Harris Teeter is nearly here! It'll be almost two years since our Safeway supermarket closed in the Kings Contrivance Village Center. It's been just shy of a year since workers started to demolish the Safeway facility and the neighboring, but long-closed, Friendlies Restaurant building (also see here). Now, the exterior of the Harris Teeter building looks complete and the inside is shaping up as well. It's very exciting. Officials in the Village have said it should open on Wednesday, May 21st.

You can't see from the picture below, but there is one thing that really strikes me when you view the new building as a whole. (To be fair, others have mentioned it in the local newspapers.) The entrance to the market is directly from the parking lot. For those who remember, you entered the Safeway from inside the area of the village center. All store entrances used to open onto a central courtyard, architecturally tying all the shops together. You could ambulate around the center, walking in and out of stores while still enjoying the ambience of the open space. The new Harris Teeter only has what looks like a fire door along its courtyard facing side. The rest is all brick. While aesthetically pleasing from the parking lot, the new occupant looks divided and separated from the rest of the center.

While this might seem an academic argument, foot traffic is paramount for the survival of small businesses in the village center. We've already lost Keighley Jewelers, which closed last December. Owner Terry Keighley noted a decline in visits to the store after the Safeway closed and the delay in finding a new anchor and rebuilding. If people come to shop who don't know about the other stores in the center, they might just park in the lot, run in the front door, and never wonder what's around the corner. They might see the liquor store but that's about it. If the entrance were inside the courtyard area, they'd see almost every storefront or at least see that there were plenty more shops only steps away.

Village centers in Columbia might not be as important as they once were. But, if you're refurbishing them with brand new construction and a first-in-the-area supermarket, I'd think you'd want to help the center thrive.