Richland Mall was an enclosed shopping mall near the intersection of Forest Drive and Beltline Blvd in Forest Acres, South Carolina within the greater Columbia Metropolitan Area. The interior mall space has been closed to the public since early 2022. However, its last anchor store, Belk, continued to operate until early September 2023. A Barnes & Noble continues to operate as a junior anchor with its own exterior access, but it too is scheduled to close in early 2024. There are two additional empty anchor stores that have both been largely vacant since the late 2000s. The mall's last inline tenant, Columbia Children's Theatre, moved out on February 1, 2023. The mall has never received a major renovation and has an ornate late 1980s-early 1990s interior aesthetic.
Original Mall (1961-1987)
Richland Mall opened in 1961 as the first mall in Columbia. It was an open-air mall, typical of first-generation malls from the mid-twentieth century, and anchored by J.B. White, a major department store based in Augusta, Georgia. that was prevalent in South Carolina. A movie theater was also on a southeastern outlot of the mall. Among the original twenty-seven stores were Winn-Dixie, Eckerd, and Woolworth. By the 1980s, Richland Mall's open-air mall concept was considered outdated and by that time there was significant competition in the market from newer indoor malls such as Dutch Square and especially Columbia Mall. In the late 80s, L. J. Hooker bought the complex with plans of converting it into not only a much larger indoor mall but also making it a high-end shopping destination unparalleled in the region. The stores remaining in the original Richland Mall had their leases terminated in 1987 with the exception of the J.B. White, which the new mall would be built around. Two outparcels would also be unaffected. Winn-Dixie would be one of the last stores to close on December 23, 1987, before the massive redevelopment project got underway.
Richland Fashion Mall (1988-1996)
The mall was renamed Richland Fashion Mall and was built in two major phases. The first phase included a two-level wing extending from the current J.B. White to a new anchor store, Bonwit Teller, which opened in October 1988. The second phase of the mall opened in November 1989, and included another two-level wing extending from the other side of J.B. White to end at another new anchor: Parisian. Both Bonwit Teller and Parisian were new to not only Columbia, but all of South Carolina. A large four-level parking garage was built that covered most of the front of the mall, as well as the entire length of the roof being made accessible to parking as well to combat the fact that the mall was already on a small plot of land, and the expansion had made traditional parking almost impossible. J.B. White was also expanded during this time to include a third level. A relocation for the movie theater opened on top of this in 1990, known as the Litchfield Theatres Litchfield 7. The mall also included a large aviation-themed food court that wrapped around the backside of J.B. White on the upper level. The food court made it possible to avoid the walk-thru of J.B. White to get from one side of the mall to the other. A TGI Fridays was also a part of the rebirth of the mall. A few of the stores that had locations in the original Richland Mall reopened once the redevelopment was complete including S&S Cafeteria and Eckerd. Woolworth also opened a "Woolworth's Express" on the upper level.
The mall struggled with customer traffic and management/financial problems from the very beginning. LJ Hooker, who developed the mall, was in serious debt and filed for bankruptcy in 1989. In recent years, the company had gained majority controlling interest in four department stores including Bonwit Teller and Parisian. Parisian's original owners bought it back from LJ Hooker, but Bonwit Teller was mostly liquidated along with the American operations of LJ Hooker. Bonwit Teller closed in August 1990, leaving an empty anchor in a still practically brand-new mall. In 1993 Dillard's opened in the former anchor space and expanded the store significantly. The mall was still underperforming however and was nearly half-vacant. In 1995, the Litchfield Theater became a Regal Cinemas.
Changes (1996-1999)