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City Market antiques mall on Gervais Street in the Vista is up for sale, but it's business as usual for some 60 dealers, including Nell Chastain, left, and Sophie Sagrera, who look over some vases.
Posted on Mon, Oct. 08, 2007
Out with the old ... as one of the Vista's first stores plans to close
By DAWN HINSHAW, dhinshaw@thestate.com
An industrial-strength fan placed near the front door of the warehouse creates a hot summer breeze tinged with the smell of grandma's house.
Antiques, collectibles and plain old secondhand stuff is displayed everywhere, from chandeliers hanging on roughhewn beams to hooked rugs arranged on solid pine floors.
The 29-year-old City Market along Columbia's Gervais Street is filled with the reassuring presence of things past -- including a lack of air conditioning.
But the future is centered on newness and change: The market property is for sale.
City Market antique mall property for sale "A lot of people don't want to deal with the fact that it's not going to be here," mall manager Douschka Hutto said after yet another customer, checkbook in hand, completed her purchase with questions about when the antique mall is closing.
Hutto smiled, giving a subtle shrug of the shoulders.
The side-by-side warehouses on nearly an acre of land have been listed for sale since March. Owner Dottie Jordan recently invested in a $500 "open for business" banner to counter the uncertainty of a Realtor's "for sale" sign out front.
Jordan said she'll be happy staying put for another year, when her business-within-a-business celebrates its 30th anniversary.
Two decades ago, Jordan and Pam Harpootlian were early believers in the notion that Columbia's old riverfront warehouse district could become a vibrant destination for people who buy arts and antiques.
In 1986, the two business women became the first to get a city loan designed to spur investment in the Vista. They bought the warehouses where they operated an import company, later converting to antiques, for $555,000.
Now the property is on the market for $2.8 million. And the Gervais Street corridor is on the verge of losing the presence of retail antiques.
Charlton Hall Galleries, which holds auctions six times a year in a storefront two blocks up Gervais Street, is selling its property, too.
Company president Ronald Long said it's relocating to a fiveacre tract in Cayce after maintaining a presence in the Vista since the 1920s.
Owners of both businesses are choosing to leave because, they say, land values have gotten too high for antique stores.
"Antiques take up a lot of space and don't produce a lot of money," said Fred Delk, director of the Columbia Development Corp., an arm of city government. "That's why they're always in areas that are up and coming." But the Vista has arrived.
It has become a bar and restaurant village, one that's protective of the art galleries that were a part of the original vision, said architect Dale Marshall, vice-president of the Vista Guild, a merchants neighborhood group.
"The character of the neighborhood still needs to be defined based on the galleries and the art spaces," Marshall said, "because that's what makes us unique."
Marshall said he'll miss "the funky antique thing" in the core of the historic district; there were once four or five of them, he recalled.
At City Market, meanwhile, the heat doesn't seem to dissuade pink-faced shoppers who wander among the booths, where a pipedin radio announcer keeps company with the whir of oscillating fans.
Still, about a third of the mall's 60 dealers have their merchandise on sale, trying to generate more foot traffic during the dog days of summer.
Dealer Paul Moore said with the property for sale he's been downsizing, even though "it's the hunt" he loves about selling antiques.
Moore is philosophical about the owners' decision to sell -- "I take life as it is, and I'm not upset" -- but he winces at the potential loss of the buildings. Demolition seems likely.
While a city commission on historic preservation would have the final say, the buildings need new roofs. Heating and air-conditioning just isn't feasible.
One day this week, a woman looking for a pedestal for a marble bust dickered with the manager.
A college student who'd come in with her family walked out with an elegant glass bowl.
And West Columbia resident Earl Hickman poked around until he found a book to buy titled, "The Faces of South Carolina."
Hickman, who lives in West Columbia, said he's impressed with the Vista's transformation from dilapidated buildings to fine restaurants and art galleries.
"A few years ago, all this wasn't here," he said.
"It looks fantastic."
Reach Hinshaw at (803) 771- 8641.
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ANTIQUE MALLS
There are several antique malls to check out in Richland, Lexington and Kershaw counties. Among them:
CAMDEN ANTIQUES MARKET 830 S. Broad St. Camden (803) 432-0818 Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 1-6 p.m. Sunday
CITY MARKET ANTIQUES 705 and 707 Gervais St. Columbia (803) 799-7722 Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; 1:30-5:30 p.m. on Sunday; closed Monday
COLUMBIA ANTIQUE MALL 602 Huger St. Columbia (803) 765-1584 Hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday HERITAGE ANTIQUE MALL 113 E. DeKalb St. Camden (803) 425-4191 Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday OLD MILL ANTIQUE MALL 310 State St. West Columbia (803) 796-4229 Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 1:30- 5:30 p.m. Sunday
OLE TOWNE ANTIQUE MALL 2956 Broad River Road Columbia (803) 772-5057 Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 1:30-6 p.m. Sunday
SPRING VALLEY ANTIQUE MALL 8808 Two Notch Road Columbia (803) 736-7575 Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 1:30-6 p.m. Sunday
WEST COLUMBIA ANTIQUE MALL 205 Wattling Road West Columbia (803) 794-7197 Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 1-5:30 p.m. Sunday
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