Moe Levy’s pawn shop leaving downtown Columbia

The last of the legendary Moe Levy’s business empire will fade from the Columbia landscape soon when the landmark family’s pawn shop closes its doors at the end of January.

The lease on Moe Levy’s Reliable Loan and Pawn Shop on Assembly Street is up, said owner Harold Rittenberg, son-in-law of the late Moe and Florence Levy, the businesses’ founders. Everything in the 3,000-square foot store must go.

“It’s kind of spooky,” Rittenberg said Tuesday. “We’re having a sale.”

Moe Levy’s Jeans, the iconic, family-owned men and women’s apparel store at the corner of Lady and Assembly streets, closed a year-and-a-half ago shortly after the death of 106-year-old Florence Levy, mother of Rittenberg’s wife, Gloria. The store opened in 1920.

The Levys also operated a liquor store on the Assembly Street property between the pawn shop and the apparel store. They also rented space in back for a pool hall and a steak house behind the apparel store fronting Lady Street.

Rittenberg, 85, took over the pawn shop business in 1950 after marrying into the family and built it up into a four-store operation with satellite pawn shops in Irmo, Charlotte and Columbia on Parklane Road.

When Rittenberg’s son, Jerry, passed away in 2013, the same year as his grandmother, Florence, Harold Rittenberg said he knew it was time to start getting out of the family business. He sold the iconic building at Assembly and Lady streets to Columbia developer Ben Arnold, who said he wanted to bring a national retailer or restaurant chain to the Moe Levy property.

“For Sale” signs remain in the windows of Moe Levy’s.

Downtown real estate has become very expensive, Rittenberg said, noting his two-year rental agreement with Arnold after the sale of the property in the fall 2012 is $2,500 per month. Staying longer would cost him about $6,000 per month, Rittenberg said.

“I could stay probably until August, but I don’t want to, because of that (the higher rent). It’s a struggle.”

In addition, the Moe Levy’s property needs a roof, Rittenberg said, which he has priced at about $80,000. The iconic Moe Levy’s sign that hung on Lady Street has been donated to the S.C. State Museum, Rittenberg said.

But, the Christmas holidays can be a busy time for pawn shops, Rittenberg said. Prices have been slashed on everything in the store, except Rittenberg’s coin collection, up to 60 percent, he said.

The most unusual items in the store include a couple of 70-year-old antique adding machines and a clear plastic toilet seat embedded with $150 worth of silver coins, selling for a cool $250.

In the end though, Rittenberg might not be completely done with his business career, he said, hinting at one more idea he might try, though he didn’t want to reveal details.

“I can’t go home and go to the grocery store everyday,” Rittenberg said.

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 8:49 PM with the headline "Moe Levy’s pawn shop leaving downtown Columbia."