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The Village at Sandhill


StevenRocks

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I read the article; sounds like a nice idea.  With more local control, I hope that Bi-Lo can remain competitive and responsive, and a store like this can't hurt.

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I think it will be succesful if anything b/c of the newness of the store and that development out there. I'm sure it will draw people in from as far away as Lee County.

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I took some pics, It's coming along nicely. There's an area where it looks kinda new-urbany underconstruction but i'd like it more if there was less surface parking. What's so bad about building a garage?

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Yeah... this is my problem with it. There are a number of things holding it back from being a true TND/NU town center type of place. I exchanged some emails about it with Laurence Aurbach at New Towns/TheTown Paper (www.tndtownpaper.com). Here's what he had to say...

Based on the renderings, Village at Sandhill will have two pleasant retail

streets. However, the plan is so dominated by surface parking that I wonder

whether its character will be closer to Houston than historic Beaufort or

Charleston. Additional photographs might help clarify this.

The street grid has good internal connectivity, but even so, most of the

residential buildings appear to be isolated in pods and surrounded by

parking, rather than being integrated in a walkable network with the rest of

the development. (There is one village green in the residential area, a

very welcome feature.) Several of the outlying big boxes are surrounded by

berms float in parking. The overall orientation to the automobile is

typified by the 45-foot-high entry sign.

In summary, Village at Sandhill appears to be a hybrid between traditional

patterns, suburban multifamily development, a power center and a lifestyle

center.

I really wish they had gone all the way with this one. Would have been cooler.

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BILO Super Center!?!

bilo.jpg

BILO Super Center

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Super Bi-Lo is nothing special. There's one here in Greensboro... In the two times I've been there it's not too much diff. from a regular store, except it had a starbucks and a seating area. The service wasn't very nice either time though :(

superbilogb.JPG

Hopefully the Columbia one will be much better!

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Super Bi-Lo is nothing special.  There's one here in Greensboro... In the two times I've been there it's not too much diff. from a regular store, except it had a starbucks and a seating area.  The service wasn't very nice either time though :(

superbilogb.JPG

Hopefully the Columbia one will be much better!

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Wow that's interesting the article said it was supposed to be the only one of its kind. Does the one in Greensboro sell clothes and all the other crap that Wal-Mart would sell?

Has anyone been to the Super-Bilo yet at the village to see how it compares to super walmart?

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Wow that's interesting the article said it was supposed to be the only one of its kind. Does the one in Greensboro sell clothes and all the other crap that Wal-Mart would sell?

Has anyone been to the Super-Bilo yet at the village to see how it compares to super walmart?

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No it's not that super, it's only around 55,000 square feet i think so there are some services like the Cafe... but it is basically a Bi-Lo that's bigger. but they don't sell clothes or anything like that

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We went to Super Bi-Lo at Sandhill on Saturday afternoon. It was a friggin' madhouse!!! The store is really cool looking. Crazy insane bakery. And just overall really well designed and well stocked.

On the negative side... I know it was grand opening, but it was an absolute madhouse and the staff was completely unhelpful. In fact, they actually made things worse. There were more than a few times where I saw staff members just talking to eachother, standing in people's way (it was mad crowded).

It's a neat store, but if I lived over there I'd still choose Publix.

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Although I've not been to this particular Super Bi-lo, it doesn't look as impressive in size as the one in Knoxville, built several years ago. I wasn't overly impressed with that one either, as far as being an improvement on the regular stores. I was contracted with Royal Ahold to install model trains in several stores across the eastern U.S. awhile back, so I've definitely seen a few. :blink:

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Although I've not been to this particular Super Bi-lo, it doesn't look as impressive in size as the one in Knoxville, built several years ago.  I wasn't overly impressed with that one either, as far as being an improvement on the regular stores.  I was contracted with Royal Ahold to install model trains in several stores across the eastern U.S. awhile back, so I've definitely seen a few. :blink:

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oh yeah the Super Bi-Lo in Gboro has a train too

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I hate to sound like a grouch, and I'm sure that this shopping center will be a lot nicer than the standard strip mall, but this "Village" is really nothing more than a gussied-up strip mall. I've seen a lot of similar developments in different cities, and while they are much more pleasant shopping environments than your typical center, they in no way replicate the feeling of being in a real, urban shopping district. It seems to me that many developers have caught on that it is easier to get approval for these kinds of things than just the standard string of big boxes, so they push this type thing as "town centers".

I suppose the one bright light might be that this development could become the nucleus for some dense, more urban-style development out there in the suburbs. It would also be nice if this could serve as a transportation hub, with city bus lines stopping here, providing folks a nice way to get back and forth to downtown Columbia.

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I think its more of a mix between a strip mall and a standard mall. What we can see from the road is the ourlying stores. I have yet to see a picture of the interior area. Check out the site plan:

81837387984.jpg

I consider it the "mall of the future." While traditional malls are falling out of style, this type of development is going up everywhere. Greenville is working on one, and Charleston already has one in Mt Pleasant. Even Spartanburg is getting something similar, though it will be more residential and less commercial. Its just a trend. Would you rather see this type of development or a traditional mall?

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Would you rather see this type of development or a traditional mall?

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Neither actually. I would prefer to shop in an established, urban, business district. But I realize that may not be a viable option for many folks because of where they live. As I said, I'm certain this will be a more pleasant experience that going to your local Boxes 'R Us strip mall, but it still is a strip mall. Just one look at that rendering shows a series of shops awash in a sea of surface parking lots. Regardless of what flowery language developers may use, this is not a civic space or a town center. It is a shopping center. Now if you have to build a shopping center, it might as well be an attractive one, and I'm sure this one will be, and I hope that folks in the area enjoy shopping there.

But why, oh why, couldn't they get rid of one section of parking and turn it into a nice green park?

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The problem with what you said is how do you make that happen in suburbia?

I live in downtown Columbia, but it just doesn't have everything that I need. I usually have to go to Harbison or Woodhill Mall every month or two to get what I can't get downtown. Maybe once downtown becomes a fully functional place on its own people will be encouraged to create the same thing elsewhere in the city.

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That's really the issue when one asks "Why did downtown die out?"

Downtown didn't die just because people liked malls better. Downtown died out because it was dingy, overcrowded, and hard to access. When people got cars, they wanted a place to park them. Downtown couldn't provide that as well as the suburbs, and people had to pay for the privilege there. Downtown closed at 5 or 5:30, and people wanted to shop later. Downtown usually only accomodated that one night a week at the most. I could go on.

I'm not trying to trash downtowns, because in a sentimental way, I wish they'd come back. But there's no way you can trash the inadequacies of malls without also figuring out why they came to be in the first place.

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