Mast heats up Main Street’s fortunes

When Connie Jones Hancock was a little girl, Christmas meant a trip to Belk on Main Street in Columbia to enjoy the window displays and sit on Santa’s knee. Spring bought a pilgrimage to the Tots and Teens store for a new pair of Easter shoes. And a perfect Saturday included a trip to the Tapp's soda fountain for an egg salad sandwich and a bowl of its famous vegetable soup.

Today, those department stores are long gone. And Main Street is on the crest of a wave of redevelopment swelled in part by the opening of Mast General Store a little over six months ago.

Hancock is part of that revitalization. She operates one of the newest and most unique businesses on Main Street — Wedding 101, in which she advises brides for free on the vendors and venues available for their special day. The vendors pay to be featured in her stunning space on the second floor of the building at 1537 Main St., near the Columbia Museum of Art.

“I’m excited to see people coming back downtown,” the Dentsville native said. “I remember shopping and eating and being on Main Street and seeing all that fall away.”

Wedding 101 is one of four new businesses that have opened or announced plans to open on or near Main Street in the past two months — and more likely are on the way. The others are Cajun restaurant J. Gumbo’s, wine bar Wine Down and Something Special Florist.

Combined with Mast General Store, Cowboy Brazilian Steakhouse, Paradise Ice and other retailers who landed on Main in 2011, they are evidence that the renaissance of the venerable street is more than just a pipe dream, according to Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, who has been one of the street’s biggest promoters since taking office.

“When it’s all said and done, we’ll be looking at a downtown with a restored historic character and a limitless potential for the future,” he said.

Many of the retailers credited Mast General Store, in part, for their decision to locate on Main Street, as well as a general feeling that things are on the upswing downtown.

“Being across from Mast General helped influence us to move (downtown),” said David Withers, co-owner of Something Special Florist, which sells everything from inexpensive bouquets to $250,000 wedding extravaganzas. “But everyone knows where Main and Taylor is. It’s the crossroads of Columbia. And we wanted to be somewhere that was centrally located.”

The store, now located on St. Andrews Road, will be moving to the ground floor of the Silvers Building near the intersection of Main and Taylor streets in March.

Mast General Store itself – which was touted by city leaders as a catalyst for growth – has proven to be an early success. The homey North Carolina-based retailer won’t reveal their sales figures. But pre-Christmas crowds were heavy. And the number of cars generated by the store, located in the former Lourie’s Building at Main and Taylor streets, has the city rethinking traffic patterns around the once-struggling 1600 block of Main Street.

“We’ve been welcomed with open arms by Columbia,” general manager Ruth Smyrl said.

Adding to the Mast appeal is a new parking garage being built at Taylor and Sumter streets, the relocation of the Nickelodeon Theater to the 1600 block and the area’s central location to the rest of the metro area.

Franklin Adams, whose Charleston development firm purchased and is renovating the McCrory’s Building adjacent to Mast into retail space and offices, said a variety of factors played into their decision.

It is Adams Development’s first foray into the Columbia market, and Adams said the company is close to landing tenants for the building.

“There’s been a lot of strong interest,” he said.

Giles Huggins, owner of J. Gumbos, a Louisville, Ky., chain, said he picked the location because he wanted to eventually open stores in the suburbs. It’s a Cajun restaurant, which opened Dec. 7 at the corner of Washington and Sumter streets in the old Quiznos location.

“Being downtown, there is a mix of people from all over Columbia,” he said. “That will give us a lot more name recognition when we expand.”

Another boost for Main came New Year’s Eve, when an estimated 20,000 people descended on the street to party down with Parliament Funkadelic. And hundreds of them decided to do their partying in Wine Down, which was inside the festival fence. The wine bar is located across from the Columbia Museum of Art, and features free “nibbles” with a glass or bottle.

The standing-room-only crush in the nine-table space took owner Patti Butler, who had only been open for four days, by surprise. “It was trial by fire,” Butler said this week, as she was restocking her devastated shelves.

But not all is sweetness and light. Like any retail area, there have been successes and failures.

Hennessy’s Restaurant at Main and Blanding streets, a Columbia institution for three decades, is closed and for sale. And music venue The White Mule shuttered last week.

But despite the losses, Matt Kennell, executive director of City Center Partnership, which encourages and guides investment in the central business district, said the street’s momentum should continue to build. He noted that:

•  New office buildings near the State House continue to bring workers downtown

•  Residential developments like the Arnold Companies’ The Palms on Main and Lady streets will attract new residents

•  A growing arts scene spurred by the Tapp's Art center, the Arcade and First Thursdays will add to the street’s hip factor

•  And city grants for new facades will improve the street’s appearance

“You’re going to see continued interest in 2012,” he said. “A lot of people are excited. It’s going great guns.”