419 replies to this topic

[vicupstate]

StevenRocks, on May 5 2005, 02:19 PM, said:

Is it me, or did Columbia have an unusually high concentration of department stores in the late '80s-early '90s?  I remember Belk, Macy's, Tapp's, J.B. White, Bonwit Teller, Parisian, Rich's, Dillard's, and plans for Miller & Rhoads and B. Altman.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It was often stated at the time that Cola had too many department stores and would experience a shakeout.  That did happen as Tapp's, Bonwitt Teller, and Macy's all closed in a year or so.  As I remember, Belk also closed their Columbia stores, but later came back to the market.  Belk was experiencing internal struggles among the Belk family owners.  That contributed to their problems.  

waccamatt, on May 5 2005, 06:06 PM, said:

Actually. Bonwit Teller didn't do too bad at Richland Mall. It was the chain as a whole that went bankrupt. I don't remember any mention of Miller & Rhoads or B. Altman coming to Columbia, but the rest were all here.

P.S. I still have 2 of those $80 ties I bought at Bonwits in the late 80's. The adage is true: You get what you pay for.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have plenty of ties from the '80s that are still wearable, and they all cost less than $30.  I agree that you have to pay for quality, but quality doesn't cost that much IMO.  Besides, I will spill something on them, long before a cheap tie wears out. LOL

[emerging.me]

Hey guys... the latest -- so I read in the Free Times -- is that they've got to rezone the area for the new plan to move forward. Forest Acres City Council is gonna meet on June 22nd to discuss and if they approve it then a public hearing will be held on June 28th. I may write a quick email of support. I don't see why they wouldn't rezone it.

BLURB:
"The redesign calls for at least 700 office and residential condominiums, 350 of which would be for a retirement community. But the city would have to rezone the mall from general-commercial to a planned-development district, says city manager Mark Williams."

[krazeeboi]

Forest Acres "City" Council.....that's funny.

[Hybrid0NE]

krazeeboi, on Jun 24 2005, 04:19 AM, said:

Forest Acres "City" Council.....that's funny.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah but they'll end up getting the last laugh when they swallow up 15k+ residents in an undercover annexation of NE richland county.

[sonofaque86]

Edited by sonofaque86, 25 June 2005 - 05:55 PM.

[Spartan]

That would definately start an annexation war worse than the one in Charleston.

[jwilliek]

For those that are interested, I noticed there was an article about the recent Forest Acres Council Meeting on the front page of the Metro section of The State newspaper this morning.  You can find the article online here:  The State (click!)
I thought it was a pretty neat article.  In a nutshell, they talked about how residents are in support of the plan, and that the developers plan to start after Christmas, but that it could take up to 20 years to finish in it's entirety. (yikes!)  I'm liking the idea of adding two stories of condominiums on top of the parking garage (which is alaready 3 stories high).  I wonder how much those will go for when they're finished!

[HAMMETTM]

jwilliek, on Jul 13 2005, 11:32 AM, said:

In a nutshell, they talked about how residents are in support of the plan, and that the developers plan to start after Christmas, but that it could take up to 20 years to finish in it's entirety. (yikes!)  I'm liking the idea of adding two stories of condominiums on top of the parking garage (which is alaready 3 stories high).  I wonder how much those will go for when they're finished!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why would this have to take 20 years?

[GSP Tiger]

HAMMETTM, on Jul 13 2005, 12:16 PM, said:

Why would this have to take 20 years?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Costs; there are not enough funds to go around for designing, building, decorationg, labor, etc.

[Spartan]

HAMMETTM, on Jul 13 2005, 12:16 PM, said:

Why would this have to take 20 years?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

BoDragon, on Jul 13 2005, 01:26 PM, said:

Costs; there are not enough funds to go around for designing, building, decorationg, labor, etc.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You also have to consider that it will be done slowly, but as each section is finished they will start selling it. It wont be 20 years before people an businesses start moving in, just 20 years before they can say "all done!"

[Trumble]

http://www.thestate....te/12170693.htm

Sketch of "plan" in today's Neighbors section.

Edited by Trumble, 21 July 2005 - 11:40 AM.

[Trumble]

Here's the sketch... I hosted it at photobucket.com, and they reduced it to 183K, so it's somewhat small, but you can get a general idea.

Since a lot of this is gonna be on the roof of the existing garage (I assume somewhat modified in places), I'm a little perplexed as to why they're trying to make it look like street level of the new buildings on the Forest Drive side will be street level with Forest Drive.  If anyone here went to the meeting and can offer insight, please do.

But overall, I like the fact that they're not leveling the site to build it... and that the parking garages are staying.  I wonder if they're planning to take a level off.

Edited by Trumble, 21 July 2005 - 11:48 AM.

[DigitalSky]

thats quite a transformation

[Trumble]

Sure is.  You know, I guess maybe they're planning to sort of meld those buildings on the FD side with the facade of the parking garage.

So, how do they put real grass up there all over the roof and still have drainage?  I guess all the trees would be in "planters" or some other kind of receptacle, right?

[StevenRocks]

^ The grass and trees on the rooftop areas will both be in planters, more than likely.  Luckily with the grass, roots don't grow down very far.

[Hybrid0NE]

That's different than I was envisioning, I assumed they would raise the street level above the garage to accommadate the condos being built on top but I still like the plan. Also, Columbia getting an official "Midtown" is cool.

[Trumble]

StevenRocks, on Jul 21 2005, 07:40 PM, said:

^ The grass and trees on the rooftop areas will both be in planters, more than likely.  Luckily with the grass, roots don't grow down very far.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Grass in planters?  Hmmm... maybe you mean large areas dedicated to shallow dirt for grass... and, ya still gotta have drainage of some sort... seems like dirt would clog it up if you got rain like we've been having... and you'd have a mini-bog or swamp.

Spartan PMed me and asked for the full-sized file of that drawing... I emailed it to him and he'll be posting it.  When you see it, you'll be thinking those trees are pretty large to be in planters.

And even if trees that large can be grown in planters, they better be bolted down very securely if they're gonna withstand the typical 50-60 mph wind gusts that occur during many thunderstorms around here.

If anyone went to the meeting and/or knows more about how some of this stuff like grass will be done, speak up.

[GSP Tiger]

The design looks very interesting.

[Spartan]

Still working on that image.

The grass wouldn't be that hard to do. I question the drainage methods though. As for the trees.... Carabbas has them and they seem to do ok

I am having trouble picturing this thing. It seems like the bulidings will be built around the existing stores, literally. The image, however, looks like they will build the neww aroundthe old then tear down the old creating that park thing.

[Trumble]

If you need me to reduce it by half or something, dimension-wise, and resend it, just let me know.

Edited by Trumble, 22 July 2005 - 12:50 PM.