Columbia’s new Barnes & Noble bookstore sets a grand opening date. Check out when it is

Chris Trainor
·2 min read

A new chapter is set to begin in Columbia for a national bookstore chain.

Barnes & Noble, long a leading name among national booksellers, will have a grand opening for its new Columbia store on Wednesday, March 6, according to a post on the store’s Instagram page. It will be located at 6090 Garners Ferry Road in the busy Shoppes at Woodhill shopping center.

This will mark a second life for the Barnes & Noble store. It was previously located in the Richland Mall in Forest Acres. That location closed as the mall property is set to undergo a $100 million overhaul in coming years to turn it into a mixed-use development with residences, shops, a public park, a grocery store and more.

Barnes & Noble announced last year that it would be moving to Garners Ferry Road after the Richland Mall location closed. The new location opening March 6 will have a fresh look for the bookseller.

“We have a brand new design,” Barnes & Noble senior director of store planning and design Janine Flanigan told The State in a previous interview. “If you’ve been in our stores, you know the furniture is the dark wood, and there’s the green carpet. It’s been typically that tone. Our new design is very different. It’s a light-colored wood, which we call Victorian lace. It will be very bright, with high ceilings.”

The March 6 grand opening will feature a 9 a.m. ribbon cutting with author B.B. Alston, according to the recent Barnes & Noble Columbia Instagram post. Alston pens the bestselling “Amari” series of adventure books that are popular with young readers.

The Barnes & Noble will open in the Shoppes at Woodhill spot that formerly was home to Bed, Bath & Beyond. The shopping center includes a number of businesses, including a Target, a Party City and more.

That section of Garners Ferry Road is one of the busiest commercial corridors in the Midlands. An estimated 46,200 cars per day pass down the stretch of Garners Ferry near the Shoppes at Woodhill, according to state Department of Transportation data.