Cook Out Reportedly Buys Seneca Retail Site as Moe’s Southwest Grill Closes

SENECA, S.C. — A well-trafficked retail parcel on Seneca’s Bypass 123 corridor is changing hands after Moe’s Southwest Grill closed its location there this week, with the property reportedly sold to North Carolina-based burger chain Cook Out, according to a report from local radio station WSNW, 94.1 The Lake.

The Moe’s franchise at 1053 Bypass 123 shut its doors Friday after employees were given 10 days’ notice of the closure, WSNW reported. The station said the site’s owner has been working to help displaced staff find new positions with other area businesses. It remains unconfirmed whether Cook Out intends to build a restaurant on the site or what its construction timeline might be. A Moe’s franchise on College Avenue in nearby Clemson remains open.

Corridor draws steady redevelopment interest

The transaction adds to a pattern of turnover along Bypass 123, the four-lane divided highway that Oconee County planners have identified as one of the county’s busiest corridors and its primary entryway from Pickens County and Clemson. A county-commissioned corridor study found that new development and redevelopment along the route have generated additional local trips beyond its original function as a regional connector between Seneca and Clemson.

The stretch already anchors retail centers such as the roughly 10,500-square-foot Eagle Plaza, which sits within easy reach of a Lowe’s, a Walmart and Oconee Memorial Hospital, and draws traffic from the affluent Lake Keowee community to the north. Restaurant and retail pad sites along the bypass have continued to turn over as national chains reassess their South Carolina footprints.

Retail remains a core piece of Oconee’s economy

Retail trade is Oconee County’s second-largest employment sector, with more than 3,300 workers, trailing only manufacturing, according to county economic development data. The county’s food service and accommodation sector employs close to 1,800 people. Those figures underscore why even a single-restaurant transaction along a corridor like Bypass 123 carries weight for local commercial brokers tracking tenant demand outside the county’s industrial parks.

Cook Out, which entered South Carolina in 2010 as its first expansion beyond North Carolina, has continued opening locations across the state in recent years, including college towns and highway corridors similar to the Seneca site. The chain now operates dozens of South Carolina locations concentrated near Columbia, Greenville, Myrtle Beach and Florence.

No permits or site plans for the Bypass 123 property had been filed with Oconee County as of this week. Commercial real estate observers will be watching whether the sale marks the start of a broader redevelopment push along the corridor, which has drawn planning attention from the county for its role as a gateway market bridging Seneca, Clemson and the Lake Keowee tourism economy.