COLUMBIA, S.C. — In a Richland County Council meeting on Tuesday, July 18, council member Allison Terracio moved for the county to begin negotiations with a developer for a project that could change the Colonial Life Boulevard area.
"This is an entity that would like to provide grocery services to the area. I don't know how much more I will state just beyond that, but I do believe that it would be of service to the neighborhood to have a large grocery store with fresh vegetables and fruit and other foods," Terracio said.
The old Havertys Furniture building across the street from Dutch Square Mall could soon become a grocery store.
The company Divine Auro Development LLC is looking to negotiate the sale of the building for a new grocery space, which the council decided to pass on to the Administrative and Finance Committee.
The building is more than 29,000 square feet and is currently listed for around $1.1 million.
The furniture store that used to occupy the space moved out in the fall of 2016.
However, according to resident Kia Taylor, the county should be more concerned with what is happening outside the Havertys Furniture space.
"Economically, it would make sense to put a grocery store there, but then it still is sort of out of the way. The traffic here is bad... so then you have to worry about the risk of what's coming off of the (I-126) offramp. You would have issues with traffic that's trying to get into the grocery store unless they are going to redo all of that," Taylor said.
Taylor has lived in this area since 2008 and said traffic is not her only concern regarding the possibility of a new grocery store. She said she worries about the Dutch Square Mall spaces remaining empty as well.
"They're talking about opening up a store over there but you could open up a grocery store in one of these little stores," Taylor said, pointing at the mall.
As of now, there is no timeline for a decision on whether or not the county will go into negotiations for the sale of the former Havertys Furniture building.
The negotiation for the possible sale of the building will go through the county's Administration and Finance Committee before it is brought to Richland County Council again.