Shop Around: Rosewood Crossing begins to re-open after flood

Two months after Gills Creek overflowed in a historic rainstorm, businesses soaked by floodwaters at a shopping center on Devine Street near Rosewood Drive are opening doors finally.

Five stores have opened or will open by early January at Rosewood Crossing, including a liquor, beer and wine superstore that uncorks Wednesday.

The major retailers that were forced to close with the flooding — Marshall’s, Michael’s and PetSmart — should re-open in the spring.

“It’s been a big team effort from everyone in the shopping center and within each business,” said Wylie Pearce, who plans to his second Midlands area Sola Salon at the shopping center next month, “but we feel like things are starting to turn around here.”

Rosewood Crossing, on the site of a shuttered Kmart store, is supposed to be part of the retail makeover the area east of downtown Columbia started with the Whole Foods-anchored Cross Hill Market.

The center’s three anchor tenants were just starting to draw business when floodwaters that washed away homes and cars rushed through on Oct. 4. Parts of the Columbia area were drenched with as much rain in one day as they received in the previous three months combined.

Parts of Devine Street and Fort Jackson Boulevard were closed as floodwaters remained for days and crews repaired roads.

All three major anchors stores at Rosewood Crossing had nearly eight feet of water damage, resulting in a complete loss of inventory, according to Bright Meyers Development Co., which owns the shopping center. Drywall must be replaced, and electrical systems were damaged.

Work at the three stores is ongoing. They are expected to reopen by early March, Bright Meyers said.

Along Devine Street next to the creek, the Jersey Mike’s sandwich shop also re-opened last week.

In the meantime, other stores in Rosewood Crossing shopping center are beginning to open for business — although later than they would have liked.

Kirkland’s opened its doors at the shopping center last Tuesday. The home decor store was originally scheduled to open earlier this fall.

Kay Jewelers is expected to open by year’s end.

At his salon, Pearce said the new custom cabinets and countertops had been installed just the week before Gills Creek spilled over.

“We had to take everything down to the studs from eight feet down and do a bio cleanse to get all the water pumped out,” he said. “We are probably 90 percent done right now and it looks great.”

George McLaughlin is ready to open the second location of his Bottles beverage superstore.

Bottles was on schedule to open mid-October.

“When the flood came through, we were about to install shelving and stock the floor,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin had already waited a year to open as developers worked on the project, including lining up shopping center’s other stores.

Since the storm, McLaughlin and his business partners have worked to get the 15,000-square-foot store open before Christmas with thousands of varieties of spirits, wine and beer.

McLaughlin moved to Columbia in 1997 and opened and operated a local McAlister’s Deli franchise before selling it in 2007 and moving with his family to Isle of Palms. He developed the idea for Bottles in 2009 and opened shop in Mt. Pleasant in 2011.

“It has been great to watch Columbia evolve in the past 20 years,” McLaughlin said. “To me, it is a market that can support new business and is in a constant state of growth. It made perfect sense to open our second store here.”