned to do.

[Captain Worley]

Yeah the design (having to walk through Belk's/Whites) was always pretty bad. Then they took out the nice food court, and turned it into a call center. And for some reason, a lot of people do not like to park in a parking garage.

That place was never full after they remodeled it in the 80s. From the merchants, I heard that the spaces were priced way too high, and it never really bounced back after it opened at about 75% full. It is like a ghost town over there now.

[johnpro318]

We went to the movies to take my sister's kids to see Garfield 2 and it was completely depressing. Some woman that was obviously just stationed at Fort Jackson wanted to know where a Victoria's Secret was because she heard there was one here and we told it closed and that she would have to go to Columbia Place Mall or Columbiana Centre. And we couldn't remember how to get to the movie theatre after we walked around! We knew it was on the roof but we kept going up the wrong escalators to weird places! It was extremely confusing.

[DigitalSky]

I had a chance to make a quick visit to this place a few days ago, it seemed like a very neat center at one time and looks like it'd have so much potential too so i was disheartened to see it as empty as it was

[StevenRocks]

I had a chance to make a quick visit to this place a few days ago, it seemed like a very neat center at one time and looks like it'd have so much potential too so i was disheartened to see it as empty as it was

They're going to have a rough time though. There is a lot of retail space in the Columbia market that needs new stores.

[krazeeboi]

So it looks like it's back on the market again--for the fourth time. This thing continues to be a monkey on somebody's back when it should be quite a profitable project.

[Captain Worley]

I wonder how much of it is caused by the parking situation. I'm always amazed at how many people complain about and won't park in aa garage, that one in particular.

[krazeeboi]

^I'd probably say very little--unless there were previous incidents that occurred there to make people nervous about parking there.

[Spartan]

There are two problems:

1) The tenants suck(ed).

2) The problem is that the whole thing sits behind this literal mountain of parking. IMO this place is proof that even when parking is readily available and in your face, if the physical design of the building is bad then its destine for failure. The Midtown concept to gut the thing and turn it into a street would be been much more successful, IMO.

[gman430]

There are two problems:

1) The tenants suck(ed).

2) The problem is that the whole thing sits behind this literal mountain of parking. IMO this place is proof that even when parking is readily available and in your face, if the physical design of the building is bad then its destine for failure. The Midtown concept to gut the thing and turn it into a street would be been much more successful, IMO.

3) Malls have been dying out for years and continue to do so. With VAS now open, there just are too many malls/lifestyle centers in the Columbia area for them to all be supported especially during this recession. That's what is happening in every city now-a-days.

[emerging.me]

Another new owner. Anyone have the scoop on their plans?

http://www.thestate.com/local/story/1160565.html

"...the group wants to restore the suffering mall, but they are not ready to talk about their plans.

'We want to put it back to where it once was, but with some wonderful things that will enhance it,' Jones said."

[Spartan]

I assume "putting it back where it once was" is a way of saying that they'll find some new tenants and make some aestheic improvements.

[perrykat]

I just don't know about this mall. The configuration is so strange and unusual. It feels like and looks like a parking garage. I just don't see how it can be successful like a regular mall. The ONLY thing I can think is if they could possibly snag Macy's from Columbia Place, that would be a draw and could maybe get them on track as a mall. But that's probably not gonna happen. They need to come up with a better name...."Midtown at Forest Acres" is not exactly the best name for a mall.

Plus, they've already ruined their food court with that Verizon thing.