By admin 
From a BBQ chain eyeing Sunset Boulevard to a controversial Main Street lockdown, there’s a lot shifting around the Midlands right now. Here’s a quick rundown of growth, change and community debates you’ll want to track.
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Here are key takeaways:
- Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q is planning a new restaurant at 5101 Sunset Blvd. in Lexington, on the former Rush’s site at the Lexington Pavilion shopping complex that includes Target, Best Buy and World Market.
- About 45,000 cars travel Sunset Boulevard through Lexington each day, making it one of the busiest non-interstate roads in the Midlands — and the Jim ‘N Nick’s plan is “under review” by town planners.
- 7 Brew Coffee, a chain with more than 800 U.S. locations, is bringing its first Lexington drive-thru to 5237 Sunset Blvd., near the intersection with Mineral Springs Road. No opening timeline has been announced.
- Tios Mexican Cafe & Cantina on Sumter Street was voted best Mexican restaurant in Columbia, pulling 61% of reader votes in a poll of 24 area restaurants. The family-owned Tex-Mex spot has been a USC staple since 2004.
- West Columbia City Council unanimously approved rezoning this week for the 10-acre Colite City mixed-use project, an eight-year phased redevelopment of the former Colite sign-making headquarters that has sat vacant for nearly 20 years.
- The Colite City site will ultimately be 70% residential and 30% commercial, with 267 parking spaces and $29.5 million in financing and equity lined up behind the project. Phase 1 is expected to wrap by late 2028.
- Columbia has closed Main Street’s Boyd Plaza to the public except during the weekly Soda City Market and reserved events — a change that took effect in August after a review by City Manager Teresa Wilson, police and the Columbia Museum of Art.
- The Boyd Plaza closure has raised questions about the city’s approach to homelessness and downtown public space, with the plaza — renovated in 2019 for more than $4.6 million by the Darnall W. and Susan F. Boyd Foundation — now available to groups only by reservation through the museum.
The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.
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