Long awaited Killian’s Crossing gaining momentum

A major retail and residential development in Northeast Richland is gaining steam as the economy improves.

The 400-acre Killian’s Crossing development, which sat empty for more than a decade before roads were built on the site last year and a couple of fast-food restaurants opened, is gaining its first major tenant.

Kroger will start construction this spring on a massive grocery store — with a jewelry counter, a clothing section and medical services — at the development, at the corner of Killian and Farrow roads.

“This whole project will do wonderful things for that area,” said Marianne Bickle, department chair for retailing at the University of South Carolina. “That is a great spot. There are so many consumers moving out there, and you just look at that huge, huge area that’s right there. ...

“I firmly believe that within the next 10 years, we are not even going to recognize that area.”

Often, it takes just one or two major retail anchors, such as Kroger, to give a project momentum, Bickle said. “It will drive more retail” into the project, she said.

Jewelry with your milk?

The development was pitched as a lifestyle center when developer Matthew Congdon began marketing it in 2006 — three years after his family’s company bought the property and just a year before the economy fell into the Great Recession.

Killian’s Crossing is approved for 1.3 million square feet of shopping and dining space, 550,000 square feet of office space and more than 2,000 housing units. Last year, Congdon said he will focus on retail development first and, then, will start trying to fill out the development with homes.

As the economy has improved over the past few years, several small shopping centers and national retailers new to the area have opened in the Midlands.

In 2012, for example, Whole Foods opened its first Columbia-area store in Cross Hill Market, a new neighborhood shopping center on Fort Jackson Boulevard near Devine Street. Just months later, Trader Joe’s brought its brand to Columbia on Forest Drive. Last year, Nordstrom Rack opened on Harbison Boulevard.

The Kroger coming to Killian’s Crossing will be a first-of-its-kind concept for the Midlands, according to spokesman Glynn Jenkins.

Branded a Kroger Marketplace, the 124,000-square-foot store will include a gas station, a drive-through pharmacy, a Starbucks, a Fred Meyer jewelry center, the Little Clinic, an apparel department and a Chef on the Run, providing prepared meals. The store, which will employ up to 300, is set to open in April 2016, he said.

Georgia has four Kroger Marketplace stores, but this will be the first one in South Carolina, Jenkins said.

Gander Mountain next?

Industry speculation abounds that Killian’s Crossing also will land a major big-box store this year that will be new to the Midlands, an outdoor sporting-and-lifestyle store.

Several outdoor sporting stores have opened in South Carolina in recent years, but the Killian’s Crossing speculation has centered on Gander Mountain.

Gander Mountain opened its first store in the state last year in North Charleston and will open another outlet in Myrtle Beach this year. The outdoors retailer is in the midst of a “pretty sizable expansion,” spokesman Jess Myers said.

However, Myers could not confirm if Gander Mountain plans to open a store at Killian’s Crossing.

‘Devil ... in the details’

The timing for the long-awaited Killian’s Crossing development could be just right, Bickle said.

The last major lifestyle center in Northeast Richland opened only to run into troubles when the economy tanked.

Growth at the Village at Sandhill, five miles from Killian’s Crossing, was stymied by the recession. The developer of that Clemson Road lifestyle center, Alan Kahn, has struggled with bankruptcy, selling off parts of the property. And while several big-box anchor stores are open at the Village, including Academy Sports and Home Depot, some of its smaller buildings have struggled to gain or retain retailers.

But with the economy on the upswing and consumers feeling more confident than they have in years, a new lifestyle center in a good location has a chance of being very successful, Bickle said.

“When projects take a long time, sometimes that’s what makes it really successful,” she said. “The devil really is in the details.”

This story was originally published January 29, 2015 at 8:03 PM.