Columbiana Centre is the Columbia mall that stayed open when others did not. In this region, that matters.
It opened in 1990 on the northwest side, in the Harbison shopping area. After that, more of the area's shopping concentrated there.
The older malls did not all survive in the same way. Richland Mall lost its main stores and moved toward being torn down and rebuilt. Dutch Square and Columbia Place lost much of the place they once held. Columbiana Centre stayed filled with stores.
But staying open did not mean staying the same. The price of lasting showed in the parts of the building that were taken out and in the new uses added at its doors. Those changes were not part of the original plan.
Columbiana Centre's Arches: The Interior Shoppers Remember
Repeated arches curve over the concourse, a Spanish and Mediterranean theme of warm-toned detail that sets Columbiana Centre apart from the plain neutral corridors common to malls of its era.
A carousel turns in the food court.
Since early 2026, a mural has run 235 feet along the vaulted upper walls above that food court, nine feet high, one 127-foot stretch showing the Columbia skyline and the rest carrying bridges, fountains, recreation, and cultural imagery.
It was painted by a Columbia-based artist through a City of Columbia public-art partnership with Columbiana Centre. None of it changed a single lease. It changed what fills the wall above the tables.
Pine Woods to Retail Corridor: The Harbison Site Before Columbiana Centre
Before construction, the site at 100 Columbiana Circle was still mostly undeveloped, with pine woods and new road infrastructure laid down to ready the ground for a major shopping center.
Harbison was already a planned suburban growth area northwest of downtown Columbia.
The region had enclosed malls, just not here: Dutch Square on the west side, Richland Mall in Forest Acres, and Columbia Place on the northeast side.
Columbiana Centre was built instead in the fast-growing corridor around Harbison Boulevard and Interstate 26, a 15-minute drive and 10 miles from downtown Columbia, reached from the interstate at Exit 103.
The developer was Homart Development Company, the mall-building subsidiary Sears created in 1959 to place its stores in growing suburbs.
The mall's arrival pulled the region's retail weight toward Harbison.
Columbiana Centre Opens in 1990 With Belk and Sears
Grand-opening coverage was dated July 25, 1990, placing the public opening in midsummer of that year.
The mall opened as a one-level enclosed plan, department stores joined by interior common areas, and its first two anchors were Belk and Sears.
The site plan set aside room for more anchors and future wings, which mattered sooner than anyone building a two-anchor center might expect.
Columbiana Centre was designed from the start to grow.
Adding Wings: Dillard's, J.B. White, and the Anchor Reshuffle
Dillard's arrived in 1993 in a new wing that extended the original layout and reshaped the center, giving it a stronger multi-anchor pull against Columbia's older malls.
J.B. White followed in 1995. Its run as a named anchor was short.
Late-1990s consolidation of department-store chains swept through the lineup: the former J.B. White space folded into Belk, the original Belk location became Parisian, and when Parisian left Columbiana Centre in 2006, JCPenney moved into that space.
The department-store structure held through all of it. The names on the doors kept changing, and sometimes the stores changed places too.
From Homart to Brookfield: Who Owned the Mall and the Money Behind It
Sears sold Homart in the mid-1990s, and General Growth Properties completed the purchase of Homart's regional-mall business on December 22, 1995, carrying Columbiana Centre into the General Growth portfolio.
At the end of 2013, General Growth owned the center outright, listed it at 827,700 square feet of leasable area, 268,700 of it in the mall and freestanding stores, and 98 percent leased, with Belk, Dillard's, JCPenney, and Sears as the listed anchors and $130.8 million in mortgage debt due in 2018.
Brookfield bought the part of General Growth it did not already own in 2018.
That September the mall was refinanced inside a $375 million package with two other malls, $137.3 million of it tied to Columbiana Centre, and an investment fund took a 49 percent stake in the group by contributing $152.3 million.
By 2020, the property was carried at a 46 percent ownership interest and occupancy of 96.2 percent, below the 98 percent of the prior decade but still a working, mostly full mall.
Inline stores were selling in the range of $428 to $443 per square foot, stronger than many enclosed malls struggling in the same years.
Dividing the Sears Box: Belk Men's, Dave & Buster's, and Restaurants
Sears closed in early 2014 after its lease was not renewed, one of many the chain shed in those years.
Liquidation began on January 17, 2014; the store and its Auto Center went dark by early March, and 97 people lost their jobs.
Rather than leave the building dark, the mall cut the old box into pieces.
Interior demolition opened the vacant store, and the 90,400-square-foot space was split three ways: 51,300 square feet went to Belk, 30,800 to Dave & Buster's, and 8,300 to restaurant use, with new service rooms, a new truck dock, added utility capacity, and new mall storefronts built into the conversion.
FRCH Design Worldwide drew the work, and EDC handled the construction. Belk had already put $2 million into the store in 2010, expanding the ladies' shoe department by half to 11,500 square feet.
Now it spent $6.1 million more, moving menswear into 50,000 square feet of the former Sears and bringing its combined space to 242,000 square feet.
Dave & Buster's opened in the converted space in 2017, turning a stretch of department store into an arcade and restaurant draw and pulling part of the mall away from pure apparel.
Why Columbiana Centre Outlasted Columbia's Other Malls
The corridor filled in around the mall with big-box stores, restaurants, hotels, and strip centers, and the center became the anchor of the whole district rather than a single property within it.
It draws 5 million visitors a year and carries the largest collection of national retailers within 100 miles, serving Columbia, along with Irmo, Seven Oaks, Lexington County, and northwest Richland County.
The older enclosed malls did not hold. Richland Mall lost anchors and moved toward redevelopment. Dutch Square and Columbia Place slid from their earlier standing.
Columbiana Centre kept its footing on a simpler advantage: a suburban highway setting, a larger modern trade area, and steady demand from department stores and specialty tenants alike.
For chains entering the Midlands, it became the preferred first address.
April 16, 2022: Gunfire Inside Columbiana Centre and the Cases After
It was a Saturday afternoon on Easter weekend, the mall full of families, employees, and shoppers, when gunfire broke out in the main corridor near the Gap and the food court after a conflict among armed individuals.
Fifteen people were injured, nine of them struck by gunfire, and the rest hurt while fleeing, ranging in age from teenagers to a 73-year-old who was critically injured.
Everyone survived. At least 17 rounds were fired indoors, and the gunfire reached bystanders who had no part in the dispute, which traced back to a conflict from 2018.
Three men faced charges. One was convicted by a jury in October 2024 and sentenced to 35 years. One pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years.
The third was convicted of nine counts of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and sentenced to 30 years in April 2025.
Two injured sisters sued the mall, Brookfield, and the security firm, seeking $20 million and alleging that more than 100 incident reports had been generated at the property in the prior five years and that it had been advised to improve security.
Enhanced security followed, including a firearm-detecting K-9 program and a code of conduct that bans firearms and illegal weapons.
In May 2026, the mall imposed a temporary rule requiring guests 17 and younger to be accompanied after 5 p.m.
by a parent or supervising adult at least 21, with identification checked at the entrances, after social-media activity suggested the possibility of disruptive unsupervised gatherings.
What Remains at Columbiana Centre Today
Sears is gone, and so are J.B. White and Parisian, the names that anchored the mall in earlier decades.
What remains is still a working super-regional mall: Belk, Dillard's, and JCPenney holding the department-store corners, Dave & Buster's in the old Sears, and a tenant list that runs past 100 stores across 909,000 square feet, 57.7 acres, and 4,517 parking spaces.
Sephora, Coach, Tesla, Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, LOFT, Palmetto Moon, and others fill the inline space, with a food court inside and Red Robin in the exterior restaurant row next to Dave & Buster's.
Barnes & Noble opened near JCPenney on October 9, 2024.
Mountain High Outfitters opened its first South Carolina store near the food court in July 2025, followed by Tradehome Shoes that October and JD Sports in November.
The mall still advertises empty space, including a 15,000-square-foot spot at a main entrance offered in 2026. Doors open at 11 a.m.
most days, earlier for the mall walkers, and the property keeps a security office near the food court, offers safety escorts, and sets aside a nursing lounge near the food court and a children's play area by JCPenney.
The carousel still turns in the food court, the new mural runs above it, and the reasons people drive in from Irmo, Lexington, and along I-26 are the ones the site was chosen for in the 1980s: the anchors, the stores, the parking, and the exit off the interstate.
