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Columbia Economic Notes


emerging.me

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Yep. It also looks like the 6- and 7-story hotels could be the beginnings of a mini-skyline starting to develop in the area. I wouldn't be surprised to see some lowrise and/or midrise office buildings come to the vicinity. Colliers Keenan's midyear office market report stated that Class A space in the Northeast submarket is 94.5% occupied.

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I can't for the life of me remember where the original discussion for the Inferno relocation to Lexington was taking place. But a new update on that is in The State today. Lexington County just approved the sale of some land in St Andrews on Bush River Road at St Andrews Road for a new arena. This is quite different from being located near the airport.

"The new arena plan calls for seating for 5,300 for hockey games and 5,900 for concerts. It will have one-level seating with the concourse area on the top, along with the suites. It will include 25 luxury suites ranging from 10-20 people. and will feature a skylite rotunda main entrance where patrons can purchase tickets and visit the hockey pro shop."

So, this is pretty big news. I'm not sure that this location makes much more sense than the airport, but I was never a fan of the idea of moving the Inferno out of downtown to start with. At least it will be another decent location for mid-sized concerts.

http://www.thestate.com/news/story/199697.html

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I like this location better. Hopefully it will spur some much-needed development along the Bush River Road corridor.

And I actually think it's better for the Inferno to build a new arena outside of downtown (even though I would have preferred a location a bit closer in). If they were to do so, there would be THREE arenas downtown. Talk about overload!

In other news, the Free Times reports in this week's edition that site preparations for the new $80 million State Farmers Market are under way off Pineview Road near Bluff Road and I-77. The market has been in the works since 2005 and is scheduled to be completed in January 2009. However, five of six wholesale vendors who had verbally committed to moving to the new site have dropped out of the project, saying the relocation would be cost prohibitive. With that under consideration, County Councilwoman Kit Smith says there are three routes the project could take. The first is that the state abandons the project and the county gets the land back. The second option would be for the county and the state to continue the same vision for the Farmers Market and look for new wholesale vendors. The third option, she says, is to abandon big wholesalers and have only retail and mid-wholesalers similar to markets in Raleigh and Asheville.

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I think they should just close the Farmers Market. I think such an animal has passed its time. I'm a little biased, though, because I can't wait to see what USC would do with the old Farmers Market property.

What we really need is a great urban market!! But I don't see us being able to support that for quite some time.

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I'm a frequent market goer, but I remember the experience of my first few visits to the State Farmers Market when I just moved to town was one of almost intimidation. It's great once you know where to go, though (... when you know where you get a huge box of local red peppers for $10, watermelons for $1, tomatoes picked the same day, local honey....) I truly wish it would have more of an urban market feel, though, and with more specialty produce. And more small vendors/hobbyists selling their specialty homemade breads, cheeses, preserves etc. My favorite market in this country is Union Square in NY. European markets are true destinations. Surrounded by caf

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I think the biggest problem with the current market is the location. It is in a mostly industrial area and not terribly close to major residential areas and the land will be much more valuable for football related activities. Like I said, though, I'm biased because I'd like to see something cool there for football season.

P.S. If it were transformed into an urban market, it would be cool, but I don't think the location would lend itself to that.

Edited by waccamatt
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I really hope that they don't close down the best buy farther down two notch, but I think they will because then they will have one in the "trendy" northeast suburbs, Harbison, and the up and coming Lexington. I think that our area can support more of the businesses mentioned in the article.

Just so you know, the next Best Buy in northeast Columbia will be an ADDITIONAL location, not a replacement for any current stores!!! :shades:

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I think the biggest problem with the current market is the location. It is in a mostly industrial area and not terribly close to major residential areas and the land will be much more valuable for football related activities. Like I said, though, I'm biased because I'd like to see something cool there for football season.

P.S. If it were transformed into an urban market, it would be cool, but I don't think the location would lend itself to that.

Boo, Hiss!!! ;-)

I love the farmer's market and have gone their often since I was a child. That's where most of my family's Christmas tres came from when I was a kid, and an awful lot of the produce we ate growing up

I do have to say that I use the Cayce farmer's market much more nowadays (much more convenient). I also have to say that this is another typical example of USC screwing over someone, in this case Richland County, although they aren't blameless in this fiasco.

It is going to be interesting to see what they do with the land they acquired...

And, YEA!!! on the Best Buy news!

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A lack of money and problems rezoning land have prompted developers and Blythewood town officials to scale back plans for the proposed multimillion-dollar town center. While final project plans are still being worked out, the revisions might include fewer condominiums and less office space. But the project still could include an inn with 40 to 50 rooms and some retail space, town officials say.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have no problem with that location. A farmer's market fits Lexington County's image and we're all the Columbia area. I don't mean the image thing as a negative. My agrarian roots run very deep on both sides. I think we can look forward to more neighborhood farmer's market sites because of the efforts of the man who lost to Hugh Weathers in the commissioner of agriculture election.

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