Did Columbia’s actions force iconic Constan Car Wash to close? Lawyers say yes
The owner of the now-demolished Constan Car Wash that operated along Gervais Street in Columbia’s Five Points neighborhood claims the city put the nearly 75-year-old operation out of business.
Owner O. Stanley “Chip” Smith wants the city to pay over $4 million after it took down a retaining wall in 2021 that Smith says caused unmanageable flooding at the carwash site. The Car Wash closed in 2022 after 73 years in business. The building was demolished in late 2023.
A judge this week will decide if the case against the city has legal merit, years after Smith filed the initial lawsuit against the city over the issue.
Smith’s lawsuit centers on whether the city had a legal right to take down a retaining wall, which Smith built in 2018 after decades of recurring floods that are common in the low-lying Five Points area. Questions in the case include decades-old property agreements and an ownership debate.
Smith spent $40,000 to build the wall along a portion of the property’s Gervais Street boundary. A few years later, the city tore the wall down.
The lawsuit argues that the damage caused by the city started long before the wall was even built, because the city failed to properly address longtime flooding problems in the area.
Because the wall was taken down, the car wash ultimately was “ruined due to repetitive flooding, along with the livelihoods of those who worked there,” and forced to close, the lawsuit and Smith’s attorney Dick Harpootlian say.
Smith states the city’s actions caused $4.27 million in damage to him and the business he inherited from his father. He is also asking for attorneys fees to be paid by the city.
“This case is about a 75-year-old successful Columbia business that was destroyed by the city’s illegal actions,” Harpootlian told The State ahead of the first day of the trial.
Smith built the retaining wall with a permit from the city in 2018, and during the three years it stood the property didn’t flood, Harpootlian said. After the city took the wall down, the waters came back.
“He was flooded out of business,” Harpootlian said.
A spokesperson for the city declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing the city’s policy not to comment on pending litigation. In an answer to Smith’s lawsuit filed with the court, the city denied any wrongdoing.
A city attorney wrote in that document that the city “had every legal right to enter the property and remove the wall.”
The trial before judge Daniel Coble is expected to take three days, beginning Monday. Harpootlian could not guess how soon Coble would hand down a verdict in the case.
Constan was a beloved fixture in Columbia. Its founders, married couple O. Stanley Smith Jr and his wife, Connie (the “Con” and “Stan” in Constan), are credited with helping stoke excitement for the Riverbanks Zoo. Smith famously bought a tiger cub named Happy and housed him at the car wash – a decade before the Riverbanks Zoo opened. Happy died at the zoo a few years after it opened.
This story was originally published June 23, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
