Shop Around: Long-time Taylor Street business to relocate

Longtime downtown Columbia business The Key Shop will be moving from 1000 Taylor St.--a location where the business has been a landmark since 1969--to a larger space at 1815 Barnwell St., according to NAI Avant who represented The Key Shop and owner Jessie Nix in the purchase of the new space. Nix began working at The Key Shop as a manager in 1979 at age 17 and purchased the shop in 2014.

They Key Shop’s new location will be more than three times the size of its 1,850-square-foot Taylor Street location, totaling 10,150 square feet. The Barnwell Street location was purchased from Commercial Maintenance Service for $650,000. The Key Shop plans to operate out of 6,500 square feet of the space and lease the remaining space, according to NAI Avant. An official grand opening at the new location has not been set but store employees say the business is expected to open in the new facility in the beginning of 2017.

A full-service locksmith shop, The Key Shop opened in Columbia in 1925 and moved to the Taylor Street location in 1969.

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 10:08 AM with the headline "Shop Around: Long-time Taylor Street business to relocate."