Richland Mall (South Carolina)

Richland Mall

Exterior view of Richland Mall, December 2017
Location	Columbia, South Carolina, United States
Coordinates	34°01′00″N 80°59′25″W / 34.0168°N 80.9903°W / 34.0168; -80.9903Coordinates: 34°01′00″N 80°59′25″W / 34.0168°N 80.9903°W / 34.0168; -80.9903
Address	3400 Forest Drive
Opening date	1961
Management	Richland Joint Venture
No. of stores and services	6
No. of anchor tenants	3 (1 open, 2 vacant)
Total retail floor area	713,992 square feet (66,332.0 m2) [1] (GLA)
No. of floors	2 (3 in former Dillard's)
Website	www.richlandmallsc.com

Interior view of largely vacant mall, December 2017

Richland Mall is an enclosed shopping mall near the intersection of Forest Drive and Beltline Blvd in Columbia, South Carolina. The mall has one anchor store, Belk, and two junior anchors Barnes & Noble and a Regal Cinemas in a rooftop location. There are two additional vacant anchor stores that have both been majority vacant for nearly 15 years. The mall is nearly 100% vacant, with none of the few remaining inline tenants being retail-oriented. The mall has never received a major renovation and has an ornate late 1980s-early 1990s interior aesthetic.

Original Mall (1961-1987)[]

Richland Mall opened in 1961 as the first mall in Columbia. It was an open-air mall, typical of first-generation malls from the mid-twentieth century, and anchored by J.B. White, a major department store based in Augusta, Georgia. that was prevalent in South Carolina. A movie theater was also on a southeastern outlot of the mall. Among the original twenty-seven stores were Winn-Dixie, Eckerd, and Woolworth. By the 1980s, Richland Mall's open-air mall concept was considered outdated and by that time there was significant competition in the market from newer indoor malls such as Dutch Square and especially Columbia Mall. In the late 80s, L. J. Hooker bought the complex with plans of converting it into not only a much larger indoor mall, but also making it a high-end shopping destination unparalleled in the region. The stores remaining in the original Richland Mall had their leases terminated in 1987 with the exception of the J.B. White, which the new mall would be built around. Two outparcels would also be unaffected. Winn-Dixie would be one of the last stores to close on December 23, 1987, before the massive redevelopment project got underway. ^[2]

Richland Fashion Mall (1988-1996)[]

The mall was renamed Richland Fashion Mall and was built in two major phases. The first phase included a two-level wing extending from the current J.B. White to a new anchor store, Bonwit Teller, which opened in October 1988. The second phase of the mall opened in November 1989, included another two-level wing extending from the other side of J.B. White to end at another new anchor: Parisian. Both Bonwit Teller and Parisian were new to not only Columbia, but all of South Carolina. A large four-level parking garage was built that covered most of the front of the mall, as well as the entire length of the roof being made accessible to parking as well to combat the fact that the mall was already on a small plot of land, and the expansion had made traditional parking almost impossible. J.B. White was also expanded during this time to include a third level. A relocation for the movie theater opened on top of this in 1990, known as the Litchfield Theatres Litchfield 7. The mall also included a large aviation-themed food court that wrapped around the backside of J.B. White on the upper level. The food court made it possible to avoid the walk-thru of J.B. White to get from one side of the mall to the other. A TGI Fridays was also apart of the rebirth of the mall. A few of the stores that had locations in the original Richland Mall reopened once the redevelopment was complete including S&S Cafeteria and Eckerd. Woolworth also opened a "Woolworth's Express" on the upper level. The mall struggled with customer traffic and management/financial problems from the very beginning. LJ Hooker, who developed the mall, was in serious debt and filed for bankruptcy in 1989. In recent years, the company had gained majority controlling interest in four department stores including Bonwit Teller and Parisian. Parisian's original owners bought it back from LJ Hooker, but Bonwit Teller was mostly liquidated along with the American operations of LJ Hooker. Bonwit Teller closed in August 1990, leaving an empty anchor in a still practically brand-new mall. In 1993 Dillard's opened in the former anchor space and expanded the store significantly. The mall was still underperforming however and was nearly half-vacant. In 1995, the Litchfield Theater became a Regal Cinemas.

Changes (1996-1999)[]

In the late 1990s, the mall underwent a series of small renovations. The first of these occurred in 1996 when the mall's name changed back to simply Richland Mall. The grand entrance stating "Richland Fashion Mall" was demolished and replaced with a new facade. In 1997 a Barnes & Noble opened next to the new main entrance of the mall. TGI Fridays was also relocated from the Parisian wing to the Dillard's wing on the side of the new mall entrance, opposite Barnes & Noble. In 1998 J.B. White's parent company, Mercantile Stores, was bought by Dillard's. As part of the Dillard's/Belk store swap in malls that already had a Dillard's, the J.B. White became Belk in September 1998. In 1999, the large, aviation-themed food court was closed and relocated to the lower level on the Parisian end of the mall. The original food court would be refurbished into a call center. ^[3]

2000s[]

Into the new millennium, the mall continued to decline. Dillard's closed their store in 2003. Since then, it has operated as Blacklion- a furniture store based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a store simply called "The Department Store." Later, it also operated briefly as a ping-pong club. The mall had changed hands several times over the years, and in 2005 was purchased by Peerless Development Group. They planned an extensive renovation and renamed Richland Mall to Midtown at Forest Acres. Nothing ever came of their aspirations for the property though. They defaulted on their mall loan and by 2007 the mall was back up for sale. Parisian left around this time, closing in February 2007. ^[4] In April 2009, the Columbia Children's Theatre relocated to Richland. They moved into the retail space that had previously been an Express clothing store. In summer 2017, they moved downstairs in the space where Eckerd drug used to be.

2010-Present[]

In April 2010, the mall was sold to Century Capitol Group who brought on Kahn Development Company in an attempt to breathe new life into the mall. The first thing they did was change the name from Midtown at Forest Acres back to Richland Mall.

On January 30, 2011, S&S Cafeteria departed Richland Mall and was replaced by locally-owned Sadie's American Cafeteria. Sadie's closed and in 2013 the space was occupied by Jackson Family Cafeteria, a buffet which closed in 2016.

In March 2013, TGI Fridays departed Richland Mall and was replaced with The Seafood Academy which closed in 2016.

In 2018, Gymboree permanently closed its Richland Mall location, after 20 years of business.

Current stores include: Belk, Columbia Children's Theatre, Regal Cinemas, IASVBO - PwC (Private Business Office), and Barnes and Noble.

CivvieSupply, a premium patriotic and military-inspired clothing brand, opened a fulfillment center in the mall in 2019.^[5]

References[]