Columbia, SC Development News [Archive]

krazeeboi

July 12th, 2005, 02:55 AM

USC teams up with German firm

Partnership with energy institute will focus on hydrogen fuel research

JAMES T. HAMMOND

Staff Writer

Hydrogen fuel research in South Carolina will get another major international player today when the University of South Carolina signs its second partnership in its Next Energy initiative with Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems of Freiburg, Germany.

USC hopes to show “measurable” results from the partnership in the coming academic year, said Tony Boccanfuso, USC’s director of research and economic development. He said USC hopes the partnership will grow to include Fraunhofer ISE as a resident on the new Columbia research campus being developed around Assembly Street.

Boccanfuso said Fraunhofer is one of the world’s leading research groups focusing on the commercialization of new energy technologies. He said commercialization is a top priority for both USC and Fraunhofer.

Fraunhofer ISE is one institute under the corporate umbrella of Fraunhofer Gesellschaft of Munich, the largest organization for applied research in Europe. A sister institute invented the MP3 audio coding software that made the iPod possible. And the Fraunhofer Center for Molecular Biotechnology in Delaware received a $1.2 million grant recently from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a vaccine against African sleeping sickness.

Three weeks ago, USC unveiled a fuel cell partnership with a leading South Korean group, the Korea Institute of Energy Research. Both Fraunhofer and the Korea Institute have expertise in hydrogen fuels.

Hydrogen fuel technology has emerged as one of the hottest fields of research. Most industrial nations — and most states in this country — are devoting academic, government and private-sector resources to the race to turn one of the most abundant elements in nature into a practical replacement for oil.

The agreement between USC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems will include research on fuel cells, hydrogen storage, hydrogen production, chemical energy conversion and other electrochemical storage devices.

USC and Fraunhofer ISE will exchange scientists, engineers and students; conduct joint research; and promote intellectual property for commercial purposes.

Automakers such as BMW already have demonstrated that cars can operate on hydrogen fuel. Proponents of hydrogen-powered cars point out an environmental bonus — that the only element in their exhaust is water.

The hurdles that remain include generating hydrogen in a form that can be used as fuel and developing the technology to store, transport and distribute the substance safely to consumers.

One of the leading contenders to generate hydrogen fuel would be nuclear reactors that also generate electricity for the power grid. Some scientists also believe biomass holds promise as a means to concentrate hydrogen.

And the gasoline station on every corner of America would have to be replaced by an equally ubiquitous system of hydrogen fuel stations. All together, it’s a massive scientific and industrial undertaking.

S.C. business and academic leaders understand that the state or region that solves the scientific and logistical problems stands to become to the emerging hydrogen age what Houston has been to the petroleum era.

South Carolina has some built-in advantages. One is that the Savannah River National Laboratory has one of the largest concentrations of experience and academic talent in the field of hydrogen science in the nation.

USC’s new partnerships will further enhance the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Fuel Cells, the only such center in America designated by the National Science Foundation, USC officials said.

waccamatt

July 12th, 2005, 04:30 AM

Maybe Columbia's nickname will end up being the hydrogen city. :)

Dale

July 12th, 2005, 04:47 AM

Maybe Columbia's nickname will end up being the hydrogen city. :)

You mean Columbia may become highly flammable ? :)

waccamatt

July 13th, 2005, 02:56 AM

You mean Columbia may become highly flammable ? :)

Well it IS summertime and it is the South! :)

krazeeboi

July 13th, 2005, 10:39 AM

Columbia’s side of greenway to get greener (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/12110481.htm)

$7 million Canal Front section, set to open next year, will open both sides of the Columbia Canal for visitors and will include a plaza near EdVenture

By JEFF WILKINSON

Staff Writer

Construction is set to begin this fall on one of the most expensive and high-profile sections of the Three Rivers Greenway.

The $7 million section behind EdVenture Children’s Museum, once called City Dock, is scheduled to open in late summer of 2006.

The section, now called Canal Front, is a huge leap for the greenway on the Columbia side of the river. The city has moved slowly on some sections because of difficulties acquiring land, among other problems.

Canal Front includes a plaza behind EdVenture, a pavilion and a promenade. The wide pavilion will house a police substation, restrooms and storage for pushcarts, which will replace a row of three restaurants originally envisioned there.

The pavilion will complete the children’s museum. The park will open up both sides of the Columbia Canal to visitors; a trail exists on the Congaree River side of the canal that is an extension of Riverfront Park.

Planners hope Canal Front will be as popular as the Canal Embankment section of the greenway — located along the northern reaches of the canal, between Riverfront Park and the Broad River diversion dam — as well as the popular riverwalks in Cayce and West Columbia.

“On a sunny Sunday afternoon, we’re getting 350 to 400 people an hour using those parks,” said Mike Dawson, executive director of the River Alliance, which guides development along the Midlands’ rivers.

Greenway projects still to be completed are:

• A large stretch south of the Gervais Street bridge on land owned by the Guignard family. The family and the city have been battling over the property for years, and no break in the dispute is expected anytime soon.

The Guignard section would connect Canal Front with Granby Park, which is isolated from the rest of the riverfront greenways by the Guignard property.

• An “esplanade” section fronting the CanalSide development. This also has been delayed because of difficulty finding a developer to tackle the old prison site.

But the Beach Co. has taken over the CanalSide project, and Columbia City Council will vote on a contract to sell the land to the company on July 20. That would move the project forward.

Planners hope to link the esplanade with Canal Front in the future, and they are working with SCANA and the State Budget and Control Board to acquire property those entities own between the State Museum and the Jarvis Klapman bridge, Gantt said.

• Bridging the confluence of the Broad and Saluda rivers. The city is still trying to develop a way to get across the confluence so the greenway can be linked to Riverbanks Zoo. But paddlers have opposed a “rock hopping” series of low concrete bridges, saying they would interfere with kayakers.

Mayor Bob Coble said his goal is to resolve these problems this year and complete the Columbia side of the greenway in 2006.

“It’s a vital part in building our city,” he said. “People are using the parks. We just have to link it all up.”

At Canal Front, planners scrapped the idea of housing restaurants in the pavilion because there wasn’t parking adjacent to the spaces, Gantt said.

They feared the restaurant space would be underused as a result, much like the restaurant space in a pavilion at Finlay Park.

“If we think a restaurant is warranted, we can always renovate later,” Gantt said.

The pavilion’s roof will serve as a plaza for EdVenture, completing that building.

The bricked-up windows of the nearby, historic hydroelectric plant eventually will be uncovered so visitors can see its inner workings, Gantt said.

“It’s a wonderful educational opportunity; it will expand what EdVenture does,” Gantt said. “John (Dooley, the city’s utilities director) and I have been daydreaming about how to do that. And we’ll eventually figure it out. But there are safety issues we have to consider.”

Safety concerns around the plant also caused designers to cancel plans to put a tour boat on the Columbia Canal and a dock stretching into the Congaree River.

The plant was built more than a century ago as part of the nation’s first textile mill designed to run entirely on electricity. The mill is now the State Museum.

*Here's a PDF file (http://www.thestateonline.com/news/pdfs/greenway.pdf) with an artists rendering.*

StevenW

July 17th, 2005, 07:52 PM

waccamatt

July 17th, 2005, 10:26 PM

I'd like to see some type of tacky, myrtle beach-type of entertainment/amusement to go somewhere down there. :D A Ripley's, Hard Rock Cafe, a small amusement park, (including rides, water park-type rides, games and a skatepark), plus some gift shops and cool little eateries would give Columbia a chance to cash in on some cheesy touristy things. :D
Isn't the I-max in the works, too? :?
I hope so. That would be a nice attraction. :)

An IMAX and a planetarium is planned for the State Museum, but I'm not sure of the status. I agree, some amusements would be cool down there.

State Museum expansion (http://www.museum.state.sc.us/main/future.html)

StevenW

July 18th, 2005, 03:32 AM

I might have said this before but, .......

I'd like to see a cable car line running from Gervais street, (Harden to Huger), then another line running on Assembly Street, (from I-126 to the street behind the carolina Coliseum).
The hills, the hills, the hills. :D

ROBTEX

July 18th, 2005, 06:24 PM

An IMAX would be awesome for Columbia...IMAX theatres always catch my attention when I travel...one of the "must-haves" for a major city! The State Museum area would be a great location, too. This is already one of the best museums in the country and having an IMAX would certainly boost its attendance.

StevenW

July 19th, 2005, 11:06 PM

I agree. :)

krazeeboi

July 20th, 2005, 05:54 AM

$1 million a year proposed to court research groups (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/12165706.htm)

Mayor Coble says city must market itself in hydrogen fuel technology

By JAMES T. HAMMOND

Staff Writer

Columbia Mayor Bob Coble proposed Monday a $1 million-a-year marketing effort to sell Columbia and the Midlands to companies and other entities interested in hydrogen fuel research and development.

The city already spends a comparable amount marketing itself to visitors and for conferences. It also spends $72,000 a year as a partner in the Central Carolina Economic Development Alliance, which concentrates on advanced manufacturing, and about $400,000 a year on its office of economic development.

But Coble said a “new mind-set” is necessary if the city, the University of South Carolina and their partners are to realize the economic potential of the evolving research and development in hydrogen fuel technology.

“The state is spending $140 million on the USC research campus. We must ensure that we can fill that space,” he said.

Coble said his proposal would not take anything away from traditional marketing efforts, but would comprise new money provided by the city and its partners, which might include USC, private companies, county governments and even the state.

Coble said the city must be willing to financially support test markets for new products, such as hydrogen-fueled buses, or computers powered by hydrogen-fuel cells.

He said a vital part of efforts to build a hydrogen-fuel economy will be earmarking funds to market the region and USC’s research campus worldwide.

Columbia has traditionally traveled to Europe to recruit manufacturing businesses to invest here. The new marketing arm would perform a similar function to bring companies here to participate in hydrogen research and businesses based on that research.

Neil McLean, executive director of EngenuitySC, agreed that such a marketing effort focused on hydrogen fuel technology is needed to raise the region’s profile with national and international companies and with agencies in Washington, D.C.

Competition for an economic stake in the technology that replaces oil as the nation’s primary fuel will be intense, McLean said.

“Ohio has committed $100 million. States and regions are investing a lot of money in similar (competing) efforts,” McLean said. “We must put South Carolina on the map. We know right now that’s not the case.”

EngenuitySC, the coordinating council of business, university and government leaders pushing research, might be a candidate to take on the new marketing effort, McLean said. But he cautioned that planning had not evolved to that level of detail yet.

Coble said EngenuitySC at least would have a role in deciding who took on the marketing responsibilities.

Harris Pastides, USC’s vice president for research, said USC would be willing to participate in and even contribute financially to such a marketing program. But he said he did not want to convey the idea that USC was signing on to a “go-it-alone” strategy in the Midlands.

USC is developing research partnerships with the Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken and with Clemson University in the Upstate, he said, and he expects the statewide scope of hydrogen fuel research to continue to grow.

Pastides said such marketing and recruiting are more often done by states than by cities, adding, “That sort of civic effort will help show companies that we are serious.”

StevenW

July 21st, 2005, 11:26 PM

Good. :)

krazeeboi

July 22nd, 2005, 04:13 AM

The city of Columbia has OK'd the sale of the CanalSide (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/12183373.htm) site for $6 million by the Beach Co. of Charleston. CanalSide is 18 acres of vacant riverfront property that will be home to hundreds of houses and a public park. The site used to be home to the state’s Death Row and the Central Correctional Institution.

Plans for the site include 750 residential units, ranging from single-family homes on the interior of the site, to riverfront, midrise condominiums.

The city will be responsible for developing the esplanade, or public walkway, along the canal on the western edge of the property, and Beach Co. has agreed to construct a public park on Taylor Street.

The city withdrew a requirement that the developer include affordable housing in the plans. Instead, Coble said the city will use revenue from the sale to offer low-cost mortgages for housing in CanalSide and elsewhere in the city.

The city abandoned its effort to act as developer of the site in August 2004, accepting new proposals from private developers early this year. City officials had faced criticism for delays in moving the project forward despite creating numerous plans for the site and getting commitments from developers for individual parcels.

http://www.thestate.com/images/thestate/state/12112/146711468024.jpg

waccamatt

July 23rd, 2005, 02:42 AM

I can't wait to see the development begin. It should be in the neighborhood of a $200M development.

krazeeboi

August 18th, 2005, 12:56 AM

Salvation Army raises $2 million

Funds would go to center (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/12385535.htm)

Pledges to agency boost efforts to land grant to build community facility

By JEFF WILKINSON

Staff Writer

The Salvation Army of Columbia has raised about $2 million to help land an $80 million grant to build an education, community and recreation center on the Three Rivers Greenway.

The outpouring of cash pledged surprised Salvation Army officials, who announced the effort just a month ago.

“We are amazed at the community’s response,” said J. Michael Kapp, chairman of the Salvation Army board and executive vice president of Carolina First bank. “I haven’t seen anything like it in my time in nonprofits.”

Local officials said an additional $3 million could be forthcoming, meaning a third of the $15 million in local “match” money required for the grant might be raised before Salvation Army higher-ups consider Columbia’s “Kroc” application.

The $1.5 billion Salvation Army Kroc Bequest Fund was created by Joan B. Kroc, wife of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc, to build community centers across the nation. The terms of the grant do not allow public money to be used for the required local matching dollars.

Officials plan to send off the application today.

Most communities begin fund-raising after their grant has received preliminary approval, said Capt. Ethan Frizzell, Columbia’s corps officer. Showing the financial support of the community upfront could help the city’s chances, he said.

“Greenville (which already has been awarded a $46 million Kroc grant) hasn’t raised their first million,” Frizzell said. “I’m more encouraged now than I have been in six weeks.”

Salvation Army officials envision a 100,000-square-foot recreation and community center somewhere on the Congaree River that would house programs from boating and swimming, to music and art, health care and day care.

The facility would not be a shelter or feeding center for the homeless, the Salvation Army’s traditional role in Columbia.

Dozens of nonprofit organizations from the Boy Scouts and the Boys & Girls Club to City Year could transfer programs to the facility.

“This will change the complexion of the Salvation Army, as well as the public perception” of our mission, Kapp said.

To ensure quality construction, under the terms of the grant the complex must cost at least $160 a square foot to build — about $20 a square foot more than the typical Class A office tower in Columbia, said architect Scott Garvin, of the Garvin Design Group, which is designing the center.

“It’s not Italian marble or over the top,” he said. “But that allows you to use durable materials. Very nice quality. Very clean.”

Garvin, whose firm also designed the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center and the renovated Olympia mill buildings, described the building’s initial design as “contemporary, open and very fun.”

“You’ll walk in and see the natatorium, running track, gymnasium, rock climbing wall,” he said. “It will be open and airy — an aquatic theme (suitable) for a building on the river.”

The corps is negotiating for one of three undisclosed sites on the river — sites on both the east and west banks of the Congaree.

Under the requirements of the grant, the Salvation Army must buy the property, rather than lease it or have it donated.

“This place is supposed to be a beacon on the hill,” Frizzell said.

The $1.5 billion Kroc bequest was divided equally among the four Salvation Army territories in the United States.

Six grants totaling $249 million already have been approved for the Southern territory. In addition to Greenville, grants went to Kerrville, Texas; Morgantown, W.Va.; Atlanta; Biloxi, Miss.; and Louisville, Ky.

Jack Getz, the Kroc grant administrator for the Southern territory, said he didn’t know how much money would be available for a second round of grants. But he termed the number of cities applying as “a land rush.”

However, Getz said both he and Maj. Vern Jewett, divisional commander for the Carolinas, were impressed during a visit to Columbia last week.

Getz said Columbia is further along than many cities in planning. Also, the local corps’ intention to tie the center to the river and focus on aquatic recreation showed “a uniqueness” the committee will require.

Columbia’s application “looks good so far,” Getz said. “They are on the right trail. They are focusing on community involvement. And the kind of people they have lined up are significant.”

Dozens of CEOs, professional organizations and community groups have signed on to support the effort.

Leading the effort is USC, which, along with the River Alliance, is partnering with the local corps in the application.

USC president Andrew Sorensen, as well as the heads of five colleges, two departments and a center at the university, wrote a letter of endorsement. The university would conduct up to 15 outreach programs at the center.

“It’s good for the community, good for the university and good for the people of the Midlands,” said Cantey Heath, USC’s executive director of advancement administration.

krazeeboi

August 20th, 2005, 04:32 AM

Alliance sets stage for USC to grow (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/12421145.htm)

Pact with Guignard family is boon for research campus and riverfront development

By JEFF WILKINSON

Staff Writer

USC and the Guignards have agreed to include the family’s 94-acre tract of property on the east bank of the Congaree River in the planning for the university’s $142 million research campus.

Folding the Guignards’ plans for private, riverfront development into the public research campus is an agreement that could eventually stretch USC’s influence, if not its campus, from Five Points to the river.

No one involved would say whether USC plans to build on the land or advise the Guignards about their own plans for residential and commercial development.

But a partnership with USC — whatever its nature — should speed development of the wooded property between Blossom and Senate streets, one of the last and largest tracts on downtown Columbia’s riverfront.

University spokesman Russ McKinney would not comment prior to today’s news conference, except to say the announcement would be “exciting.”

Guignard spokesman Charlie Thompson could not be immediately reached for comment.

Mayor Bob Coble said the city is involved but wouldn’t provide details. However, he called the announcement good news for downtown Columbia.

“This a strategic alliance between the Guignards, the university and the city,” he said. “It will have historic implications for the redevelopment of the city.”

An alliance between USC and the Guignards would be potent:

• USC’s research campus is expected to be the engine that will drive the city’s future economy.

USC plans a nontraditional campus in the Vista with a mix of university buildings interspersed with residences, shops and restaurants.

• The Guignards have owned hundreds of acres in both Lexington and Richland counties for more than two centuries. Much of the family’s land is ripe for development and could drive satellite projects on either side of the river.

Under a likely scenario, the Guignards would build homes, restaurants and shopping and recreational facilities that would both complement and conform to research campus plans.

• It could also be a site for a $90 million Salvation Army community center. The local Salvation Army corps has applied for a grant from the estate of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc to build the recreational and community center. USC is heavily involved in the grant application and would house more than a dozen outreach programs in the center, if built.

The parallel development between USC and the Guignard property would meld to form a district intended to attract the “creative class” of young professionals and researchers sought after to live, work and play in Columbia’s new downtown.

The agreement also could be a gateway for brokering a deal to build a highly anticipated section of the Three Rivers Greenway that has been mired in acrimonious negotiations between the family and the city for years. The family consists of about 60 members in 13 states, spread among several limited-liability corporations.

“Once there is an agreed-upon plan (between USC and the Guignards), I think it would take us very little time, perhaps 30 days, to come up with an agreement” for the greenway, said City Council member Anne Sinclair. “It’s a very significant step.”

The city last week unveiled plans to bypass the tract and re-route the greenway along Huger Street. That section would link the linear, riverfront park north of Gervais Street with greenway sections in Granby, Olympia and USC’s Greek Village.

However, Sinclair said the plan would be sidelined.

“I think we would move very, very slowly, intentionally,” she said. “I don’t anticipate the city would be doing anything that costs money at this time.”

USC several years ago contracted with Sasaki Associates, a Boston architectural firm, to develop a master plan for the university’s growth.

Sasaki principal Dick Galehouse, who is in charge of the project, could not immediately be reached for comment.

But one of his recommendations has been for the university to continue to grow west, buying land that would give it a strong presence on Assembly Street and connect the campus to the river.

He said recently: “This would give a whole new face to the university.”

Expat

August 20th, 2005, 07:36 PM

Waccamatt, I just want to thank you for your great pics of Columbia. I have never been to your city or state. However, a good friend has recently moved there and I want to learn more about it. Your pics show lots of charming neighborhoods and I can't wait to see them in person. I am especially pleased to see rainbow flags!

LSyd

August 20th, 2005, 07:56 PM

good to see. it's been too long since i've been to Columbia.

-

waccamatt

September 1st, 2005, 09:03 AM

StevenW

September 2nd, 2005, 10:31 PM

Hey, what ever happened to Drumcorpsalum? :?

waccamatt

September 3rd, 2005, 06:02 AM

Hey, what ever happened to Drumcorpsalum? :?

Its summertime; the drumcorpsalum is touring with....his drum and bugle corps!

krazeeboi

September 19th, 2005, 06:12 AM

New campus name reflects ties to Vista (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/columnists/c_grant_jackson/12658773.htm)

By C. GRANT JACKSON

Business Editor

Don’t call it the USC Research Campus. In fact, don’t even call it a campus. Call it “Innovista.”

That’s the name USC officials unveiled Thursday for the 200-acre project they are developing adjacent to Columbia’s Congaree Vista.

“You may have noticed that we are more frequently calling the area an innovation district rather than a research park or campus because, quite frankly, it will not be a park or a campus,” USC president Andrew Sorensen told community leaders at a briefing at the Metropolitan Convention Center.

The Innovista is a unique model, said Harris Pastides, USC’s vice president for research and health sciences.

Most research campuses or parks usually are not adjacent to campuses and often have restricted access. USC’s innovation district “will be as much a part of city of Columbia as a part of the University of South Carolina,” Pastides said. It will not be fenced off, Pastides said. Instead, it will encourage interaction.

“The Innovista district is going to be a great compliment to the Vista,” said Fred Delk, head of the Columbia Development Corp. which pioneered the Vista. The exchange of the creative energy already in the Vista and research energy of the Innovista will help fuel both areas, he said.

The first phase of the innovation district will be five buildings and two parking garages.

Work will center around a biomedical research block across from The Colonial Center, a public-health research block anchored by USC’s new Arnold School of Public Health building and the Horizon Center block, across Assembly Street from the Strom Thurmond Wellness Center, devoted largely to research of alternative energy sources.

The seven buildings have a construction value of $141 million. But the projected economic impact of this first phase of the Innovista is expected to be $337 million a year, Pastides said.

The university is building three of the structures. Two are being financed and built by USC’s private partner developer, Craig Davis Properties of Raleigh. The two parking garages are being built and financed by the city of Columbia and Richland County.

The first phase will create nearly 600,000 square feet of research and office space, and 2,400 parking spaces for the university and the private companies it hopes to attract.

But the total innovation district is expected to encompass 5 million square feet and 10,000 parking spaces. Innovista eventually will stretch between USC’s Horseshoe and the Congaree River.

Construction should begin on the Horizon Block by the end of the year, with completion of the first building targeted for July 2007, said Rick Kelly, USC’s vice president and chief financial officer.

Thursday’s briefing included a symbolic start of demolition of the old Hardee’s restaurant at Blossom and Assembly streets, the site of the Horizon Center.

By video link, USC president Sorensen donned a hard hat and drove a bulldozer to start the process.

krazeeboi

September 19th, 2005, 06:15 AM

USC gets millions for new nano lab (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/12669329.htm)

State review board OKs $10.8 million for 90,000-square-foot facility

By JAMES T. HAMMOND

Staff Writer

RESEARCH CENTER

USC won approval Friday for $10.8 million in state money to build its NanoCenter, a new, larger laboratory for the study of very small particles, a field that is emerging as a new frontier of basic scientific research.

The S.C. Research Centers of Economic Excellence Review Board approved USC’s plan for a 90,000-square-foot, public-private complex that also will include $17.5 million of private investment by developer Craig Davis.

The total $35 million investment in the NanoCenter brings the total public and private investment planned and approved for USC’s new research campus to $177 million. The NanoCenter currently operates in 24,000 square feet of space in Sumwalt College on Greene Street.

The review board also approved $26.6 million for various research facilities proposed by Clemson University.

USC Vice President for Research Harris Pastides said a specific site for the new NanoCenter hasn’t been identified.

But the funding approval was another major piece of USC’s master plan for a mixed-use research campus, which could stretch from the historic Horseshoe to the Congaree River and include research facilities, residences, retail stores and entertainment venues.

Pastides said several factors remain to be resolved before plans for the NanoCenter can go forward, not the least of which is raising as much as $25 million in additional funding for construction.

Another concern is the need to build away from a source of major vibration, such as a major road or railroad track. Nanotechnology research requires a laboratory free of vibration. Some labs built in major cities have required the installation of shock absorbers in the buildings.

Pastides said USC cannot afford to abandon the current Nanotechnology labs on Greene Street, and the faculty would like the new building close to the existing one, perhaps as close as South Main Street.

But from an urban planning perspective, he said, it might make sense to skip over some blocks and locate the NanoCenter west of Park Street, so that commercial developers would fill in with retail and residential construction.

Fully funding the NanoCenter and selecting its location “could take a while,” Pastides said.

USC has identified sites for three research complexes:

• The Horizon Center at Blossom and Assembly streets

• The Arnold School of Public Health at Assembly and College streets

• The bio-medical sciences complex at College and Park streets

USC on Friday also won approval of $2.5 million for its share of a Health Sciences South Carolina building on Greenville Hospital System’s campus, and $2 million for its share of another collaborative health sciences building at the Medical University in Charleston.

Pastides told the review board the General Assembly’s $310 million investment statewide in economic development-related research is beginning to pay off.

USC recently announced the appointment of Thomas Vogt to direct USC’s NanoCenter. Vogt, who has conducted research in chemistry, physics and hydrogen storage materials at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, holds two U.S. patents and has two pending patent applications.

Vogt will take over leadership of the USC scientists who specialize in research about the tiniest particles (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter) and how they might be used to advance science and technology.

The Medical University of South Carolina, in Charleston, has proposals for two new research buildings before the review board, but approval was delayed Friday because board members received the proposals only on Thursday.

MUSC President Ray Greenberg said timely approval of the two buildings is critical to recruiting a major clinical trial program.

“These clinical trial programs would not even be considering South Carolina if this program did not exist,” Greenberg said.

USC President Andrew Sorensen said the research universities’ collaboration, as well as the large hospitals in the state, has created a large enough pool of patients for major clinical trials, which he said have become a “huge” industry.

Patients in Greenville, Columbia and Charleston will be in a common database, which Sorensen said will make the market “enormously attractive” for clinical trials.

“The benefits economically could be huge,” he said.

ROBTEX

September 30th, 2005, 09:05 PM

New JC Penney

The new JC Penney store opens this Sunday at Sandhill.

Article from The State Newspaper (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/12778859.htm)

I remember Columbia Mall being built when I was a kid. I kinda hate to see JC Penney move, but I'm really excited about Sandhill, and I hope the whole development up there takes off and does extremely well.

krazeeboi

October 3rd, 2005, 11:19 AM

West Bank — Columbia’s place to be (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/12796412.htm)

Development along Riverwalk is some of area’s most popular and most expensive

By JOHN O’CONNOR

Staff Writer

The sleepy mill village across the Congaree River from downtown Columbia is quietly becoming home to the Midlands’ latest — and perhaps most surprising — development boom.

With an estimated $70 million in projects planned, under construction or expected to be announced by the end of the year, West Columbia’s New Brookland village is seeing the kind of investment that’s pouring into Columbia’s Vista and downtown.The West Bank, with its century-old storefronts, has long sported the antique shops, restaurants and nightlife that pioneered the Vista 15 to 20 years ago.

But the upscale condos and million-dollar homes now going up beside the Riverwalk park have made the West Bank the place to be if you want to live on the river. They also have made West Bank property some of the most desirable — and most expensive — in Richland and Lexington counties.

What’s more, city leaders say, projects worth tens of millions more could be coming soon to West Columbia and neighboring Cayce. An important part of that will be high-end retail attracted to wealthy residents living within walking distance.“It’s truly an urban village,” said Wade Caughman, who with partner Wes Taylor is the developer behind Congaree Park’s large homes being built on undeveloped land along the Riverwalk.

He was surprised at the demand for the 53 riverfront lots. “You didn’t realize what you had. ... I think it’s just scratching the surface.”

Projects announced so far by private developers include:

• Village at Riverwalk and Congaree Park: The two subdivisions of more than 80 homes include some of the most expensive residential land, per acre, in the Midlands. Most of the homes will be custom-built and, with riverfront views, could be worth as much as $1 million.

• State Street condos: The developers of Congaree Park are planning five modern condos for the northwest corner of State and Meeting streets, the West Bank’s most prominent intersection. The condos will cost between $375,000 and $525,000 each.

• Capitol Square: Baker & Baker, a Columbia-based developer, bought the tattered shopping center across from the Columbia Farms chicken processing plant two weeks ago for $2.2 million. The company plans to maintain the center as is but is exploring developing it into an office or retail space.

The city of West Columbia has acquired two key locations it will soon offer to developers:

• Southeast corner, State and Meeting. This mostly vacant land sits in a bowl across from the elevated State Street strip that is the spine of the West Bank — or “Vista West” or “West Vista,” as the area is alternately known. City leaders envision a mixed-use, high-end residential and commercial corner that would be the heart of a “walking neighborhood.” West Columbia has spent almost $3 million on six of the eight parcels that constitute the four-acre tract. It has plans to acquire the other two parcels, then sell the entire tract to a developer for at least $15 million.

• O’Brien Restaurant Supply Co. Another four-acre tract, with river frontage, on Sunset Boulevard/U.S. 378. West Columbia stumbled across the property while working on plans to extend the Riverwalk. The city bought it for $1.2 million and expects to sell it soon to developers interested in residential development.

THE RIVER AS CATALYST

This isn’t the first chance the city has had to reinvent itself.

In 1905, the New Brookland neighborhood burned to the ground when a fire — a “fiend insatiable,” The State newspaper reported the next day — swept through the village and the State Street commercial district.

Within two years, much of the village and many of the shops had been lovingly rebuilt.

It is the look and scale of those turn-of-the-century buildings that are attracting interest in the neighborhood.

But changes in the next 10 years could be as dramatic as those in 1905, city officials and developers believe.

For decades, the State Street strip has been a mix of the rough-edged and refined. Between State Street and the river lie the mill village homes, large and small, also a mix of refined and rough-edged.

It was that mix that drew Steve Phelps’ jewelry shop last year from Five Points to the Shull Building on Meeting Street.

“We think this area is really going to grow,” said Phelps, owner of Phelps Jewelers. “I love the old building,” he said.

The Shull Building on the northwest corner of State and Meeting streets was once New Brookland’s post office and general store. Now it houses Phelps’ shop, Ed’s Editions used-book store, owned by Ed Albritton, and, upstairs, the architectural firm of Jumper, Carter, Sease.

Phelps’ business sells clocks and sleds and jewelry made from fossils, opals and other precious stones. Phelps said West Columbia is a good match.

“We kind of fit our building,” Phelps said. “We’re definitely different, eclectic.”

City leaders, residents and business owners have predicted the district’s bloom for two decades. But West Columbia Mayor Bobby Horton believes it was the completion of the Riverwalk in 2002 — a two-mile riverfront trail built mostly in a flood plain — that finally drew interest, and people, to the West Bank.

The project was pushed by late Mayor Mac Rish and the previous City Council. Until 1995, West Columbia had no public river access. Cayce and West Columbia built the park using federal transportation grants and city tax dollars.

“That has been the catalyst for everything that has happened over here,” Horton said.

The city is planning to extend the Riverwalk north to the Jarvis Klapman Boulevard bridge. Horton thinks that could push development north of Meeting Street.

For now, residents are still adjusting to the dramatic change they have already seen.

Some of it has caused tension.

Residents and business owners complained about Caughman’s removal of Riverwalk trees during construction of Congaree Park, for example.

But the real question for residents and planners is how much of New Brookland — whose quaintness is what is drawing in buyers — will be protected, how much could be redesigned, and how to make the old and the new work together.

City officials said whatever goes into the Meeting and State streets site definitely will change the look and feel of the neighborhood, setting the tone for the entire area.

“I think you’ll see some of the character change,” Horton said.

THE VILLAGE CORE

Though the Riverwalk has spurred development, the West Bank’s soul is New Brookland — a 24-block area with 135 homes.

A century ago, residents walked across the Gervais Street bridge to their mill jobs in what is now the State Museum.

“How did a New England mill village wind up in the middle of South Carolina?” joked Mike Dawson, head of the River Alliance, a nonprofit group helping coordinate Midlands river use.

“All these New England mill owners said, ‘Let’s go south for cheap labor and cheap power,’ ” Dawson said, answering his own question. “There’s so much history associated (with New Brookland).”

The mill, he said, was the first electrified textile mill in the South, wired by Charles Proteus Steinmetz, the father of alternating current.

The size of each New Brookland home corresponded to the worker’s status at the mill. The large white home on Court Avenue was the foreman’s home.

Nowadays, about half the residents own their homes. Some homes look their age and are poorly maintained, while others have carefully protected original windows, fixtures and other bygone artisan details.

Some homes are newer. And while some have vinyl siding, many have been built to resemble turn-of-the-century construction.

Phillip Byrd and K. Dale White moved to Hudson Street two years ago, with an eye on the neighborhood’s potential.

“We were a little skeptical at first,” Byrd said. “We fell in love with the house. We couldn’t afford a $300,000 home of our own, so we bought this one.”

Byrd said his biggest concern is that the neighborhood will get lost in the shuffle as city leaders concentrate on State Street and the new riverfront homes. The biggest problem right now, he said, is property owners who aren’t maintaining their homes.

Horton said the city is committed to protecting those homes, possibly through an ordinance requiring all properties to pass a city inspection before each new tenant moves in.

Such an ordinance, Horton and Dawson said, would likely cause some landlords to sell their properties rather than pay the expense of fixing them up.

Those properties provide the bulk of affordable housing near the river; renovating them could make it difficult to keep them affordable.

THE COMING SURGE

There’s also tension afoot about how all the change is affecting long-held perceptions about the Lexington County riverfront’s wealth, class and character.

The West Bank psyche, even longtime residents admit, involves a touch of insecurity about appearances and perception — about being Columbia’s unappreciated stepsister.

For example, the land at Meeting and State has been called “the hole” because at various times it has been home to a tire store, a used-car lot, a pawn shop and a valet lot.

Barbara Rackes moved to the Shull Building, across Meeting Street from the hole, in 1978. She spent nine months renovating her second-story loft and lived there for 20 years. Rackes, who owned a fashionable Columbia dress shop, said many of her dinner guests were surprised at how pleasant West Columbia was.

“I kept saying West Columbia is going to be the next whatever, and, of course, it never was,” she said. “When I moved there, people were saying it was the next Five Points.”

Rackes said she reveled in living on the “wrong” side of the river, but doubts that Shandonites are itching to move. If developers are going to sell upscale homes on the river, she said, they will have to find new buyers or land a signature, national retailer.

“There just isn’t a lot there that the sophisticated Columbian would wander over there for,” Rackes said. “People love to come over to get antiques, but very few people want to live there.”

Houses and condos, however, are now what’s driving growth.

West Columbia offers lower rents, a convenient location and — business owners hope — soon will have plenty of foot traffic. Horton points to new housing going up all across the 13,000-resident city.

West Columbia housing sales increased by 20 percent in 2003 before decreasing by 1 percent last year. For the first six months of this year, though, sales increased by 28 percent over the same period last year.

Many of the city’s homes saw their values increase by 50 percent to 80 percent over the past five years, according to theLexington County assessment figures. Sales data show West Columbia and Cayce homes are valued at about 25 percent less than homes elsewhere in the area. But they are increasing in value twice as fast.

The strong housing market means plenty of people, especially young couples, are interested in getting in on the surge.

For jeweler Phelps, more people is good news.

“I like it,” he said. “If it brings more people to the area you can’t go wrong.”

Caughman, the developer, sees a unique opportunity to build whole neighborhoods, to rebuild the town from the ground up.

But he adds: “I think it’s supposed to change what West Columbia is. It was due for a change.”

ROBTEX

October 20th, 2005, 02:19 AM

BUILDING OUR CITY

Master plan taking shape

City, Chamber of Commerce enhancing proposal created by local leaders

By GINA SMITH and JEFF WILKINSON

Staff Writers

It was the kind of cooperation financier Don Tomlin didn’t think was possible in Columbia.

The city’s business owners, politicians, neighborhood leaders and the public gathered earlier this year in a weeklong series of planning and input sessions to decide how to redevelop the former State Hospital campus on Bull Street.

“They all pulled together to create what I would have called an impossible plan to make sure we get an incredible economic engine there,” Tomlin said of the 178-acre redevelopment project.

Now the city and the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce want to conduct a similar planning process, called a “charrette,” for the whole of downtown, updating the City Center master plan and coordinating at least a dozen major projects that will reshape the city’s core.

Mayor Bob Coble pitched the plan for an updated master plan this summer and said the chamber should head it up. “It needs to be private-sector led.”

Tomlin was named co-chairman of one of three committees the chamber is forming to decide how to plan, sell and support downtown’s re-emergence.

Chamber president and CEO Ike McLeese said the planning, marketing and support “all has to tie together. We need to create the best synergy we can to market Columbia’s renaissance in the most effective way we can to attract the creative class” of researchers, young professionals and health workers expected to transform the city’s economy.

Tomlin’s group is to begin work within the next 30 days to “connect the dots” among up to 20 downtown projects, such as USC’s research campus, CanalSide, Bull Street and the Three Rivers Greenway.

A master planner might be hired, Tomlin said. And while the search is just beginning, Bull Street planner Andres Duany might be the front-runner.

Duany has designed several residential projects for Tomlin, including Lake Carolina in Columbia. Tomlin advocated Duany be hired to plan Bull Street.

Duany is presently conducting a charrette for the reconstruction of the Mississippi coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

He said Monday he hasn’t been contacted about the Columbia master plan, but would like to take it on.

“I very much enjoyed working in Columbia and I can clearly see the potential — both the physical (make up of the city) and because of the leadership,” he said.

“People there are working together — the mayor, the governor, the university president and the business community. That’s essential. And the physical part of the city is very good. It’s an old city so it has good bones.”

Duany and his wife Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk are considered pioneers in the “new urbanism” movement, which emphasizes dense, pedestrian-oriented urban villages where businesses and parks mix with single-family homes and town homes.

Their Miami-based DPZ firm has designed more than 250 communities around the world, from war-torn Mostar in Bosnia to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city in Islam.

In addition to Lake Carolina, the firm also has designed the I’On community in Charleston and Habersham near Beaufort.

Tomlin said he has no predisposition to the architect. But he said a planning process like the one conducted by Duany for Bull Street is needed.

“We don’t need growth just for growth’s sake. We need the right kind of growth.”

Reach Smith at (803) 771-8462 or gnsmith@thestate.com.

Reach Wilkinson at (830) 771-8495 or jwilkinson@thestate.com.

StevenW

October 23rd, 2005, 09:26 PM

great link: http://www.thestateonline.com/news/pdfs/boc_1.pdf

StevenW

October 23rd, 2005, 09:28 PM

What does Columbia need?

We asked you what Columbia has that you like — and what it needs.

Most of those responding like the city’s friendly, family-oriented feel — but wanted more amenities.

Topping the list were better shopping, a water park, more recreational opportunities, fountains, mass transportation and professional sports.

Here are some of the responses.

+++

I think the city needs a huge water park with lots and lots of slides for kids. This is something my children would enjoy during the summer months

— P.T. Tompkins

+++

I love this place.

I get a good vibe every morning as I see the skyline from the west. Invigorating. Nevertheless, things could improve. I am chagrined by our either lack of pursuit of music outside of the 18-30 or 50+ brackets.

There is so much innovative alternative music from every genre (and some that remain undefined). We should forget the giant acts and focus on building that friendly venue for these artists that you will not see on the current playlists. Not just book them, but advertise far enough ahead that people can maybe get a sample, make plans to attend.

An example: when this wonderful little band Groove Lily plays here, it’s at the Unitarian Coffeehouse. Not a bad venue, just not good enough for the talent and energy this band displays. They regularly play larger venues as they perform in the northeastern United States.

The Americana groups such as Son Volt or the Jayhawks would be an outstanding addition to our available choices.

In jazz, there are so many artists that we know nothing of around here unless we venture out on the net or subscribe to Jazziz and get the CD each month. So, we can do better.

Thanks.

— Mack McManus

+++

Could we at least have a Nordstrom department store? We have slim pickins when it comes to a decent department store in Columbia.

— Ingrid Carlson

+++

We need:

1) A joint USC/minor league stadium overlooking the river

2) A USC Hall of Fame facility

3) Williams-Brice Stadium’s entrances and ground level concourses to be revamped and cleaned up

4) The ability to walk and cycle across the Lake Murray backup dam

5) More cycling trails and lanes

6) More cycling races

7) A facility for minor league hockey, arena football, minor league basketball, indoor lacrosse and other medium-scale events

8) The State Fair to come up with some fresh ideas for its rides and layout

9) More businesses and jobs to come to the Columbia area

10) A more attractive drive from the airport to downtown Columbia

11) The farmer’s market located on land adjacent to a major highway to increase visibility

12) A bypass that connects Lexington to I-26 and I-77

— John Ogle, Lexington

+++

Columbia needs better leadership from the top to bottom (senator, governor, and mayor).

There is no reason why ... during the most technological explosion in history ... our leadership didn’t do a better job in bringing technology companies to the area. Cities like Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Tampa, Orlando and others up the East Coast all benefited from this explosion. South Carolina —Columbia in particular — is too slow to develop.

The question should be what do those other major cities have that Columbia does not have. I think it’s better leadership!

South Carolina was ranked last in education in 1979 and they tell me that the state is still last or at the bottom in educating its kids in 2005.

That tells me that it’s still the leadership in South Carolina that is poor.

— Al Lloyd, Dreher High School, Class of 1979

+++

Columbia needs a funky little arts district near downtown like the NoDa neighborhood in Charlotte.

Clearly, the artists have left the Vista and have been replaced by preppy, SUV-driving suits.

Olympia could do it if the county doesn’t mess things up and if Jack Gerstner ever scrapes together enough money to redo Gallery 701 or sells to a responsible developer.

You could even have a cool name like SoBlo (tongue firmly in cheek — short for South of Blossom).

North Main? I just don’t see it. They’d be better off courting high-rise residential and sound infrastructure.

If not Olympia, then my second-best pick is along Meeting Street in West Columbia — feeding off the State Street energy.

The best place might be Triangle City, if West Columbia gets hip to the idea. I’d throw some money at that, especially if Richland County Council screws everyone over and votes down the Olympia tax improvement district.

— Brian Linder, Columbia

+++

How about a drive-in theater. The only one in the state that I know of is a hour away in Monetta. The Big Mo drive in.

— J.C. Faustus

+++

In my opinion the city of Columbia could use a nice PUBLIC (as in free) skatepark built by SKATERS.

Now I know we have one rinky dink little park, but in a city this size that isn’t really enough. And it is obviously not built by skaters, but by some newbie architect whose firm was given the assignment and he got stuck with the little “UNIMPORTANT” job.

But that’s the point — it is not at all unimportant!!!! Even though the government refuses to recognize it, the skating movement is not (and therefore should not be considered) a crime. But it is actually an effective way of keeping kids off the streets and away from unhealthy environments and influences, while at the same time having fun and building valuable skills.

Thanks for listening to my rambling.

— Sincerely, Josh Rogerson

+++

Columbia is a wonderful place to live and raise a family. However, there are a few things the area could use that would make it even better, in my humble opinion.

My personal list, in no particular order, includes:

A water park, like “Wet N’ Wild.” (The one at Fort Jackson isn’t always open to the public.)

Ikea, the home design store.

Dairy Queens ... Free-standing ones, not just in the mall or attached to a service station.

An additional Krispy Kreme location. (Northeast would be great!)

Outlet mall.

More breakfast places. Especially non-chain locations.

More good community parks, like “Seven Oaks” in St. Andrews.

Amphitheater that seats 5,000 or more and offers Broadway shows, concerts, etc. (Like the AmSouth in Nashville)

More lanes on I-20 around Alpine Road and Clemson Road and Main Street and Broad River Road — two big bottle necks.

Thanks for asking!

One of the greatest assets to this community is “The State” newspaper. You are doing an excellent job!

— Jerry Grimes

+++

Columbia needs more upscale shopping malls and more upscale dining downtown and on Main Street.

Also Columbia needs to build more tall, glass buildings rather than everything being so historic-looking. A skyline does a lot for a city, and we are doing a poor job of building it currently. Take Charlotte for example!!!!!! Beautiful skyline, and look at the population as it soars!!!!

— Travis Sumter

+++

Traffic issues into and out of the city can be improved with a light rail system. Existing or abandoned tracks are already in place between the obvious growth areas of the metro area and the city center.

Build stations with secure parking lots in places like Irmo, Lexington, Elgin, etc.

Light rail is a popular and low-cost transportation solution in Dallas, Atlanta, and Los Angeles and is improving the quality of life for many while reducing the pollution level.

— Bill Nichols, Newberry

+++

Columbia and South Carolina as a whole need a better Regional Transit System. As a former Columbia resident currently residing in the D.C. Metro, it amazes me how easy and economical it is to get from D.C. to NYC or Philadelphia using trains or regional bus service.

Columbia could benefit from better regional transit that improves connections from the city to other locations such as Charleston or Charlotte via rail or regional coach service. Many services in DC are “luxury” coaches that offer comfortable and reliable service for regional commuters and leisure travelers.

North Carolina offers a good model, with its regional commuter rail service between Charlotte and Raleigh (with various stops in between) operated by NCDOT under contract with Amtrak.

With gas prices hovering at an all-time high and Columbia looking to increase tourism, reduce traffic congestion and lure conventioneers, it may be a good time to look at our transportation connection with other communities.

— Chikwe C. Njoku

+++

We would like to see the Columbia canal made into a waterway with bridges and walkways alongside with a mall and coffee shops kind of like San Antonio (except smaller). We don’t have the Alamo, but we do have a very interesting city.

We always take our out-of-town guests on a tour of where the Civil War started and show them where the Confederate money was printed, etc.

We would also like to know more interesting facts about our beautiful Columbia, but where do you find those facts? We don’t think residents here truly appreciate the history and culture and are as proud as we should be.

— Jerry & Shala Tucker

+++

Columbia has Skip Pearson, well-known jazz saxophone player. Lots of people talk about jazz, and lots of places in Columbia advertise jazz. But in my nearly 20 years of living in the Columbia area there is only one name that consistently provides the real thing.

Skip holds court in various venues around town throughout the week and several recurring festivals each year. My personal favorite is his regular Thursday night gig at the Hunter Gatherer on Main Street.

The Thursday night gig features a world class jam session that would be the envy of any 1950’s-era musician. A regular stable of local musicians drop by to get a chance to sit in with a topnotch jazz band.

There is an unbelievable level of musicianship in the local players who leave their day jobs to do a little after-hours jamming. On a regular night these guys can play with the best of them. But on the occasions when name-brand players with a Columbia connection stop in to blow a few tunes everybody steps it up a notch. You never know who will show up.

I personally have seen drop-in performances by Chris Potter and Wycliffe Gordon. Fred Wesley (of James Brown and the JBs fame) is a semi-regular.

— Milton R. Cooley, Irmo

+++

We need a new minor league park, if not in the city limits then somewhere in Richland County, for at least a Class A team.

Use PSLs (personal seat licenses) to sell tickets and raise money from the private sector to alleviate the need for the owners to look to the local government.

We need an expanded rink and better sight-lines for hockey in the Carolina Coliseum or a new hockey rink for 4,000 to 5,000 folks. That would be nice, but tough to fund.

Private development and PSLs would help raise the initial money and continue to support the team. They would also help offset the need to government money.

Both facilities could be done in the Village at Sandhills.

We also need an in-town soccer facility that would support the 1,000 children and countless adults playing at the Owen’s Field Soccer Complex.

Owen’s Field is in a flood zone and would require some work to handle drainage. It of course needs sod, preferably Bermuda grass. This facility would also need enough lights to handle night practices and games. At worst, a complete overhaul.

A massive capital campaign to raise community funds could rally the city. Richland District 1 could also help.

Both the city of Columbia and Richland County are far outdone in youth sports facilities. Looking around Lexington County and some of the facilities in Irmo, Chapin, Lexington and other places, it is easy to see why we are far behind at the middle and high school level, because fewer kids play at good facilities.

Thanks.

— Shep Headley, YMCA soccer coach, father of two and sports fan who loves the Gamecocks. I also have season tickets to USC basketball and football and minor league pro sports.

+++

A Vietnamese restaurant (not a Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Thai restaurant that serves Vietnamese food).

— Janice M. Haigler

+++

Columbia needs a new “tallest” tower in the downtown area — something around 400-450 feet would look great.

— Robert Baker

+++

Mass transit running alongside I-20, I-26 and I-77.

More residential buildings in the downtown area — complexes to cut down on urban sprawl.

Build ugly so we won’t attract too many people. Do we really want to be another Charlotte or Atlanta? We need to keep our Southern appearance, unlike those two cities.

I won’t care cuz I’ll be in the middle of 50 acres in Georgia where I plan to die in 50 or so years. But my suggestions are sincere.

— Stan Lore

++

I moved here from the Indianapolis area almost four years ago. I’m thrilled to be living in South Carolina’s capital city.

I have always been so impressed by everything that Columbia has to offer. The free concert series at Finlay Park are absolutely wonderful.

I was rather disappointed however, that there were no amusement parks here. My grandchildren come to visit me about once a year.

They come by car, so taking a trip to the state line for amusement is too much to expect of a 4 year old and a 9 year old after a 12-hour drive to my house — especially knowing there will be another 12-hour drive home in a few days.

Columbia has its own hockey team — when do we get our own football team? What about a pro- basketball team? All I hear about is Gamecocks. Are there no other sports clubs available? Can USC not take the local competition?

— Ginny Platt

+++

We need to look at consolidating all the towns and cities into one big metro city. Oh! And don’t forget mass transit.

— Sonny Young

+++

By 2015 our rivers — the Saluda, the Broad and the Congaree — will highlight the best of Columbia:

Old and new residences lining its banks. Paved walking trails with families out walking every evening. Kayakers playing on the cold, clean water of the Saluda River rapids. Canoeists enjoying the visually appealing scenery. Tubers floating down the fun rapids, cyclists pedaling up and down the expanded bike trail system. Fishermen catching even more trout and striped bass. The river will be a center of focus for the area.

To reach this vision we need regular releases of water down the Broad River and the Saluda River, more access points on the rivers, an extension of the trail system on the rivers and a continued effort to clean up our rivers and our towns.

— Richard Mikell, Adventure Carolina

+++

Some thoughts that we have had about Columbia and what we would like to see here in the coming years:

1. Have a bi-annual “New Building Design Competition” with monetary prizes sponsored by the city and judged by a committee of architects to inspire some innovative architecture.

2. Develop a pair of parks in the eyesore parking lots at the top of Gervais Street in the Vista, across from the State House complex. The parks would be a combination of New York’s Bryant Park and DC’s Dupont Circle, with perimeter walks, lots of trees and perhaps a fountain or a sculpture.

3. Develop the part of Finlay Park on Assembly Street next to the Strom Thurmond building. Have a fountain, cafe chairs and table. Make it a pleasant lunch spot for workers.

4. Make water and fountains a “signature” for Columbia. The biggest water project: A stream/river in the old railroad track along Lincoln Street to connect Finlay Park, Lady Street and the Vista. Brick sidewalks and trees would be added along the stream for a pleasant stroll from the Vista to the park and back again. Have a narrow brook (like the one in the zoo’s garden) run along the street by the new convention center. Create a stream or fountain in every neighborhood in the city.

5. Make a 100 percent commitment to the maintenance of all parks. They would be clean, groomed, landscaped, and appropriately and seasonally planted so that they showed no decline. A run-down park scares off potential users.

6. Bring back the trolleys to run continually downtown but don’t charge! The amount of money gained was minuscule and discouraged participation. And bring back the old-time (real) trolleys to link close-in residential areas to the downtown.

7. Restrict the University —NOW — to remaining south of Gervais and with no more expansion to the east. We don’t want to be another Athens, Ga., where almost the whole downtown has been taken over by the school.

8. Create WiFi zones downtown and in Five Points.

9. Make the entire city smoke-free. This has been done in many cities (notably NYC) with tremendous success. This is something that people will notice when deciding whether to live here. It will show that Columbia is good, progressive and healthy.

10. Make Columbia more pedestrian-friendly. For instance, evenings from 6 p.m. to midnight in Five Points, make Saluda Street pedestrian only. Reroute traffic on Gervais Street in the Vista after 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evenings so that the blocks between Lincoln and Park (or Assembly) are pedestrian only.

11. Campaign to develop a signature feel for the city that is progressive (WiFi, non-smoking) but maintains traditional values (friendly neighborhoods, nice parks), so that we can attract young people to come and work and start businesses here, as well as raise families in a forward-looking community.

— Mike and Polly Stout

krazeeboi

October 24th, 2005, 05:54 AM

Steven, you beat me to it. ;)

krazeeboi

November 4th, 2005, 10:17 AM

City to pay $1.5 million more to build Vista hotel (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/13067209.htm)

Council OKs additional funds million to offset rising costs

By GINA SMITH
Staff Writer

The city will give $1.5 million more toward the construction of a Vista hotel — viewed as the linchpin to the new Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.

In a 5-1 vote Wednesday, Columbia City Council approved the money for the 222-room Hilton hotel, which will be owned by Windsor/Aughtry Co. of Greenville.

Earlier this summer, council pledged $3 million for the full-service hotel.

Conservative estimates from the city anticipate the convention center and hotel will generate about $20 million in business for the city’s shops, restaurants, bars and attractions. That equates to millions of property tax and other dollars for the city.

“That would be in the beginning,” said Columbia Mayor Bob Coble. “It would continue to grow.”

Groundbreaking on the long awaited hotel, expected to cost about $32 million, could happen in two weeks. It is scheduled to open in 2007.

Developer Bo Aughtry said the city money will help offset the rising costs of building supplies and fuel prices caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as higher interest rates on the loans he took to build the hotel.

“Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast and created horrific inflation in the construction industry,” Aughtry said Wednesday. “Dry wall, concrete, PVC pipe — you name it and it’s gone up.”

Aughtry said his company is also bearing the brunt of rising prices. It will put in $1.5 million more and borrow $2 million.

Coble said the city’s money will come from profits from the sale of the old Central Correctional Institution prison property, which is being developed into CanalSide.

City staff has looked over the construction budget, Coble said. A specific contract with Aughtry, with specific provisions and guarantees to protect and insure the city’s money, will be drawn up.

Council member Hamilton Osborne voted against giving the developer more money.

“I don’t think the city should provide a subsidy for a privately owned hotel,” Osborne said.

But some say the success of the city’s convention center depends on a hotel. Also, the city has agreed to pay $12 million to $13 million for an accompanying parking garage.

“Meeting planners have told us over and over and over again that they won’t consider Columbia (for meetings) until there’s a full-service hotel for the convention center,” said Mack Stone, convention center director. “(Convention participants) don’t anticipate having to drive every time they need to go to the convention center.”

Aughtry was the only prospective developer who told city council he could build a hotel without a city subsidy.

But he was offering the Hilton’s scaled-down Garden Inn, and some city leaders insisted he upgrade the proposal to a Hilton.

That’s when the city pledged $3 million to help pay for the hotel.

“I’m dedicated to getting this hotel done for the city,” Aughtry said. “There’s a real sense of obligation.”

Here's the proposed rendering according to the Columbia Development Corporation's website:

http://www.columbiascgateway.com/content/images_CDC/Hilton.jpg

Not really big, but it fits into the overall vibe of the Vista area, which has height restrictions anyway.

krazeeboi

November 4th, 2005, 10:35 PM

I have been told that the above rendering is dated and this is the current rendering, which I like less:

http://d1092275.u23.simplewaresolutions.com/images/hilton_columbia.jpg

Looks too much like the Hampton Inn (with all the brick) already located in the Vista.

Dale

November 4th, 2005, 10:39 PM

It's at least taller, I guess. Although I can appreciate that you'd want to break away from the predominant historicism.

krazeeboi

November 5th, 2005, 01:44 AM

Yeah, it does seem a bit taller, although there are height restrictions in that area of downtown. I think either model would fit with the character of the district, but I just think the latter is TOO MUCH BRICK.

StevenW

November 6th, 2005, 03:28 AM

yeah, I like the other design better, too.

StevenW

November 6th, 2005, 03:29 AM

BTW, anyone have any renderings for the new office buildings for Huger Street?
Wasn't there a proposal for a 19 story tower somewhere in town? :?

krazeeboi

November 6th, 2005, 04:00 AM

Wow, I didn't hear anything about that. I know there are some rumblings about a possible condo tower on South Main.

LSyd

November 6th, 2005, 04:06 AM

I like the new rendering better. taller, more elegant, less brutalism (and Columbia's already got some good brutalism.)

-

TampaMike

November 6th, 2005, 05:01 PM

krazeeboi

November 6th, 2005, 06:39 PM

Well, I guess the actual building will have to grow on me. But for one, I do think it will compliment the convention center more than the other rendering:

http://www.coolumbia.net/images/gov/040926f.jpg

http://www.coolumbia.net/images/gov/040926d.jpg

I love how the convention center adequately addresses the street and is a pedestrian-friendly structure.

krazeeboi

November 6th, 2005, 06:54 PM

Granby Mill renovation complete; Olympia Mill up next

High-end apartments are slowly filling up

By DAWN HINSHAW
Staff Writer

The conversion of the century-old Granby textile mill into high-end apartments is complete and about one-fourth of the units are occupied.

On-site managers Jay and Alina Graham said their emphasis now is on landscaping the high-profile, historic property — at Whaley Street and Olympia Avenue — and pursuing plans for a pool.

Jay Graham said he’s “pretty happy” with the Granby Mill’s occupancy rate, given that it opened just three months ago.

“The first 25, 30 percent come at that pace, and then, typically, the buzz gets out and it pops pretty quickly after that,” he said.

With 142 units renting for $1,000 to $2,000 a month, Granby Mills opened Aug. 1.

One of the first tenants was Erin Akin, 22, who works downtown.

Akin said she kept an eye on the restoration of the textile-mill building as it progressed and, since moving in, has enjoyed the space. “It’s different from anything else in Columbia. It’s just got this grand feeling to the whole thing.”

The Main Street building where Akin works is visible from one side of her apartment and USC’s football stadium can been seen from the other. “You can get a picture of Columbia through the windows of the mills,” she said.

The only things missing nearby, Akin said, are a movie-rental store and a convenience store where she could buy milk and bread.

But that could be changing soon.

A 9,000-square-foot outbuilding that once housed the mill’s administrative offices is under contract with a buyer who’s planning a mix of retail and office space.

The asking price for the Heyward Street building and its 1.2-acre tract is $750,000.

Aaron Dupree, a real estate agent with Wilson/Kibler, said he would expect work to begin on the property early in 2006. He said the buyer did not want to be identified.

Meanwhile, the owners of Granby Mills, Philadelphia Management, continue preliminary work on Olympia Mill, located next door.

About half of its bricked-in windows have been pushed out and glass windows restored in the expansive, four-story building. The remainder of the windows should be installed in about three months, Jay Graham said.

A spokesman for Philadelphia Management said last month a decision has not been made whether the Olympia Mills will be renovated into condominiums for sale or apartments for rent.

The company has said it will spend $30 million on the property, a downtown-area landmark that stood vacant for nine years after the mills closed.

I couldn't find any pictures online of the fully-renovated mill, but here's a picture of the work in progress from Waccamatt's page:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/neighborhoods/mill%20villages/huge%20granby%20mill%20renovation.jpg

weill

November 7th, 2005, 04:02 AM

im glad to see what is going in Columbia :)

LSyd

November 7th, 2005, 06:47 AM

ooooh...Olympia/Granby mills. i've been obsessed w/em for years. sadly, i never got inside, but i heard stories from those who did.

and they will have nice views of downtown.

when the nearby Vulcan quarry's closed and turned into a man-made lake (2015ish?) and if the trains are re-routed, that whole 'hood's property values are gonna soar.

-

krazeeboi

November 7th, 2005, 08:28 AM

You're right, it really is. That area is blessed with THREE mills to be redeveloped and a good bit of land. It would be cool to see that become sort of an "artsy" district for Columbia.

LSyd

November 7th, 2005, 02:55 PM

You're right, it really is. That area is blessed with THREE mills to be redeveloped and a good bit of land. It would be cool to see that become sort of an "artsy" district for Columbia.

what's the 3rd? Whaley's? that's already apartments.

-

krazeeboi

November 7th, 2005, 08:50 PM

OK; didn't know whether or not they'd gotten to it yet, thanks.

krazeeboi

November 9th, 2005, 12:04 PM

According to The State newspaper:

The official groundbreaking ceremony for the new Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center hotel is set for 2 p.m. Nov. 22 at Park and Senate streets.

The ceremony marks the beginning of construction for the 222-room, full-service Hilton hotel, owned by Windsor/Aughtry Co. of Greenville.

A $4.5 million subsidy from the city of Columbia will help fund the construction project expected to cost about $32 million.

The contract between Windsor/Aughtry Co. and the city outlining specific details including parking and room block agreements will be presented to the City Council for approval Nov. 16 or Nov. 23. The council has previously approved a letter of intent on the project.

Construction will be complete in 15 to 18 months. The hotel is to open in 2007.

StevenW

November 9th, 2005, 11:19 PM

Thanks for the updates. :)

krazeeboi

November 10th, 2005, 01:05 PM

Full speed ahead (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/13127925.htm)

City OKs thousands of residences and parking spots, annexes 200 acres

By GINA SMITH and JEFF WILKINSON

Staff Writers

Projects that will add nearly 4,000 residences and 4,800 parking spaces to the city’s core got the go-ahead Wednesday from Columbia City Council.

The city also annexed nearly 200 acres on Garners Ferry Road, where another 1,200 residences and more will be built.

PARKING GALORE

Each of the two new parking garages — at Sumter and Taylor streets and at Sumter and Blanding streets — will provide 450 much-needed spaces.

The garages will handle the residential and commercial development around Main Street, said Matt Kennell, president of City Center Partnership.

“There is certainly a need for new and better parking garages downtown,” he said.

The cost of the two garages is estimated to total $18 million.

Council also approved two garages around Gervais Street in the Vista — a 900-space, $19.5 million garage that will serve the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center and its hotel at Pendleton and Lincoln streets; and a 600-space, $5.5 million garage at Lady and Lincoln streets.

Groundbreaking for the hotel, which is seen as key to the convention center’s success, has been scheduled for Nov. 22. It is expected to open in 2007.

The Lady Street garage will likely be fronted by residential and retail space. Both garages should help ease parking problems in the Vista, said Fred Delk, executive director of the Columbia Development Corp.

“These garages are long overdue,” he said. “Employees (of Vista businesses) should be in the garages, freeing up on-street parking for retail customers. That’s the purpose of all of this.”

The city also agreed to pay for half the cost of a $15.5 million, 1,000-car garage to serve USC’s Horizon Center at Assembly and Blossom streets. Council members also agreed to pay the cost of an $18.4 million garage on Lincoln Street near the Koger Center for USC’s research campus.

Construction of all six garages should begin within a year, according to Steve Gantt, assistant city manager for development.

CANALSIDE APPROVED

After a decade of false starts and hurdles, council gave approval to a Charleston firm’s plan to redevelop the Central Correctional Institution prison site.

The Beach Co. bought the 25-acre site in July for $6 million. It plans to develop a $115 million village with 750 condos, town homes, live-work units, apartments and single-family homes, and 35,000 square feet of office and retail space.

The city bought the land fronting the Columbia Canal for $3.3 million in 1995 after the state closed its notorious prison, once home to Death Row.

The city sought private developers and pledged $12 million for site improvements. But for a decade, there was no buyer.

The Beach Co.’s Charlie Way said construction should begin in the second or third quarter of 2006.

SHANDON SQUARE

Developers Ben Arnold and David Bryant will demolish the old ETV headquarters on Millwood Avenue in about two weeks to make way for their $10 million Shandon Square.

It includes eight live-work town homes that they hope people starting up home businesses will be interested in and 14 Charleston-style single family residences — most of which border Cypress and Woodrow streets on the edge of the old Shandon neighborhood. The developers expect homes to go for $300,000 and up.

City leaders and the developers anticipate the project will spur high-end development in the area near Dreher High School.

“We see the Millwood Avenue corridor being redeveloped,” developer David Bryant said. “This will be one of the catalysts.”

EXPANDING THE CITY

Columbia grew by 200 acres Wednesday when City Council annexed the Burnside farm, a prime piece of real estate that will become a mixed-use development and home to as many as 2,500 to 3,000 people.

Specific plans haven’t been released for the acreage along Garners Ferry Road, just two miles from the I-77 beltway.

But the real estate consultant for the project, Clif Kinder, told City Council it would be a pedestrian-friendly, heavily landscaped mix of homes, offices and shops set close to the road with parking in the rear.

City Council’s vote Wednesday to annex the property means water and sewer lines will be extended to the site.

“In terms of Columbia’s renaissance, this ... is a significant day,” Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said. “It means that Columbia’s inner city will have substantially more development. It means that development, slowed by parking (issues), will be addressed.”

LSyd

November 11th, 2005, 03:26 PM

^ that's nice to hear.

yeah, Whaley's Mill has been apartments for a long time (97 or 98, maybe even longer.)

-

krazeeboi

November 14th, 2005, 12:25 AM

Growth plan on tap for Lower Richland (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/13154967.htm)

Outline in works for thousands of homes slated for area in next 10 to 15 years

By JOHN O’CONNOR

Staff Writer

Residents, developers and county planners are drawing lines to help decide where to allow thousands of homes that could be built in Lower Richland in the next 10 to 15 years.

The neighborhood — specifically the intersection of Lower Richland Boulevard and Garners Ferry Road, and communities in the surrounding one-mile area — is one of 10 locations where consultants will draw an outline for growth under the county’s new land-use rules.

The Town and Country growth plan features key intersections where growth is to be encouraged and carefully planned — the “town” concept. In between those areas is to be “country,” which would remain more rural with less development.

The southeast Richland County plan is the first to be released. Richland County’s Planning Commission has endorsed the plan, and County Council is scheduled to vote on it Tuesday.

The plan is the result of months of collaboration among Greenville consultants Arnett Muldrow, residents and developers. However, developers and residents think it is unlikely Lower Richland ever will look like it does in the PowerPoint graphics presented by Arnett Muldrow.

“We like the plan,” said Bobby Desportes, a resident who lives just outside the planning area. “We’re most worried that the developers are going to mess it up before we can get there.”

For their part, developers said they are struggling to find some guidance on what the county is asking them to do.

“I agree with the planning concept,” said Cliff Kinder, a developer with 140 homes in the works within the planning area. “The devil is in the details. The concept is good, but the focus area is too small.”

One big question involves traffic.

Designers have said “connectivity,” the ability to get from one point to another by a variety of routes, underpins the entire plan.

New roads would be built to bypass Garners Ferry congestion, including extending Airbase Road to provide another route into Columbia.

“If we do not do the roads as we have it on this plan, it’s going to fail,” said planning commissioner Barbara Wyatt.

Arnett Muldrow consultants also have recommended a traffic study.

A number of recommendations attempt to preserve green space, including roadside buffers that widen as the roads move away from high-density development. A mix of housing would mean larger lots toward the edge of the planned area.

Shopping centers would be connected by parks, and developers might have to provide athletic fields and other recreation space.

But developer Kinder said there were no specific details about where residential, commercial and green space would go.

“This is the first one of these that has been done,” Kinder said. “Everybody is kind of struggling how to get from A to Z.

“There’s not a plan to get to a plan.”

In the meantime, some residents have asked the county to stop growth in the area until council approves or rejects the plan. But many developers are ready to start breaking ground on homes.

For Sam McGregor, the plan could determine the future of his family farm.

As he prepared to harvest the last of his soybean crop, McGregor said it was the first time the county had tackled planning in an organized way. Though many residents are unhappy about the change, McGregor thought the compromises in the plan could keep everyone happy.

“I think planning, it is the way to go,” he said, “and have an equal mixture and not just have a hodgepodge.”

ROBTEX

November 17th, 2005, 03:34 AM

With a million dollar penthouse...

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/13178511.htm

krazeeboi

November 17th, 2005, 10:50 AM

^Isn't that something? I'm ITCHING for the renderings to come out!

krazeeboi

November 18th, 2005, 11:33 AM

City envisions Bull Street boon (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/13198040.htm)

Study says development could be worth millions to Columbia

By JEFF WILKINSON

Staff Writer

Development of the 178-acre State Hospital campus on Bull Street would create 1,161 permanent jobs and be one of the largest boons to Columbia’s economy in the city’s history, an impact study released Thursday predicts.

When completed, the 1,300 residential units and 500,000 square feet of retail and office space in the city’s center also could result in:

• $405 million in construction and related activity

• $9.5 million in property taxes a year

• $8 million a year in state income and sales taxes.

“This is our BMW,” Mayor Bob Coble said, referring to the German automaker whose plant retooled the Upstate’s economy. “No city I know has this much land in the center of downtown that would be appropriate for neighborhood development.”

The study by consultants Miley, Gallo & Associates of Columbia assumed the redevelopment would be completed eight years after the land’s sale. Even with delays, its financial impact — which includes dollars spent on construction and materials, as well as the spending of residents and employees in the neighborhood — would be about the same, the firm said.

“Given its downtown location, Bull Street should have tremendous impact on the city and the region,” consultant Harry Miley said. “It’s a nice mix of uses that complement each other.”

The Miami-based Duany Plater-Zyberg firm of New Urbanism guru Andres Duany developed the master plan for the site earlier this year.

The plan features a mix of retail, office and residential development. It calls for dense clusters of homes, stores, offices, live-work units, condos and apartments around wide areas of green space.

The plan calls for restoring and reusing many of the old asylum’s historic buildings, including the iconic Babcock Building, which Duany envisions as a hotel.

The new Bull Street Neighborhood also would feature a “town center” of stores and shops near its main entrance at Bull Street and Elmwood Avenue.

Because the development is infill — property that already has streets, sewers and other infrastructure — its benefit to the tax base would be greater than a suburban project, Miley said.

The sale of the property by the State Budget and Control Board has been delayed at least three months because of a dispute among state agencies over how profits should be divided.

Bull Street boosters, led by the Central Carolina Community Foundation’s Bull Street Committee, hope the budget board will place the land up for sale at its Dec. 13 meeting.

The nonprofit foundation was tapped last year to shepherd the project, balancing Gov. Mark Sanford’s wish for a quick sale with the city’s call for redevelopment to complement downtown neighborhoods and business corridors.

Budget board members — Sanford and four other top state leaders — have been waiting for an attorney general’s ruling on where profits should go.

“We have no interest in who receives the funds,” said S.C. State Housing Finance and Development Authority chairman Charles Small, a Central Carolina foundation committee member. “That’s a matter for the state to decide. We want to go forward.”

Economic impact studies are notoriously rosy, compounding dollars several times as they roll through the regional economy — a phenomenon called “multipliers.”

But foundation committee member Joe E. Taylor Jr. said the numbers — and the committee’s estimate that construction should be completed in eight years — was “conservative” given the state of the downtown residential market.

“Besides the founding of the University of South Carolina, I don’t know of anything in downtown Columbia that has had this type of impact on the tax base,” Taylor said. “And the university doesn’t pay property taxes.

“If only half of this happens, it still will have the most impact of anything that has happened here in the last 50 years.”

krazeeboi

November 19th, 2005, 04:23 AM

Here's how First Citizens HQ is looking these days:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v431/tauricorn/048p1_xlg.jpg

Looking pretty good if you ask me! Almost exactly like the rendering:

http://www.thestate.com/images/thestate/state/8517/72544755914.gif

StevenW

November 21st, 2005, 12:03 PM

$1 million penthouse condominium

An optometrist and his partners are close to beginning work in the Vista

By C. GRANT JACKSON

Business Editor

Is the Vista ready for its first million-dollar condo?

Earl Loftis thinks so. The optometrist plans to tear down his Eye on Gervais business near the Publix grocery to build The Lofts at Printer’s Square, a $10 million project.

The four-story building would have 11 residential condominiums. That includes three penthouses, one of which Loftis expects to sell for at least $1 million.

The group’s plan still must be approved by the city’s Design Development Review Commission.

Fred Delk, executive director of the Columbia Development Corp., said he is not surprised by that price tag.

Downtown is on the cusp of a surge in residential development throughout the Vista and on Main Street, with prices reaching seven figures, Delk said.

“If people will live in million-dollar houses in the suburbs, they will be glad to live in million-dollar houses and apartments and condos in the city center.”

The reasons: no commute and an environment that is more active and creative than the same old suburbs, Delk said.

David Bryant, who is developing nearby Renaissance Plaza with Ben Arnold, said he thinks you can get $1 million for a condo in the Vista.

He added: “We just don’t know the depth of the market.”

The 17 live-work units built as part of Renaissance Plaza had an original price tag of $400,000 to $500,000. Bryant said they are reselling for $600,000 to $750,000, even though the units aren’t finished.

Most condos in the Lofts at Printer’s Square will be priced starting at $650,000. The building also will have 7,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, which will include a new home for Eye on Gervais.

Loftis and his wife will live in one of the penthouses.

“I like the idea of not having to drive home. I like the idea of going over to the Publix and buying one banana,” said Loftis, who lives in the Ascot subdivision near Dutch Fork High School.

Two penthouses will have about 3,200 square feet of heated space, Loftis said. They also will have wraparound balconies that will increase the total square footage to about 4,800.

The third penthouse will be a smaller unit of about 2,000 square feet, Loftis said.

Size is one of the things driving the cost of the units, said Dan Ligon, one of Loftis’ partners. The units will average 2,800 to 3,000 square feet, which is twice as big as a typical condominium, he said.

Ligon is a general contractor and developer who owns Ligon & Associates. The other partner in the venture is businessman Ed Bignon.

The units’ size makes them more like single-family homes than condominiums, Loftis said. Each will be on a single level.

The basic floor plan calls for three bedrooms with 2½ to 3½ baths. But the units could be reconfigured up to four bedrooms and four baths, Loftis said.

“These condos aren’t for everybody,” said Loftis, who is a graduate of Airport High and USC. “I like the idea of bringing something to Columbia that is unique.”

Ligon said the units will be comparable to properties found in New York City or Atlanta. He expects about half to be sold to out-of-state buyers because the concept of lofts is new to Columbia.

“What we are catering to is the 1 percent of the market where price is no object.”

The building will be brick construction, both exterior and interior walls, with 14-foot ceilings and exposed duct work. Doors will be 8 feet high.

DREAMS INTO REALITY

Ligon has wanted to undertake a loft condo project in the Vista for several years. His original conversation with Loftis, his optometrist, was about putting two or three floors on top of the existing building. Loftis also dreamed about building condos in the Vista.

But Eye on Gervais has no architectural or historical significance. They decided it would easier to build, maintaining the Vista look.

Ligon said he expects demolition of the Eye on Gervais building to begin sometime in February or March. The building also houses the Athlete’s Factory, which is moving to the ground floor of the old Tapp’s building on Main Street.

Construction will take about 10 months. It could be occupied by late December 2006.

Hood Construction of Columbia will build the condos. The architect is Scott Johnston of Greenville.

Each unit will have two parking spaces, one under the building and one in a gated lot across Pulaski Street.

The lot also will provide parking for the retail space, with about half going to the new Eye on Gervais.

While the building is going up, Loftis said he plans to move his business into a nearby construction trailer. He has a second location in Irmo.

Loftis has talked to other potential retail tenants, including a restaurant and Starbucks. He would like to attract a pharmacy.

waccamatt

November 24th, 2005, 07:47 AM

Well over $1billion in development is U/C or has been announced in Columbia this year.

krazeeboi

November 24th, 2005, 10:37 AM

Now THAT'S impressive. Columbia is on its way up.

waccamatt

November 25th, 2005, 09:55 AM

Now THAT'S impressive. Columbia is on its way up.

We're movin' on uppppppppppp, to the top, to a deeeeeeluxe apartment in the sky yigh yigh.

StevenW

November 25th, 2005, 05:01 PM

Now, if only Columbia would build 3 new tallest towers in the downtown area.
One condo tower at around 400 ft. tall. One Hotel at around 500 ft. tall. And, finally, one office tower around 600 ft. tall! ;) All having ground retail of course. :D
Now wouldn't that be a nice new calling card for the city's image!? :D ;)

StevenW

November 25th, 2005, 05:05 PM

btw, nice updated picture. thanks. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v431/tauricorn/048p1_xlg.jpg

krazeeboi

November 30th, 2005, 02:11 AM

Team to have USC flavor (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/13280403.htm)

Agreement will put four Gamecocks on collegiate summer league team

By JEFF WILKINSON

Staff Writer

Promoter Bill Shanahan, the man who is putting a collegiate summer league team in Capital City Stadium, has forged an unprecedented alliance with USC.

The university will provide the team with front office personnel from its school of sports and entertainment management. And Gamecocks coach Ray Tanner said USC will provide the maximum four players allowed by the league and will use the 10-week season to evaluate them.

The coach, logo, name of the team and the four USC players are to be announced at a noon press conference today at the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce offices.

Shanahan said the team’s name could be the Columbia Blowfish, after the city’s most famous musical export.

“There is no other team in sports anywhere in the United States of America that is the Blowfish,” he said. “And because of Hootie, it’s something unique to Columbia.”

USC officials said Tanner’s cooperation with the summer league should not be viewed as a signal the university and the city are interested in renewing discussions about sharing a stadium with a professional team in the Vista. USC still plans to build its own stadium, they said.

Mayor Bob Coble said the partnership between the team and USC will help make the collegiate franchise successful and help ensure the city’s now-vacant, 6,000-seat stadium has a successful, long-term tenant.

“It’s the best deal out there if you look at it purely in terms of cost to the taxpayers,” he said.

Coble said the partnership matches Shanahan’s ability to market the stadium with the community’s love of collegiate baseball.

Tanner said the relationship between the team and the school would be mutually beneficial.

“This is a great fit for college baseball,” said Tanner, who led the Gamecocks to three consecutive trips to the College World Series, from 2002 to 2004.

“The calendar (schedule) is right. We’ll have four players on the team. And it will get the attention of the fans.

“We won’t be in competition with each other,” Tanner said. “We’ll make each other better.”

The 15-team Coastal Plain League builds its clubs with a mix of college players — a maximum of four players from any given college or university, including such top in-state programs as USC, Clemson and Coastal Carolina University.

There are no rules prohibiting college coaches from scouting summer league games or using them to evaluate players, NCAA spokesman Kent Barrett said. However, they are not allowed to be involved as coaches or staff in any summer league team in which their players are members.

League players use wooden bats, and the season doesn’t start until the college season ends. And for fans, the team can serve beer and wine at games, as the minor leagues do.

The stadium was without a tenant this past season after the former Capital City Bombers moved to Greenville. The team left when a deal for a new jointly used stadium with USC collapsed.

The experience caused hard feelings between college baseball fans and professional baseball fans.

Shanahan said he isn’t interested in sharing a stadium with USC because that would limit his ability to stage non-baseball events. He plans eventually to schedule more than twice as many events — such as concerts, high school tournaments and corporate softball games — as there will be summer league games.

“The whole goal is to bring life back to Capital City Stadium,” he said.

Without a tenant, the stadium had become a haven for vandals and vagrants.

City taxpayers still have to shell out $135,000 a year for the next seven years to pay for renovations to the 6,000-seat ballpark made in 1991. And the city has to pay for any damage caused by vandals.

Shanahan, president and general manager of the minor league Mobile (Ala.) BayBears, set attendance records at Capital City Stadium as a Bombers general manager in the 1990s.

A group he represents purchased the Coastal Plain League expansion team for $300,000 to play in Columbia.

In addition to the Blowfish as a name, the team considered the Gems and the Raiders, after a former Columbia minor league team and the World War II heroes Doolittle’s Raiders, respectively. The Bombers, too, were named after the Raiders, who formed in Columbia and then bombed Imperial Japan after its attack on Pearl Harbor.

The team will pay $1,000 a month in rent and 5 percent of food sales — from beer, hot dogs and Cracker Jack snacks — to the city for all events.

Shanahan said he plans 50 non-baseball dates the first year in addition to the 30-game summer league season. The city would also share in the proceeds of those events, he said.

“The bottom line is the more success we have at Capital City Stadium, the more we can help with the maintenance of the facility,” he said. “I think it will end up not costing (taxpayers) money and provide affordable family entertainment for the city that wouldn’t be there otherwise.”

Shanahan has said he hopes to put taxpayers “in the black” in three years. “The partnership with USC helps us do that.”

In addition to players, the school also will provide 15 to 20 sports and entertainment management students each season. They will handle front office duties, such as sales, marketing, media, stadium operations and broadcasting.

Shanahan said the students would be paid, but those details have yet to be worked out.

The Bombers used USC interns, but there were fewer of them and they didn’t have the same level of real-world responsibility for running the team, said Tom Regan, chairman of the university’s Department of Sport and Entertainment Management.

“It’s the real thing,” Regan said. “This is going to be a much better experience for the kids.

“This is a resume builder that they are going to love.”

Carolina Blue

December 1st, 2005, 02:03 AM

I’m a big fan of lifestyle centers, so I thought this was pretty cool news below for Columbia.

Posted on Wed, Nov. 30, 2005
Developer lands Belk for Village at Sandhill
Department store, the 4th in Columbia, will open in 2007
By NOELLE PHILLIPS
Staff writer

The Village at Sandhill already has a grocery store, movie theater, liquor store and other assorted retailers and restaurants. But one department store topped village developer Alan Kahn’s wish list — Belk.

Tuesday, Belk announced it will open its fourth Columbia department store in spring 2007 at the 300-acre village in Northeast Richland. “Belk was the department store we wanted,” said Kahn, whose retail development is off Two Notch and Clemson roads. “After getting J.C. Penney, we had our sights on Belk. For our center, they’re probably the best fit we could have.”

The department store business is difficult, but Belk is well-managed, Kahn said. He believes its success will continue in the village. The 120,000-square-foot department store will be one of the larger Belk stores in Columbia.

The size will allow the store to carry expanded clothing lines and offer more housewares, said Steve Pernotto, a spokesman for the Charlotte-based company. The company is also considering specialty departments, such as fine jewelry, maternity wear and an optical center, he said. Construction will cost about $11.4 million, Pernotto said. The store eventually will employ 130 to 150 people.

Belk chose the village because the company believes in the concept of “lifestyle” center where people can shop, work and live in a common area, Pernotto said.

“We feel there’s a strong customer base there and it fits our normal model.” Belk opened its first Columbia store in 1930 and continued to operate stores in the city until 1995. It re-entered the Columbia market in 1998 when it bought the J.B. White stores at Dutch Square Center, Richland Mall and Columbiana Centre from Dillard’s.

The company plans to keep operating the three existing stores, Pernotto said. “We have a big commitment to Columbia,” he said. “It’s a very good market.” Kahn Development will lay out the groundwork and parking lot for Belk’s newest store, Kahn said. Belk will pay for the construction and will pay Kahn a “ground lease” for the land and upkeep of the common areas, he said. Belk will be the second department store in the Village; J.C. Penney opened last month.

Those two department stores along with a Home Depot, opening in December, and a Super Bi-Lo give the new development the right mix of anchors, Kahn said.

“It’s enough anchors to be successful.” Kahn plans to build two other retail spaces on the road leading to the Belk location. He also said eight new stores and restaurants had signed leases for the village.

Kahn bought the village property about six years ago. He fought neighbors over zoning and then struggled to sign retailers. Several upscale retailers said the site was too undeveloped and not populated enough to succeed. His company signed a few stores from the start then lease sales slowed, he said. This past summer, Rhodes Furniture, a visible anchor at the village, closed.

“Now, it’s accelerated,” Kahn said. “It’s leasing at breakneck speed.” And what’s the next store Kahn wants for the Village? “A bookstore would be number one on our wish list and it’s all but done,” he said, declining to name the company. “It will be the most important next addition.”

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/13291622.htm

Here are some pics from the web of The Village at Sandhill…

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y183/Kwinone/Sandhill1.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y183/Kwinone/sandhill4.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y183/Kwinone/Sandhill2.jpg

krazeeboi

December 2nd, 2005, 01:28 AM

Thanks for posting that, Carolina Blue; I forgot about that one. I've got to get over to the Village soon to check out the work for myself. The developer is actually trying to get a baseball stadium built out there, which is NOT a good idea IMO. I'm all for letting the residents of that area have options, but a ballpark is a bit much.

krazeeboi

December 2nd, 2005, 11:13 AM

Guys, I tell you no lie when I say that Columbia is really getting RED HOT with development right about now.

Fourth condo project to spring up near stadium (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/13307520.htm)

By JEFF WILKINSON

Staff Writer

Call them Cockominiums.

A Houston-based developer plans to build 168 condominiums geared toward USC football fans on a Shop Road site once eyed as a homeless shelter.

The Dinerstein Companies, which owns the Sterling student housing complexes in Columbia and Cayce, hopes to begin construction in the spring.

The complex is the fourth — and largest — residential project announced this year for the mostly industrial area around Williams-Brice Stadium. It brings to 478 the number of residential units geared toward the Gamecock faithful.

The developers “are obviously very confident” there is a market for this type and number of condos, said Columbia attorney Robert Fuller, who represents the company. “They are excited about Columbia and look forward to expanding here.”

The condominiums will be mostly two-bedroom, two-bath units arrayed in a spur-shaped, four-story building accompanied by a four-story parking garage.

The development will be located on about four acres of the 18-acre Colonial Stores Warehouse property. The project faces a rezoning and annexation hearing before the Columbia Planning Commission on Monday.

City policy requires the project be annexed into the city to receive water service.

Neither Fuller nor property owner William Gregg would discuss the selling price. A closing is set for April, Gregg said.

A 50,000-square-foot section of the warehouse will be razed to make way for the project, Gregg said. He will use the remaining 14 acres and 260,000-square-foot warehouse to house a T-shirt wholesaling business.

Discussions between him and group wanting to establish a regional homeless center on the site ended about a year ago, Gregg said.

“It never would have been suitable for a homeless shelter,” Gregg said. The warehouse would have been “great for storage but terrible for living.”

The new development joins:

• The 112-unit Carolina Walk development on South Stadium Road

• The 96-unit Spur at Williams-Brice project on Bluff Road

• The 102-unit Stadium Village Lofts warehouse redevelopment project on Berea Road.

The Dinerstein Companies is a Houston-based, family-owned and operated development and management company that has built and operated condominium and apartment properties in 27 states.

The company manages 9,500 units in 15 states and has built 37 off-campus student housing properties — the largest number in the country.

It owns the 144-unit Sterling University Riverside complex, off Alexander Road in Cayce and the 180-unit Sterling University Oaks, off Bluff Road just south of Columbia.

Unlike those developments, the Shop Road complex likely will not carry the Sterling label because it won’t be primarily marketed to students, Fuller said.

krazeeboi

December 2nd, 2005, 02:01 PM

$1 million federal grant to boost fuel cell research in Columbia (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/13307515.htm)

EngenuitySC plans to spend most of the money on infrastructure

By C. GRANT JACKSON

Business Editor

Columbia’s effort to become a center for the hydrogen/fuel cell industry has received a boost from the federal government.

EngenuitySC will get $1 million in federal money to help create the National Institute of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Commercialization.

The money for Engenuity, the umbrella group working to bring a knowledge-based economy to the Midlands, comes from a federal budget measure passed in November.

The National Institute of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Commercialization, a nonprofit organization, will work to find commercial opportunities for USC and other state research institutions doing fuel cell research.

The money becomes available July 1. Engenuity will spend the next six to 12 months determining how to spend the money, but the funding is actually fairly open, executive director Neil McLean said.

He said Engenuity plans to spend most of the money on facilities. “We want to invest in infrastructure that will serve the area for a long time.” None of the money will pay Engenuity’s operating budget, he said.

Some of the money could be used for specially outfitted space, such as wet labs, in a new building in the Horizon Center. The center is part of the Innovista, the USC research campus.

“One of our key goals is to attract the best scientists and entrepreneurs in fuel cells in the world to come here. And we are going to need resources to do that,” McLean said.

USC president Andrew Sorensen said the city, businesses and USC will use the money “to continue our progress toward building a 21st century economic engine that is powered by research from USC’s Innovista and commercialized right here in the Midlands.”

Mayor Bob Coble said the money “will be used to support the creation of private knowledge-based companies that will return many times this amount in economic growth in our region.”

The S.C. Next Energy Initiative has outlined a 20-year hydrogen and fuel cell economy strategy for the state. It calls on each of the state’s regions to capitalize on its assets.

The Midlands core competency is fuel cells. But ICF Consulting, the firm that helped develop the strategy, said the state has great researchers but needs more infrastructure to support commercialization.

“Our (out-of-state) competition is also investing in the infrastructure that will help companies be in a position to turn a profit on fuel cells. Once the Midlands is host to several of these companies, we hope to see increased commercial movement in our region,” Sorensen said.

Over the next six months, Engenuity will concentrate on helping create a regional organization that will help make Columbia a fuel cell city.

That regional organization will have a big influence on how the money is used, McLean said.

The state’s congressional delegation was interested in funding the project, McLean said, because “they know we need to have facilities and infrastructure in place that will enable us to commercialize research and realize the economic benefit here.”

They don’t want to see research that is created at USC going out of state, McLean said.

McLean and Kyle Michel, a Columbia-based attorney who works with Engenuity on federal relations, put the proposal together. Michel helped guide it through Washington.

This is the second federal appropriation for EngenuitySC, which was awarded $400,000 in the omnibus appropriation bill for 2005. That money is being used to support incubator infrastructure.

StevenW

December 4th, 2005, 03:06 AM

krazeeboi

December 4th, 2005, 12:39 PM

waccamatt

December 5th, 2005, 08:10 AM

Oh more residential is definitely coming to Main. There are some condo/apartment conversions going on and I wouldn't be surprised to see a high-rise condo tower proposed for South Main in the near future.

You're right, Krazee. I understand the developer of the Meridian Building has almost completed the purchase of the necessary properties at the corner of Main and Blossom for a highrise condo development. I'm excited about it.

krazeeboi

December 5th, 2005, 09:51 AM

Wow, practically next door to the Horizon Block of Innovista. Cool. Got any idea about the height?

Speaking of the Meridian, seems as though it has had a great first full year of operation. When do you think we'll see another office tower proposed?

krazeeboi

December 6th, 2005, 02:30 AM

This fits in really good right here:

State to build new Farmers Market in Richland County (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/13335009.htm)

Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The state agriculture department will build a new State Farmers Market in Richland County about five miles away from the old one, Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers announced Monday.

The new $40 million Farmers Market will include a restaurant, garden center, picnic areas and retail space on 196 acres. The elements are designed to encourage consumers to visit the site and create a retail atmosphere.

Air-conditioned and heated vendor space will open up the market to vendors selling seafood, cheese and meats, in addition to the fresh vegetables that the Farmers Market is known for.

The new site, about a mile off Interstate 77 southeast of Columbia, is four times the size of the old one. The current site near Williams-Brice Stadium is more than 50 years old and lacks room for parking and expansion.

Funds from the private sector and Richland County will combine with $10 million in state-financed bonds to build the facility. It is set to open in January 2008.

The land where the famer's market presently sits represents a great opportunity for either USC or the city. With all of the condo buildings proposed in that area, I wonder if perhaps another one might pop up?

StevenW

December 8th, 2005, 04:57 AM

You're right, Krazee. I understand the developer of the Meridian Building has almost completed the purchase of the necessary properties at the corner of Main and Blossom for a highrise condo development. I'm excited about it.

WOW! Where did you hear about this? This is great news! Maybe a new tallest! :D I can't wait to hear more. Who is the developer? :?

krazeeboi

December 8th, 2005, 05:32 AM

It would be cool for Columbia to get a new tallest out of the deal, but I would rather see a traditional office tower as a new tallest. But if it's going to be another box like the SouthTrust tower, then more power to the residential tower. :)

ROBTEX

December 10th, 2005, 07:38 PM

Michelin to add 100 jobs in Lexington

Michelin plans to spend $100 million and add 100 jobs at its Lexington plant to meet growing worldwide demand for earthmover tires.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/13377707.htm

LSyd

December 11th, 2005, 05:34 PM

You're right, Krazee. I understand the developer of the Meridian Building has almost completed the purchase of the necessary properties at the corner of Main and Blossom for a highrise condo development. I'm excited about it.

yay, right next to USC. and the towers...are those dorms still standing?

-

StevenW

December 12th, 2005, 03:03 AM

http://image.maps.yahoo.com/mapimage?MAPData=eev0jfhyzy13jhXtp_Vkz.NvNAKBS2qZrznm3VXUxXwA40EVMcA4DoVutWvVfldADYRpu56zmgcdf9nAK_fk9ae.imVAaxJo3H2TqKo-

StevenW

December 12th, 2005, 03:05 AM

yeah, that's kinda far away from the main cluster of the downtown main street area......

StevenW

December 13th, 2005, 11:27 PM

I e-mailed Holder Properties about the USC Condos and here is the responce:

Steve -
Thanks for the inquiry as to whether we are building a condo building in SC. We are planning a condo building near USC but we're restricted in height by the University. If you would additional information once this breaks ground just let me know.

Kim Lattin
Holder Properties, Inc.

krazeeboi

December 14th, 2005, 08:16 AM

Wow. I wonder what the height restriction is in the area they're seeking to build?

StevenW

December 16th, 2005, 09:52 PM

not sure, but it's probably prety short. :(

ROBTEX

December 17th, 2005, 03:27 AM

Posted on Fri, Dec. 16, 2005

Carolina Plaza coming down

What’s happening at Carolina Plaza?
USC, owner of the plaza, is tearing down its parking deck and access ramps and doing other demolition work. The main building and tower is tentatively scheduled to be imploded by a demolition team Feb. 5. But that date could change, according to USC.

What will be built in its place?
USC is making way for a new public health building to be built at an undetermined date. Next door, the new Arnold School of Public Health building is under construction, the first building in USC’s new research campus. USC owns the entire block.

What has the Carolina Plaza been used for over the years?
USC bought it in 1992 and, over the years, used it as the university’s visitors center, administrative offices and more. While the State House was being renovated in 1996 and 1997, the General Assembly met at the plaza.
Prior to being purchased by USC, the site was a Radisson hotel.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/13419327.htm

krazeeboi

December 17th, 2005, 05:05 AM

A rendering of a portion of Innovista (http://innovista.sc.edu/), USC's research campus, from the university's website:

http://www.sc.edu/portal/content/highlights/img/m_1130871259.jpg

Some renderings of CanalSide (http://www.canalsidecolumbia.com), a residential development along the banks of the Congaree River in downtown Columbia:

http://www.canalsidecolumbia.com/render2.jpg
http://www.canalsidecolumbia.com/render3.jpg
http://www.canalsidecolumbia.com/render1.jpg

Downtown Columbia will look SO different in 5 years.

waccamatt

December 17th, 2005, 06:59 AM

krazeeboi

December 17th, 2005, 08:51 AM

After thinking about it, it seems as though CanalSide will be a mini-Atlantic Station next to the river. That's cool.

ROBTEX

December 17th, 2005, 07:05 PM

Development with grocery anchor would be near I-77, Clemson Road

As a sign of Richland County’s rapid growth, a developer said Friday that it plans a retail center anchored by a grocery store off I-77 at the new Clemson Road Extension.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/13428344.htm

TarheelsCubs

December 19th, 2005, 08:30 PM

Wrong thread sorry

LSyd

December 19th, 2005, 08:51 PM

1. WTF!!!? why are they tearing down Carolina Plaza for a crappy low-mid rise? ugh.

2. USC height restrictions? ugh. idiots...

3. Canalside...are they tearing down the guard towers as well? nothing left of CCI? that sucks, too.

-

StevenW

December 20th, 2005, 12:39 AM

krazeeboi

December 20th, 2005, 01:46 AM

As far as I'm concerned, nothing being left of CCI isn't a big deal. It wasn't an Alcatraz or anything.

LSyd

December 20th, 2005, 05:12 AM

As far as I'm concerned, nothing being left of CCI isn't a big deal. It wasn't an Alcatraz or anything.

yeah, but it was cool to explore, especially while drunk.

-

krazeeboi

December 20th, 2005, 05:17 AM

Oh gosh...LOL.

krazeeboi

December 20th, 2005, 11:52 AM

The Columbia Star has a rendering of the Bull Street campus not seen as of yet. This is said to be THE master plan for the development:

http://www.thecolumbiastar.com/news/2005/1216/Business/038p2_xlg.jpg

This rendering was released on December 12th at a luncheon at the Columbia Rotary Club.

ROBTEX

December 21st, 2005, 03:01 AM

Here we go again...

Now the 6800 seat stadium is to be built near the Blossom St. bridge. USC expects construction to begin in October 2006.

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4269988

krazeeboi

December 21st, 2005, 03:36 AM

USC unveils plans for new baseball stadium (http://uscnews.sc.edu/admn288a.html)

http://uscnews.sc.edu/images/baseballstadium.jpg

The Executive Committee of the University of South Carolina's Board of Trustees today (Tuesday, Dec. 20) approved a plan to build a new baseball stadium south of Blossom Street, adjacent to the Congaree River.

The 6,800-seat stadium, estimated to cost $20 million, will sit within a 29-acre tract of land – south of Blossom and west of Williams Street – that the university plans to purchase from Guignard Associates and others for $8.5 million.

University President Andrew Sorensen praised the leadership of head baseball coach Ray Tanner and the Guignard family's commitment to the university as being vital to the project.

The baseball program, he said, "is among the nation's elite. It deserves and will have one of the finest – if not the finest – collegiate baseball facilities in the country. Coach Tanner has worked diligently with us as this matter has evolved, and we owe him our thanks.

"There is absolutely no question that this would not be possible without the complete cooperation of, and collaboration with, Guignard Associates, demonstrating again that this family is a true catalyst for progress in the Riverbanks Region."

Tanner, who has taken three Gamecock baseball teams to the College World Series, said the new stadium will be worthy of the people who have helped establish the program among the nation's best.

"We are excited to be moving forward with a stadium and a location that will be second to none in all of college baseball," he said. "Our new facility will be a very special venue for our former players, our current players and for our great fans."

The baseball stadium is part of an even larger university initiative – known as Innovista – that will dramatically expand the university's presence westward. Plans call for new research facilities, retail outlets and recreational venues.

Sorensen said Sasaki Associates of Boston, Innovista's master planner, evaluated the potential site within the context of the overall planning effort.

"They gave an enthusiastic thumbs up," he said. "They also recognized the cultural and historic ‘fit' of baseball in this area and that the tract is sizable enough to handle issues such as access and parking. Another advantage is several former major-league baseball players who live in the Granby community grew up playing for the Granby Mill Team."

University officials have advanced the following time line for the stadium project:

Dec. 20, 2005 — Announcement of location for new Carolina Baseball stadium.

Dec. 20, 2005 - May 2006 — Community input, design work, and local government approvals.

October 2006 — Construction on stadium begins.

October 2007 — Fall practice in new stadium.

February 2008 — 2008 - Baseball season begins in new stadium.

krazeeboi

December 22nd, 2005, 06:33 AM

The Columbia Hilton hotel has a website with lobby renderings.

http://www.hiltoncolumbia.com/

krazeeboi

December 29th, 2005, 05:41 AM

More homes coming to Columbia's oldest neighborhood (outside of downtown), Arsenal Hill:

Aresnal Hill to Boom (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/13497771.htm)

StevenW

December 30th, 2005, 01:25 AM

More homes coming to Columbia's oldest neighborhood (outside of downtown), Arsenal Hill:

Aresnal Hill to Boom (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/13497771.htm)

Yeah, I read that yesterday. Good news.
BTW, how do you change your high-lighted link address into the heading: "Aresnal Hill to Boom"? I forgot......

krazeeboi

December 30th, 2005, 02:16 AM

Just hit the "post reply" button and hit the hyperlink button (graphic of Earth and a chain). Then you enter the URL address and then the text you want highlighted.

StevenW

December 31st, 2005, 12:40 AM

cool, thanks.

krazeeboi

January 7th, 2006, 12:33 PM

Demolition set for USC high-rise (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/13570585.htm)

By JAMES T. HAMMOND
Staff writer

USC plans to demolish the tower of the high-rise Carolina Plaza at Pendleton and Assembly streets Feb. 5, said Rick Kelly, USC’s vice president for finance. Contractors are using mechanical equipment to remove the building’s wings, which comprised two large meeting rooms. Windows have been removed in the tower, which will be taken down with explosives in the early-morning hours of Feb. 5.

Carolina Plaza, in recent years a home for the USC Visitors’ Center and a temporary seat of the General Assembly when the State House was being renovated, was a hotel before USC bought it.

Kelly said the site likely will become green space and held in reserve. The Pendleton-Assembly intersection will be one of the main entrances to the research campus.

Meanwhile, the pace of construction in the $142 million first phase of research campus construction will quicken in the next few weeks, Kelly said. USC has hired architects and construction managers and obtained trustee and local government approvals for site preparation to begin on two blocks:

• The Horizon Block, bounded by Blossom, Assembly, Main and Wheat streets

• The Biomedical block, bounded by College, Park, Lincoln and Greene streets

Kelly said USC has prospects for the research campus’ major new buildings, and the priority for construction will depend upon tenants’ requirements. Craig Davis Properties, a private developer of two buildings, will begin one of those buildings when USC begins its own construction, Kelly said. The second Craig Davis building must be started within 12 months, Kelly said.

StevenW

January 7th, 2006, 11:18 PM

That would be something to see. :D

krazeeboi

January 11th, 2006, 01:33 AM

'Mammoth' project may rise on Gervais (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/13588922.htm)

High-rise condos, commercial buildings proposed for Kline Steel site

By JEFF WILKINSON Staff Writer

The owners of the Kline Iron and Steel Co. site at Huger and Gervais streets in Columbia are planning a “mammoth” eight-story complex of condos, offices, stores, grassy plazas and a hotel.

At 1.3 million square feet, according to city records, and an estimated cost of more than $120 million, the “Kline Center” project is about four times the size of an office complex announced by the partners for the site a year ago.
The new project would rival CanalSide, a $115 million mixed-use development announced last year for the old Central Correctional Institution property, located a few blocks away.

The Kline Center will sit at one of Columbia’s premier intersections, across the street from the old Confederate printing plant, which the same development team finished renovating 1½ years ago.

“It’s a huge announcement for Columbia, a mammoth project,” Mayor Bob Coble said.

Architects briefing the Columbia Planning Commission on Monday offered few details and emphasized that the dimensions of the project could change.
But Jerry Kline, owner of the property with Holmes Smith Development, said the project “will take Columbia to a different level.”

Kline’s grandfather and great-uncle founded the iron and metal company in 1923. He pledged that whatever is built there would serve as a legacy to his family.

“If it isn’t something we can all be proud of, it won’t be built,” he said.
The company’s sign at Huger and Gervais streets is all that remains of the sprawling offices and steel fabrication buildings that stretched over the 4.7-acre site. The sign will be relocated in the complex, Kline said.

The complex features a ring of multi-story buildings surrounding a large courtyard. Under the plan, Lady Street would extend into the courtyard and end at a circular drive at the hotel’s front entrance.

Condos would encircle smaller courtyards on either end of the development.
A walkway under the hotel would lead to the State Museum, EdVenture Children’s Museum and the Three Rivers Greenway.

The developers plan to purchase about 1.35 acres of adjoining property from the city that used to be the SCE&G bus barn.

According to a briefing paper submitted to the city, planners envision:

• 430 one-, two- and three-bedroom condominiums.
• 60,000 square feet of street-level retail located along Huger and lining a large interior courtyard
• An eight-story office building at Huger and Gervais
• An eight-story, 130-room hotel
• Underground and concealed parking garages capable of handling more than 1,400 cars

Those numbers could change. And the developers did not say what the buildings would look like.

The plans have to pass muster with the city’s planning commission, its design, development review commission and City Council.

Developer Bill Smith said he hopes to break ground on the project by next year.

Planning commission members at a preliminary briefing Monday expressed concern about entry into the complex and the buildings’ height, which would be among the tallest planned for the Vista.

At more than 100 feet, the buildings would be slightly higher or equal to a hotel being planned at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center and a condo tower planned for CanalSide.

Fred Delk, executive director of the Columbia Development Corp., said he expects more announcements of similar projects — denser and taller with underground parking.

“These are good, local developers, and they are intent on maximizing the development potential of the block,” he said. “This is a new kind of market that is appearing in Columbia. You are going to see out-of-town developers come into that market soon.

“Columbia is proving to be a good alternative to Charlotte or Charleston for these developers,” Delk said. “They want a piece of this market, and they want to take advantage of it while they can still afford it.”

http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/klinepic.jpg

waccamatt

January 11th, 2006, 04:13 AM

With the announcement of that project along with the others, downtown Columbia is on fire. We won't recognize the city i a few years.

ROBTEX

January 11th, 2006, 04:54 AM

Awesome news!! And who the heck cares if the buildings may be the same height or slightly taller than the hotel at the convention center (if they ever build it!!) or a new condo tower at Canal Side?!?! We're talking EIGHT measly stories here, not 48!! I say let 'em duke it out and see who can build the tallest buildings!! : >

krazeeboi

January 11th, 2006, 05:53 AM

LOL! And the convention center hotel will DEFINITELY get built; we've got tractors and stuff on the site, so it will happen. I wonder what the height limit is in the Vista anyway? Eight stories shouldn't be enough to whine over, IMO.

waccamatt

January 12th, 2006, 02:42 AM

I think the height limit in the vista is 100 feet.

ROBTEX

January 12th, 2006, 10:21 PM

USC has unveiled its rendering for a new law school on Gervais...

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/13605795.htm

http://www.thestate.com/images/thestate/state/13608/185188018688.jpg

and Lexington County officials have announced plans for a new 6,500 seat hockey arena for The Inferno!

Exciting stuff!!

ROBTEX

January 12th, 2006, 11:57 PM

Looks like they're making good progress at 1520 Main...

http://www.mashburnconstruction.com/1520_Main_Street/January_2006/01-05-06%20Steel%20erectors%20arriving%20onsite.JPG

http://www.mashburnconstruction.com/1520_Main_Street/January_2006/01-05-06%20Men%20connecting%20the%20first%20beam%20in%20sequence%201.JPG

http://www.mashburnconstruction.com/1520_Main_Street/January_2006/01-05-06%20Stair%201%20and%20elevator%20tower%20complete.JPG

http://www.mashburnconstruction.com/1520_Main_Street/January_2006/01-06-06%20Stair%202%20CMU%20near%20completion.JPG

http://www.mashburnconstruction.com/1520_Main_Street/January_2006/01-06-06%20View%20of%20Sequence%201%20steel.JPG

StevenW

January 13th, 2006, 02:07 AM

StevenW

January 13th, 2006, 02:10 AM

With the announcement of that project along with the others, downtown Columbia is on fire. We won't recognize the city i a few years.

Yeah, I really do believe that Columbia will start booming now. I mean, there has been a lot of great stuff going on, but, I think it's only the "tip" of the iceburg. :) I just hope somehow we get a new tallest out of all this new development going on around the city. :D

ROBTEX

January 13th, 2006, 02:51 AM

RIBEAU ENTERTAINMENT LLC ANNOUNCES THE PLAN FOR A NEW ARENA AND THE RELOCATION OF THE COLUMBIA INFERNO TO SITE IN LEXINGTON COUNTY

Lexington County, SC, JANUARY 12, 2006: RIBEAU Entertainment, LLC. has announced today that they will be building a 6,500 seat arena in Lexington County, South Carolina. The company will be building a facility designed to be home to the Columbia Inferno Hockey Team, an ECHL professional hockey organization that currently is housed in the Carolina Coliseum in Columbia, SC. This project will be completed for an estimated $30 million and will bring over 140 full and part-time jobs to Lexington County. The new facility is planned to be in full operation to kick-off the 2007-2008 hockey season.

http://www.columbiainferno.com/newarena/

http://www.columbiainferno.com/newarena/art/Arenanew.jpg

krazeeboi

January 13th, 2006, 04:01 AM

My two main concerns with this will be location and multi-purpose use. I'd hate for this nice facility to be out in the middle of nowhere and solely used for hockey.

ROBTEX

January 13th, 2006, 04:20 AM

I don't think you should be too very concerned...I'm not familiar with the exact proposed location, but even if they DO build it in the middle of nowhere, it won't be in the middle of nowhere for long! Certainly not with Lexington County's growth. I think this will be a real boon and spur a lot of addtl development! I bet they'll also find other events to hold there, too. Now if they were building it in Saluda or Calhoun county...

krazeeboi

January 13th, 2006, 11:32 AM

You make good points, Robtex. Additionally, this article in The State alleviates most of my concerns:

Arena to host hockey and more (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/13615138.htm)

Inferno confirms it will build multimillion facility in Lexington County

The Columbia Inferno hockey team’s new home will give Lexington County a $30 million sports and entertainment complex for concerts, stage shows and other events.

RIBEAU Entertainment, a 50-50 partnership of Inferno owners Ezra Riber and Sam Imbeau, will build and operate a 6,500-seat multi-function arena on Old Dunbar Road at Creekside Road.

The Inferno, which competes in the professional East Coast Hockey League, will be the anchor tenant for the arena. But the building also will be available for other activities, including a possible arena football team. Officials said Thursday they hope to hold about 160 events a year.

The arena will be the first phase of the 26-acre complex. Riber, a Columbia physician, said the second will involve an attached skating rink that could be used as an Inferno practice facility. It also could be used for youth and adult league recreational hockey and public skating when the main arena is busy.
Phase III will be a hotel that could be used by hockey players, Riber said. He said a couple of hotel chains have expressed interest.

Lexington County is giving RIBEAU the land for the project, with a 15-year attachment that the acreage must be used for an arena. The property, valued at $520,000, cannot be transferred to any other owner, said Al Burns, county economic development director.

The project will be privately financed. Deeding the property to RIBEAU will put it on the tax rolls, Burns said.

The initial investment for the arena was put at $17 million to $20 million. Construction of the second sheet of ice and the hotel would bring the total project to about $30 million.

The project will bring an estimated 140 full- and part-time jobs to Lexington County.

Officials hope to have the new arena in operation for the 2007-08 hockey season. That means the Inferno will play an additional season in Carolina Coliseum. Inferno officials are negotiating a one-year extension of their current lease, said Rick Woodard, the team’s general manager.

The search for a new home for the Inferno has been a long process. But the team either had to find a new home in the Midlands or move, Riber said. Those were the only choices.

Plans for the complex were unveiled at a news conference in Lexington County Council chambers.

State Sen. Jake Knotts, R-Lexington, was praised as the prime force in finding a new home for the Inferno.

“Senator, you are a bulldog. This man said he would make it happen and he made it happen, make no mistake about it,” said Woodard, who is also the project director.

The effort to find a new home for the Inferno began with a meeting years ago that included Knotts and Columbia Mayor Bob Coble. “We said at that meeting that we were going to find a home for the Inferno, that we did not want them leaving Columbia,” Knotts said. “We needed that sport, and we needed a place that they could call home and be a part of this community.”
Knotts lauded Coble for his efforts. “You stuck to your word. He said he would support it and he is here today,” Knotts said.

“We have found a place in Lexington County. They (Richland County) may have got our farmers market, but we have got the Inferno,” he said. Lexington County lost a battle with Richland County last year to relocate the State Farmers Market.

Coble called it the best day for regional cooperation in the region’s history. “I think today shows that we are a region, that as a region we are going to be better off economically,” he said. “When we realize that and when we lock arms together there is nothing we cannot do as a community from an economic development standpoint.”

Riber said a market analysis showed a need for a medium-size arena in the Midlands.

He said the Inferno’s fan base is split about equally between residents of Lexington and Richland counties.

Access to the arena will be significantly enhanced with the completion of phase two of the John Hardee Expressway. That project includes the widening of Old Dunbar Road, a new connector between the two roadways and a new access ramp from the expressway to Interstate 26. Construction is scheduled to start this year.

Those projects and the new complex are expected to create a development boom in what has been largely an industrial area near the Columbia Metropolitan Airport.

Burns said he sees tremendous benefit to the area long term. Once the complex is up and running and the road work is done, he expects to see a transition to more commercial interests. The county owns another 100 acres in the area.

ROBTEX

January 13th, 2006, 05:59 PM

This is very exciting. Arena football would be a great addition, too!! I think this is a great location for the new arena. This will bring a lot of new development to the airport area, and the airport will no longer be "out in the sticks." Among the ripple effects could also be the "landing" of another discount carrier at CAE...who knows what all this could usher in?! As far as I'm concerned, Columbia IS both Richland and Lexington Counties, so the more cooperation and shared excitement for development in BOTH counties, the better!

LSyd

January 13th, 2006, 06:15 PM

i was there last week for a few hours. the quality of the infill is astounding. and the changes to the Olympia and Granby mills from a year ago were astounding.

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waccamatt

January 14th, 2006, 05:18 AM

StevenW

January 15th, 2006, 02:51 AM

Ditto! :)

StevenW

January 20th, 2006, 03:57 AM

http://www.thestate.com/images/thestate/state/13661/186633999071.gif

Tall condos plan scrappedDeveloper withdraws lake proposal after Lexington County mulls height limitsBy TIM FLACHStaff WriterA Florida developer is shelving a proposal for high-rise condominium towers on Lake Murray after learning this week that Lexington County is looking at height limits.
“This is just the beginning,” developer William Harkins said Wednesday of the prospective controls. “It’s just not worth it. I haven’t submitted a plan and they’re fighting me.
“I’m done.”
His company, Bay Communities, wanted to build an $80 million project in the Timberlake area south of Chapin that included four towers of up to seven stories each, housing 180 condominiums.
But some homeowners’ complaints that high-rises would block scenery and be out of character with the area prompted county officials to consider height restrictions for shoreline development.
That has put a temporary freeze on pending projects, including the one near Chapin that the Daytona Beach-based company hoped to start this spring.
“It’s a relief we don’t have to worry about that anymore,” said George Duke, a leader of the Timberlake Estates Homeowners Association and Lake Murray Homeowners Coalition.
Other neighborhood leaders viewed the height controls as the final blow to a project delayed a year as the company reassessed interest in units that would have cost $500,000 and up.
“He doesn’t even know what Lexington County is going to do,” Clark Weber, president of the Timberlake Plantation Homeowners Association, said of Harkins’ decision. “There’s lots of other reasons.”
Harkins said the project’s 24-acre site will go up for sale.
But looking into acceptable heights for lakeside development now is important, County Councilman Smokey Davis of Lexington said.
“We need to continue with that. If he (Harkins) doesn’t do it, other developers want to know what is acceptable.
“And who knows? He may come back after better understanding what we want, or sell it to someone who can work within the rules we adopt.”
Reach Flach at (803) 771-8483 or tflach@thestate.com.
--------------------------------------------

figures.........

krazeeboi

January 21st, 2006, 12:05 AM

I have no problem with that. I think it's great that county officials don't want to feel rushed or pressured into making a decision prematurely.

StevenW

January 21st, 2006, 04:29 PM

yeah, but my problem with this is that 7 stories is very reasonable. He was not wanting to built two 14 story towers or one 28 story tower. I think he was being considerate to the locals with his preliminary plans. And the county's mentality was to react without his further specifics of the overall plan he had. On the Billy Dreher Island, right next to it, the are lots of buildings on the waterfront 3, 4 and 5 stories. They are rental cabins of some sort. Diference in height of only, maybe 20 to 25 ft.
Why not respect this developer's wishes with this considerate height of ONLY seven floors/63 to 70 ft. tall, and use that as the "limit" for future development? No, they scare him away. Time is $$$. I'm very sure if these people don't want his business, others elsewhere will. Plus, it sends a message to future developers that the county wants nothing but houses. If that's the case then why not just call Mungo?
I mean, I can understand if some developer comes in an area and totally disrespects the locals and proposes a rediculious tower, say, 28 floors, and then says that he's not changing his plans one bit. They did not give this guy a chance. And he wasn't about to wait around to waste more $$$ on their made up minds/height restrictions. You know, it really amazes me how these county reps don't place restriction BEFORE developers start looking. That would save ALOT of time and $$$ for everyone.

LSyd

January 22nd, 2006, 02:15 AM

^ yeah. i remember a few years ago twin 15 or 16 story lakefront towers got shot down.

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StevenW

January 22nd, 2006, 08:43 PM

Yeah, I almost forgot about that.

krazeeboi

January 23rd, 2006, 05:04 AM

I guess we have to realize that it is really only rather recently that Lexington County has begun to receive significant overflow from Columbia. The waterfront potential in the Columbia area itself is unrealized (Congaree River), so it's to be expected in Lexington as well. The county is really beginning to experience growing pains, as it is rapidly becoming something more than just a small town next to Columbia. While most of the county is still quite rural, the areas closer to Columbia are really beginning to urbanize. Trust me, this won't be the last time a developer proposes building something on the lake. Hopefully next time, county officials won't be so hesitant and will be more prepared.

StevenW

January 23rd, 2006, 12:06 PM

Well, that is key. I mean, the population is booming this way. From Harbison and Lexington toward the western HWY 76/I-26 corridor, growth is spreading. Planners did a horrible job, IMO, for the Harbison area. They may not have "anticipated" such fast growth, but IMO, all planners should assume such a growth pattern when sprawl is "king" in and near the lake. I mean, I can remember just a little over 15 years ago when Harbison area was nothing more than a shopping center and a few homes and such. So, IMO, it makes sence to me to try to curb this sprawly effect that's, (not inching but leaping), towards the northwest by making better growth plans for the communities that are already feeling the pressure such as; Lexington, Ballentine, Chapin and even Newberry. Dense taller residential structures with better road systems is the key, not building houses everywhere, (knocking down more trees and all), down every winding country road, which I see going on now. I mean, I got stuck in a Harbison parking lot for an HOUR trying to get out to the main blvd. The area is sufficating itself. I say stop further growth there and start developing better planned clustered business/residential growth along these further western towns and then maybe, (even with some demand for lakefront housing), problems won't be so many. But because of this sprawl mentality, when developers from out-of-state come to propose these taller, denser developments, people freak because they are not used to that type of thinking. IMO, it's a lot more to this issue than height restrictions. :)

krazeeboi

January 24th, 2006, 09:15 AM

Great points, Steven. This is another reason why regional cooperation is key.

StevenW

January 25th, 2006, 12:03 AM

Great points, Steven. This is another reason why regional cooperation is key.

Exactly. If every community government leader and big business leaders/lobbiests ;) from the connecting townships would get together and talk of a "regional" solution of some sort, then at least that may eliminate a lot of red tape down the road when there is a general agreed understanding that all people, (including and especially the developers), can read and make plans accordingly in stead of wasting time and money and precious space/land.

krazeeboi

January 27th, 2006, 05:13 AM

New life envisioned for north Columbia (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/13717110.htm)

Plan unveiled to revitalize business and residential communities

By GINA SMITH and SHALAMA C. JACKSON, Staff Writers

North Columbia residents, city officials and business leaders on Wednesday got their first glimpse of a master plan that lays out the area’s redevelopment.

QUESTION
Where is north Columbia?

ANSWER
North Columbia is defined as the area between I-20 to the north, the city’s central business district to the south, Farrow Road to the east and Broad River Road to the west. In total, that’s 25 neighborhood associations and about 4,200 acres.

QUESTION
Who put together the master plan?

ANSWER
The city hired development consultants FA Johnson Consulting Group, Inc. The group worked with a committee of neighborhood leaders, business owners, college representatives, elected officials and city staff. The goal was to identify issues and develop strategies to revitalize the community, eliminate what the report describes as the perception that north Columbia is a high crime community, and to encourage commercial and residential development. The committee worked on the plan for nearly nine months. Fred Monk and Phyllis Coleman are co-chairmen.

QUESTION
What are the master plan’s goals?

ANSWER
To reinvent north Columbia’s image by preserving existing neighborhoods, to attract new retail businesses, to maintain and develop new parks, and to increase educational opportunities.

QUESTION
What does the plan call for?

ANSWER
An artist village near the intersection of North Main Street and River Drive with retail and gallery spaces on the ground floor and residential lofts or office space above. A greenway would be created eventually to connect to Earlewood Park to the north, Finlay Park to the south, and the future Bull Street redevelopment project to the east.

A college village in and around Hyatt Park and North Main Street, as well as Columbia College Drive and North Main Street. The area would include a pedestrian friendly mix of new homes and retail space.

A gateway village to showcase the entrances to north Columbia and the city of Columbia. New homes and businesses would be created along North Main Street between Prescott Drive and Mason Road.

The redevelopment of five blighted neighborhoods: Golden Acres, Hyatt Park, Edgewood Acres, North College Place and Belmont. New sidewalks, tree plantings, stop signs and other traffic-calming devices also would be added to other neighborhoods.

QUESTION
How will the city make all of this happen?

ANSWER
The city will use its zoning, building enforcement and other departments to get rid of boarded up or overgrown properties. It will work with neighborhoods to adopt historic conservation guidelines to ensure new development reflects the values of the neighborhood. The implementation of the plan, which must be approved by City Council, will take years.

QUESTION
How much will this cost?

ANSWER
The plan is a blueprint for development, but the cost has not been determined. Its authors hope to provide incentives to encourage private investors to build in ways that reflect the master plan.

QUESTION
Where can I learn more?

ANSWER
The plan is accessible online at www.fajohnsondevelopmentgroup.com. Click on “reports” to find the full text of the plan.

waccamatt

January 27th, 2006, 08:20 AM

As a resident of North Columbia I can't wait to see all of these projects come to fruition. THere are many pictures of these neighborhoods on my website link below.

StevenW

January 27th, 2006, 12:00 PM

Sounds really good. :)

fadaknet

February 1st, 2006, 01:55 AM

its very nice

LSyd

February 5th, 2006, 12:43 AM

anyone going to the Carolina Plaza implosion?

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StevenW

February 5th, 2006, 04:17 AM

Won't get to make it. But it would be cool if it's recorded on video. :D

krazeeboi

February 5th, 2006, 09:41 AM

Wish I could, but I'm in ATL for the weekend.

StevenW

February 5th, 2006, 03:48 PM

Ah well, maybe someone will do it and make it so we can see it via internet. If they don't, they should.

LSyd

February 5th, 2006, 05:05 PM

it's down (http://www.wltx.com/news/news19.aspx?storyid=34867)

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StevenW

February 6th, 2006, 04:15 AM

Great link! Thanks!
BTW, my nephew sent me his video of it. If I figure out how to upload it right, I'll post it. :)

krazeeboi

February 6th, 2006, 09:41 AM

Rising demand lights fire under city’s condo market (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/13795881.htm)

With more than 1,000 units planned, developers are banking on Columbia home buyers seeking upscale, city living

By DELAWESE FULTON, Staff Writer

Builders and investors are hoping home buyers will develop a taste for upscale condominium living in downtown Columbia.

In the past two years, developers have announced plans to build more than 1,000 condos in the city alone — from downtown to around Williams-Brice Stadium. The condo units’ prices range from about $110,000 up to $1 million, with many priced in the $200,000s.

The plans would mark a shift in the Midlands condo market, where most sales prices have been significantly lower. Even though not all of the upscale developments will end up being built, developers and investors are betting on buyers wanting to spend more for condo living downtown.

In the past two years, 729 condo units were sold in the Midlands, with the vast majority of those units costing less than $100,000, according to the Greater Columbia Association of Realtors, which compiles sales data from Consolidated Multiple Listing Service. Of the units sold in 2004 and 2005:

• 586 cost less than $100,000
• 125 cost between $100,000 and $199,999
• 18 cost $200,000 and more

Still, real estate agents and investors say they see the strong potential of the downtown condo market for several reasons.

Harry Jeffcoat, Columbia area executive for Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T, which has financed several local condo projects, said many investors see Columbia as a “ground-floor” market.

The market is easier to access because land and sites are cheaper than in places such as Florida and coastal markets, said Jeffcoat, who declined to attach a dollar amount to BB&T’s local projects.

Jeffcoat and developers also said USC’s planned research center is a reason they are banking on success with condos.

The research center will span between the university’s Horseshoe and the Congaree River and aims to lure more companies and professionals to the Midlands. The $141 million project is expected to have an annual economic impact of $337 million. It will take about 15 to 20 years to build, with construction starting in 2007.

Russell & Jeffcoat broker Tommy Carter said prospective home buyers are warming up to the idea of owning a condo downtown.

“Just five years ago, the in-town Columbia condo market was slow, not much appreciation, not much demand,” Carter said via e-mail.

Now, Carter wrote, “every price range is selling.”

Jimmy Derrick, president and CEO of Century 21 Bob Capes Realtors — which markets several condo communities in the Midlands — does not think condo development is outpacing demand in Columbia.
“
Announcements and condos going up are two different things,” he said. Derrick said the community should take more stock in condo plans that have made the transition from plans to brick and mortar.

Derrick said condos in the Vista have sold well. For instance, the Park Side condos by Finlay Park have appreciated 30 percent in three years, he said.
Industry watchers say most people who have bought the more expensive downtown condos are upper-income professionals and retirees. They also say that well-off parents often purchase the units for use by their college-attending children.

In addition to the thousand-plus downtown condo units under way, the word on the street is there are hundreds more to be announced in the next year, industry watchers say. And that’s OK, said Wachovia senior economist and real estate analyst Mark Vitner, as long as the condo projects are staggered.
“It’s always a question in getting the cost right and delivering the product at the right time,” said Vitner, who is based in Charlotte. Wachovia Bank’s lending division has investments in Columbia and throughout the Carolinas.
“A thousand units within the next five years — I don’t think that’s too many” for Columbia, he said.

However, he cautioned that as interest rates rise, investors’ interest in these expensive projects tends to wane.

Vitner said there is a worldwide construction boom, as seen in the United States and China. With that, rising building costs and interest rates will help check supply and demand at local and global levels.

Jeffcoat said two important factors influence a bank’s decision to back and support a condo project.

“We look at who the project sponsors are and pre-sales,” Jeffcoat said. “Banks ask: How many units have you pre-sold?”

The larger condo projects, with several hundred units, will provide a better idea of what the Columbia condo market will be like, Jeffcoat said. Whether these projects make it from ideas to bricks and mortar and how many units sell will be an important gauge for the condo market.

Developer Bill Smith said the proposed 430-unit condo project slated for the former Kline Steel property at Huger and Gervais streets is still in its infancy — as is the Columbia condo market.

Smith said interest and commitments garnered during the project’s pre-sale will determine the size of the project.

“We might take a portion of what we had for condos and use for high-end apartments,” Smith said.

Tom Prioreschi, a developer and advocate of downtown revitalization, said Columbia’s condo market is in a staging, developing phase and reflects a national movement toward city living.

Prioreschi successfully converted the former Silvers building in downtown Columbia into a 12-unit condominium. Dubbed Capitol Places III, it sold out. He has begun construction on a second condo project, “1520 Main Street.” It will have 32 condos, ranging from $164,900 to $380,900.

Prioreschi said Columbia’s condo market is in its early leg, but said he is optimistic.

“(Columbia) is going to have a long, solid run with this.”

krazeeboi

February 6th, 2006, 09:46 AM

CONDO DEVELOPMENTS (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/13795752.htm)

Plans for upscale condos have been announced in the past two years for the downtown Columbia area:

THE GATES AT WILLIAMS-BRICE
Location: Shop Road, where the Colonial Stores Warehouse is
Number of units: 158
Rooms: One-, two- and three-bedroom units
Price: From $179,000 to about $270,000
How far it has come: The Columbia Planning Commission has approved the plan. Construction has not begun. Presales are slated for April, said Mark Foraker, a spokesman for the Houston-based Dinerstein Cos.

CAROLINA WALK
Location: South Stadium Road
Number of units: About 150
Rooms: Not available
Price: From $299,000 to just less than $500,000
How far it has come: Construction began about six months ago and is expected to be completed by August, said Jim Craig of Benchmark Development Corp.

SPUR AT WILLIAMS-BRICE
Location: Bluff Road
Number of units: 69
Rooms: One-, two-, and three-bedroom units
Price: From $297,000 to $650,000
How far it has come: Construction has started and is expected to be completed by USC’s first spring football game, developer Eddie Wilder said.

STADIUM VILLAGE LOFTS
Location: Berea Road
Number of units: 120
Rooms: One-, two-, and three-bedroom units
Price: Average price for the 60 units in phase one is $425,000, and in phase two it is $450,000, said developer Barry Brantley.
How far it has come: Construction on phase one has begun and is expected to be completed by late June. Construction on the other 60 units is expected to begin this month, Brantley said.

THE LOFTS AT PRINTER’S SQUARE
Location: On Gervais and Lady streets, on the site of Eye on Gervais
Number of units: 11
Rooms: Not available
Price: Most of the condos would start at $650,000. The project would include three penthouses, one of which developer Earl Loftis expects to sell for at least $1 million.
How far it has come: The plan has been approved by the city’s Design Development Review Commission. Loftis did not immediately return calls for comment.

RENAISSANCE PLAZA
Location: Lady Street
Number of units: 57
Rooms: One-, two- and three-bedroom units
Price: From about $170,000 to about $500,000
How far it has come: The development in the Vista includes a mix of condos and “live-work” town houses, totaling 74 units. Phase two of the project is expected to be done by September.

THE CITY CLUB
Location: Gervais Street, across from the State Museum and EdVenture
Number of units: Eight
Rooms: Two- and three-bedroom units
Price: From about $300,000 to $550,000
How far it has come: Construction has begun. Phase one of the project is expected to be done by the end of 2006. The development will include the eight condos in the historic Middleton Building and 46 town houses, said developer Wade Caughman.

MAIN STREET
Location: 1520 Main St.
Number of units: 32
Rooms: Not available
Price: From about $165,000 to about $400,000, with most in the $200,000s
How far it has come: The developers — Tom and Madeline Prioreschi of Capitol Places and Ray and Patz Carter of Carter Properties — have begun construction. The group also converted the former Silvers building in downtown Columbia into a 12-unit condominium.

THE GRANDEVINE
Location: Devine Street, in the former Schneider School in historic Old Shandon
Number of units: 51
Rooms: One- and two-bedroom units
Price: From about $105,000 to $260,000
How far it has come: Developers David Bryant and Ben Arnold expect the project to be completed by July.

KLINE CENTER
Location: The Kline Iron and Steel Co. site at Huger and Gervais streets
Number of units: 430
Rooms: One-, two- and three-bedroom units
Price: A price schedule is not available, said developer Bill Smith of Holmes Smith Development.
How far it has come: The owners of the site are planning an eight-story complex of condos, offices, stores, plazas and a hotel. The proposed plan is in its infancy, Smith said.

MEETING STREET FLATS
Location: State and Meeting streets
Number of units: 5
Rooms: Two-bedroom units
Price: From $450,000 to $650,000
How far it has come: Building permit has been issued and construction bids are being taken, said developer Wade Caughman.

StevenW

February 6th, 2006, 10:46 PM

Thanks for the update, krazeeboi. :)

krazeeboi

February 10th, 2006, 05:41 AM

Bull St. design unveiled (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/special_packages/growth/13809057.htm)

‘New urbanist’ neighborhood plan drops school, adds office space

By JEFF WILKINSON, Staff Writer

The final design for the redevelopment of the State Hospital campus on Bull Street eliminates plans for a public elementary school and adds about 77 percent more office space, mostly along Harden Street.

The total office space at the old insane asylum is now 638,000 square feet, which would greatly enhance the property’s value to developers and increase the tax return to the city and the state.

The change was made after Richland 1 officials said a new school wasn’t needed.

The district “has the capacity to take on the additional students,” said Jasper Salmond, a Richland 1 school board member who also serves on the nonprofit committee that guided the plan’s development.

The final design, to be unveiled at a press conference today, also strikes plans for a downtown movie theater, adds 50 town houses and reduces the number of apartments by about 50.

The 178-acre former asylum campus is the largest tract to come available in the heart of downtown in decades.

The new Bull Street Neighborhood is expected to be an economic magnet, attracting researchers, medical workers and others to its “new urbanist” design.

It is estimated the development will generate:

• 1,161 permanent jobs

• $405 million in construction and related activity

• $9.5 million in annual property taxes

• $8 million in state income and sales taxes

“This, along with the (USC) research campus, is the greatest economic opportunity we will have in our lifetime,” Mayor Bob Coble said.

The elimination of the school is the most striking change in the plan, which calls for 1,257 residential units and 179,000 square feet of stores and shops.
Richland 1 enrollment projections show the four schools that would serve the neighborhood would have room for 461 additional students in 2010 — the year Bull Street should be on its way to completion.

On the commercial front, the whopping increase in the amount of office space should drive up the amount a developer would pay for the land.
Estimates have varied widely, from $15 million to $37 million.

The cost of leasing Class A office space averages $19.78 a square foot per year in the central business district, said Tommy Johnson, brokerage associate with Collier Keenan specializing in office leasing. “By adding additional speculative space, it’s going to put some pressure on the vacancies that already exist,” Johnson said. “We would be glad to see an influx of new businesses.”

Sale of the property was supposed to have begun several months ago.
But there is confusion over whether the Mental Health Commission or the State Budget and Control Board controls the property and who should receive the proceeds.

The Mental Health Commission will ask for a judgment on who controls the property. John Hutto, spokesman for the Mental Health Commission, said the agency plans to file directly with the state Supreme Court, which backers hope will speed the process.

Gov. Mark Sanford, Coble and committee members for the Central Carolina Community Foundation, the nonprofit that hired Bull Street’s designer, would like to see the knot quickly untangled.

“We want this sold as soon as possible,” Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said. “We asked them (the Mental Health department) to file with the Supreme Court because it is the quickest way to get the question resolved.”
The justices can agree to hear the request for a declaratory judgment or not. If not, the department would file with circuit court, Hutto said.

Bull Street boosters, including the development’s designer, Andres Duany, said further delays could hurt the project’s success.

“Government agencies don’t understand that time is money,” Duany said from his Miami office. The cost of “everything is going to go up.”

Duany and his DPZ firm are pioneers in the new urbanist genre of city planning.

Bull Street Neighborhood contains all the hallmarks: large green spaces, pedestrian-friendly streets, hidden parking and high-density residential development with a mix of businesses, stores and shops.

Some of the innovations are:

• Live-work units, which let people start businesses at home.
“The Wright brothers, Edison, all these people started in their garages,” Duany said. “Building in this type of incubator space is as important for a healthy society as affordable housing.”

• Shopfront flats, which allow people to live over storefronts, increasing the urban feel of the neighborhood. Unlike live-work units, different people could own or lease the shop and the condo.

• “Mews,” which are small dwellings tucked behind larger single-family homes, ideal as mother-in-law apartments, rental units or starter homes for young couples.

• A Hilton Head-style traffic circle on Harden Street at the east entrance to the development.

• Restored historic buildings, suggested for such uses as an inn, community theater, library and Montessori school.

• A retail area at what was once the main entrance to the old State Hospital at Bull Street and Elmwood Avenue. However, plans for a downtown movie theater have been scrapped.

The space was not large enough to build the megaplex that would ensure the theater’s success, a Bull Street committee spokeswoman said.

The plan still has to pass muster with the city’s Planning Commission and, eventually, City Council.

The plan will be considered “as quickly as the court will allow,” Coble said. “We need to proceed deliberately to get it done.”

Site overview (PDF) (http://www.thestateonline.com/news/pdfs/060207bullstreet.pdf)

Proposed architectural details (PDF) (http://www.thestateonline.com/news/pdfs/bullst_buildings.pdf)

waccamatt

February 11th, 2006, 07:45 AM

Wish I could, but I'm in ATL for the weekend.

Damn, Krazee, I didn't see you there! :)

krazeeboi

February 11th, 2006, 11:14 AM

LOL! Didn't get around the city much while I was there. Wanted to stop by Ebenezer on Monday and pay my respects to Mrs. King, but it was raining--hard--and I overslept, and I had to make it back for work. :(

krazeeboi

February 13th, 2006, 03:40 AM

By the way, here's the site overview graphic of the Bull Street project:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/sonofaque86/Bullstreet.jpg

waccamatt

February 14th, 2006, 07:59 AM

I'm anxious for the project to get started. Let's hope the state hurries up and sells the land.

LSyd

February 17th, 2006, 04:35 PM

this is awesome; while a lot of cities of similar size get new buildings, Columbia's getting new neighborhoods.

-

Raleigh-NC

February 17th, 2006, 04:43 PM

That looks like an awesome plan!!! Congrats on this one, too :okay:

waccamatt

February 19th, 2006, 07:25 AM

Thanks Raleigh.

krazeeboi

February 20th, 2006, 05:31 AM

When it was built in 1912, The Equitable Arcade became the center of downtown commerce.

The open-air arcade is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The building features an “L” shape with identical entrances on Main and Washington streets. It has striking interior architecture, with extensive Vermont marble and white glazed terra cotta detailing in a repeating cherubim and swag motif. The floor is Italian tile.

Considered by many to be Main Street’s hidden jewel, the arcade has suffered over the years as shopping migrated to the suburbs. The building has seen a succession of tenants; 14 operate there now — mainly small shops and service providers — with the building about 50 percent occupied.

Source (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/13909207.htm)

waccamatt

February 20th, 2006, 05:51 AM

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/arcade%20mall%202.jpg

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/arcade%20mall%20outside.jpg

waccamatt

February 20th, 2006, 10:52 AM

Alesso, a $43 Million Condo and Retail development will be built downtown at Main and Blossom Streets, across from the Horizon Block of Innovista; construction is to begin this summer. I am disappointed it will only be 6 stories and not a highrise, but it sounds like a nice project.

Alesso (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/13915181.htm)

http://www.thestate.com/images/thestate/state/13917/193687605863.jpg

LSyd

February 20th, 2006, 03:33 PM

waccamatt

February 20th, 2006, 07:20 PM

^ interesting, so that's the long-rumored condo tower. which block is it going on? are the Towers still planned for eventual demolition, or has USC designated them a historic initiation for freshman? ;)

the arcade needs more tennants...and underground Columbia, too. :cheers:

-

Yes, that's the tower that is only a midrise. :( I do kinda like the design, though. USC wants the area around Innovista to be only midrises, no highrises. This will be built at the northwest corner of Main and Blossom, where Addams Bookstore, Pizza Hut and the convenience store are now. I believe it will occupy the entire block. The Towers are across the street and are still scheduled for demolition.

krazeeboi

February 21st, 2006, 06:02 AM

^Which towers are we talking about?

waccamatt

February 21st, 2006, 08:28 AM

^Which towers are we talking about?

We originally thought that the Alessa development would be a highrise instead of a midrise condo.

krazeeboi

February 21st, 2006, 08:45 AM

No, you said "The Towers are across the street and are still scheduled for demolition." At first I thought LSyd was talking about Carolina Plaza. Are there other towers set to be imploded downtown?

Raleigh-NC

February 21st, 2006, 04:17 PM

Not entirely off topic, but who is the architect of Alesso? We have a similarly looking building here in Raleigh, called 510 Glenwood, designed by JDavis Architects. I think that the resemblance is striking:

http://www.aiatriangle.org/2004/image/30.jpg

krazeeboi

February 22nd, 2006, 04:42 AM

Wow, that does look very similar. Not sure who the architect is, but the developer is Holder Properties of Atlanta. The primary difference between the structure in Raleigh and the one to be built in Columbia is the facade. Raleigh's is primarily brick, while the one in Columbia will be stucco and stone.

waccamatt

February 22nd, 2006, 04:57 AM

No, you said "The Towers are across the street and are still scheduled for demolition." At first I thought LSyd was talking about Carolina Plaza. Are there other towers set to be imploded downtown?

The Towers dorms at USC, also known as the honeycombs. I'll miss the old buildings when they're torn down this summer, I had many a good time while living there. :cheers: :drunk: :dance: :cheers2: :cheers1: :horse: :pepper: :lock: :bowtie: :carrot: :booze: :banana:

Here is a larger rendering of Alesso.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/sonofaque86/gftrtr.jpg

LSyd

February 22nd, 2006, 07:48 AM

^ yeah, i was in the towers freshman year, then sophmore year my two best friends were on the same floor in them, so i returned often. then again, they had a horrible unurban, decayed feeling about them, which always reminded me of the flats alex's family lived in in "a clockwork orange." plus the view out of the window was like looking out of a prison, although i loved the deck to stick extraneous crap or to yell offensive comments at the other towers (snowden in particular.) i was in moore, my friends sophmore year were in laborde...douglass was the other one...wierd. so what's gonna go where the towers were? another quad dorm? frat quad needs to go...it's worse than the towers.

Alesso looks great...very British/Euro. it'd fit in well in say, Edinburgh. which is one thing i love about Columbia's boom compared to everywhere else, it's all top notch quality. it'll be fun to move back.

-

krazeeboi

February 22nd, 2006, 10:18 AM

When do you plan to return, LSyd?

LSyd

February 22nd, 2006, 03:13 PM

When do you plan to return, LSyd?

summer.

-

krazeeboi

February 23rd, 2006, 04:52 AM

We look forward to having you back in the Palmetto State. ;)

waccamatt

February 23rd, 2006, 07:35 AM

LSyd

February 24th, 2006, 02:15 AM

We used to shoot off bottle rockets between the buildings when I lived in an interior room. They were dumps, but at least they had air conditioning and we sure did have some great parties up there.

oh man, yeah, the towers had some good parties, and other craziness...

we had people sniping pedestrians with BB guns from those. and people putting beer cans in the spaces, of course, both groups got punished and crap.

about half of my floor were gay frat boy-types...the gay couple on the floor who were together before college didn't even associate with them. no one believed me about the gay frat boys...my girlfriend, my other friends, my parents...but they all changed their minds after they visited the dorm.

-

waccamatt

February 24th, 2006, 05:58 AM

oh man, yeah, the towers had some good parties, and other craziness...

we had people sniping pedestrians with BB guns from those. and people putting beer cans in the spaces, of course, both groups got punished and crap.

about half of my floor were gay frat boy-types...the gay couple on the floor who were together before college didn't even associate with them. no one believed me about the gay frat boys...my girlfriend, my other friends, my parents...but they all changed their minds after they visited the dorm.

-

Doggone it, where were all the other gay boys when I was in school? :bowtie:

LSyd

February 24th, 2006, 04:10 PM

Doggone it, where were all the other gay boys when I was in school? :bowtie:

i don't think you would've wanted to be around most of those guys...like i said, the couple who were together before college wanted nothing to do with them.

-

waccamatt

February 25th, 2006, 05:42 AM

LOL, I never did get along with frat boys too well anyway.

StevenW

February 25th, 2006, 04:56 PM

What's the latest development news in Columbia?

waccamatt

February 26th, 2006, 01:07 AM

What's the latest development news in Columbia?

The 3 condo developments around Williams-Brice Stadium, Alesso, Renaissance Plaza, the Hilton, the Sheraton, the First Citizens Building, etc.

StevenW

February 26th, 2006, 03:34 AM

The 3 condo developments around Williams-Brice Stadium, Alesso, Renaissance Plaza, the Hilton, the Sheraton, the First Citizens Building, etc.
thanks, waccamatt. :)
you know, I wonder what will take the place of that shot-down proposed stadium at the Village of Sandhill? Do you know if there was a "plan B"?

waccamatt

February 26th, 2006, 10:41 AM

thanks, waccamatt. :)
you know, I wonder what will take the place of that shot-down proposed stadium at the Village of Sandhill? Do you know if there was a "plan B"?

I'm not sure that anything will. There is a summer league team using capital city stadium beginning this year and USC, perennially one of the top college teams, is building a new stadium, so I'm not sure there is a huge local desire for building a new stadium for a minor league team. I think if a triple A squad wanted to move here there would be interest, but short of that, I'm not sure.

StevenW

February 26th, 2006, 08:43 PM

I, personally, like the Village of Sandhill shopping district. I wonder if there are plans to develop a similar type project on or near I-26 near the Chapin area, maybe.

waccamatt

February 26th, 2006, 09:09 PM

I believe the Midtown at Forest Acres development (Richland Mall redevelopment) will be somewhat similar, except as an urban development instead. They have a model apartment almost completed and are to begin pre-selling condos, I believe, this spring.

Midtown at Forest Acres (http://www.midtownatforestacres.com/)

StevenW

February 27th, 2006, 04:30 AM

Yeah, they are transforming it nicely.

waccamatt

February 27th, 2006, 04:45 AM

I thought I would post some updated pictures of some of the projects currently under construction in and near downtown Columbia. I believe someone posted some pictures of Renaissance Plaza recently so I won't post more of that project. If there is something else anyone wants to see, let me know.

This is the new Arnold School of Public Health Building at USC; it is nearing completion:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/arnold%20sch%20of%20publ%20health%202%2026%2006.jpg

The construction of the Convention Center Hilton in the Vista is progressing:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/hilton%20site%202%2026%2006.jpg

In the distance you can see the Carolina Walk Condos coming together to the right of Williams-Brice Stadium:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/car%20walk%20from%20usc.jpg

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/carolina%20walk%20closer%20from%20usc.jpg

Carolina Walk from closer up:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/carolina%20walk%20constr%20and%20stadium.jpg
http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/caolina%20walk%20constr%20at%20sunset.jpg
http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/carolina%20walk%20from%20stadium.jpg

This is the other midrise condo building, "The Spur", going up next to Williams-Brice Stadium:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/the%20spur%20constr.jpg

This is Stadium Village Lofts, across the street from the Spur. All 3 developments are supposed to be ready for the 2006 football season. We will see, lol.

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/stadium%20vlg%20lofts%20constr.jpg

This is the ground-level view of downtown from the Stadium. The upper floors of Carolina Walk should have a nice view.

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/downtown%20from%20wms%20brice.jpg

The Olympia Mill lofts renovation is progressing, just up the street from the stadium. The Granby Mill restoration, next door, seems to be complete and people are moving in.

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/olympia%20mills%20resto%20coming%20along.jpg

The Palmetto Building renovation into a Sheraton Boutique Hotel is about half complete.

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/palmetto%20bldg%20renov%202%2026%2006.jpg

I had to stick in this view of the State House from the Washington Street parking garage:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/state%20house%20peeking%202.jpg

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/state%20house%20peeking%20through.jpg

These are my most recent pictures of the new First Citizens building in downtown Columbia:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/1st%20citz%202%2026%2006.jpg

I should have used my tripod for this one:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/1st%20citz%20at%20night.jpg

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/1st%20citz%20courtyard%202%2026%2006.jpg

It's kind of hard to pick it out from these distance shots, but it is just to the left of NBSC and in front of Wilbur Smith:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/skyline%20w%201st%20citz.jpg

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/1st%20citz%20fr%20greystone.jpg

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/1st%20citz%20night%202.jpg

This shows the proximity to NBSC and the Capitol Center:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/1st%20citz%20nbsc%20cap%20ctr.jpg

That's it for now...

Raleigh-NC

February 27th, 2006, 04:05 PM

Nice update, waccamatt!!! I liked this photo, too:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/skyline%20w%201st%20citz.jpg

StevenW

February 28th, 2006, 01:10 AM

Very nice, waccamatt!
Thanks for the photo update. :)

ROBTEX

February 28th, 2006, 03:37 AM

Nice shots! Thanks!

krazeeboi

February 28th, 2006, 04:19 AM

Matt, you should get some of those over on the residential thread. ;)

waccamatt

February 28th, 2006, 05:03 AM

Matt, you should get some of those over on the residential thread. ;)

That sounds like a good idea, Kraze, I've never checked out that thread!

waccamatt

March 6th, 2006, 04:32 AM

I noticed the other day that dirt was being moved at the Rosewood Hills development on Rosewood Drive. Here is a picture of the development along with one showing its proximity to Williams-Brice Stadium with The Spur condos under construction to the left of the stadium and Carolina Walk under construction to the right of the stadium. The third picture is just a random picture of my favorite business sign in Columbia - the entire outside of the Voodoo Den, just up Rosewood Drive from these developments.

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/rosewood%20hills.jpg

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/rosewood%20hills%20stadium%20spur%20carolina%20walk.jpg

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/new%20development%202%2026%2006/voodoo%20den.jpg

krazeeboi

March 6th, 2006, 08:20 AM

It's exciting to see the momentum downtown spreading all the way down to the Williams-Brice area. I think we're in the beginning stages of seeing another center of urban activity.

StevenW

March 6th, 2006, 12:11 PM

Nice! :)
BTW, "VooDoo Den!" Wild! :D

sonofaque86

March 7th, 2006, 03:07 AM

Oh they're finally starting on that project

krazeeboi

March 7th, 2006, 04:22 AM

^Yeah, it has been proposed for a while now, hasn't it?

waccamatt

March 7th, 2006, 05:24 AM

It looks like an UP reunion in here, lol!

StevenW

March 8th, 2006, 01:31 AM

Museum’s planetarium may get building fundsDraft state budget includes $5.3 million for State Museum complexBy JOHN O’CONNORjohnoconnor@thestate.comA decade-old plan to build a planetarium, observatory and theater complex at the State Museum could get a jump-start with $5.3 million for it included in a draft state budget.
The money, if it clears the General Assembly and Gov. Mark Sanford’s desk, would be added to previous state and federal grants and private fundraising, leaving the museum just a few years — and a few million dollars — short of the total needed. Construction could start as early as fall 2007.
It would put back on the front burner the $18.5 million project last discussed in earnest several years ago, before the state faced annual budget crunches.
The planetarium is part of $130 million in “nonessential” projects split from the main budget and placed in a supplemental spending bill. House Republican leaders split the budget into separate bills in response to concerns the governor and others raised about spending beyond a pre-set cap.
Some House members have questioned funding for the museum project.
The House Ways and Means Committee is likely to vote on its draft budget today, but the planetarium, observatory and theater could come under fire again when the budget reaches the House floor next week.
“This is not some local pork barrel project,” said Rep. Bill Cotty, R-Richland, the lead sponsor. “It’s the place where you see the past and where you go to see the future.”
The State Museum first proposed the project in the 1990s, but put the idea on hold while lawmakers tightened budgets. But with nearly $1 billion available this year through carryover dollars and projected increases in revenue, the State Museum complex could be back on the books.
“The museum has basically been the same product for about 18 years now,” museum director Willie Calloway said. “We desperately need to upgrade the product to be competitive.”
The project would add new features to the museum:
• The observatory telescope could digitize images, which means the views of celestial objects could be beamed to classrooms around the state through ETV or other methods.
• The theater would show a 3-D movie about South Carolina history and could immerse students in the experience with environmental effects. If the wind blows in the movie, for example, those in the theater would feel it, as well.
• The planetarium would seat about 125 and could show images from the telescope on its screen.
It would be the only museum in the country to offer all three features, Calloway said, and all three would be built within the existing museum space. Admission fees would cover operating costs.
Some state lawmakers say the project is a symbol of a bloated budget that spends too much.
“My people in York aren’t going to drive to use it,” said Rep. Herb Kirsh, D-York, the project’s most vocal critic.
Existing planetariums in S.C. include the Stanback Planetarium at S.C. State University in Orangeburg, the Settlemyre Planetarium in Rock Hill and an observatory in Greenville.
During budget debate last week, a subcommittee stripped $1 million from the project to pay for other state needs, including tourism advertising and an access road for a Charleston port.
“It’s a nice thing to have, but we do have one in the state (in Greenville)” said Rep. Shirley Hinson, R-Berkeley, who tried to redirect some of the money. “It’s probably not one of the high-priority items.”
Cotty said the museum cut jobs — not just left them vacant — during tight budget years and has scaled back initial designs, which included an IMAX theater with a $50 million price tag.
Approving the money this year is critical, Cotty said, because the museum could lose a $2 million grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The museum might also be able to line up corporate and foundation donations with the state allocation.
Calloway hopes the museum can raise at least $5.5 million, meaning grants and private donations would pay for half the project.
“I had to hold the fort and try to knock off four people trying to raid that fund,” Cotty said, “and we’ll have to hold the fort on the floor, too.”
Reach O’Connor at (803) 771-8358.

LSyd

March 8th, 2006, 04:23 AM

thanks for the update. makes me wish that i'd checked out the stadium area projects when i was there in early january.

-

StevenW

March 8th, 2006, 12:12 PM

^^ No problem. Just wish that I-MAX wouldn't have been scratched. :(

krazeeboi

March 9th, 2006, 05:38 AM

Well, the museum plan has its critics, so we'll see how it pans out.

waccamatt

March 9th, 2006, 07:02 AM

^^ No problem. Just wish that I-MAX wouldn't have been scratched. :(

I agree; I've been looking forward to the IMAX and they pulled the rug out from under me.

krazeeboi

April 20th, 2006, 09:33 AM

Work is progressing nicely on the Horizon block, which is part of USC's research campus, Innovista. Here's a shot from the webcam on April 7 (the lower right portion of the picture; notice the Carolina Walk condo complex under construction in the background near Williams-Brice Stadium):

http://www.myonlineimages.com/Members/antical79/images/horizon_block.jpg

Image from April 19:

http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=2074

A rendering for the Kline Steel site development, to be located at the corner of Huger and Gervais in the Congaree Vista district downtown, was disclosed by the Columbia Star newspaper. A little about the development:

An eight-story complex of condos, offices, stores, grassy plazas and a hotel.

1.3 million square feet

A walkway under the hotel would lead to the State Museum, EdVenture Children’s Museum and the Three Rivers Greenway.

•430 one-, two- and three-bedroom condominiums.
• 60,000 square feet of street-level retail located along Huger and lining a large interior courtyard
• An eight-story office building at Huger and Gervais
• An eight-story, 130-room hotel
• Underground and concealed parking garages capable of handling more than 1,400 cars

Here's the rendering (only partial, not in color):

http://www.thecolumbiastar.net/news/2006/0414/Government/015p3_lg.jpg

I'm told that there was a stunning rendering shown on public access TV; hopefully The State newspaper, or some other source, will release full color renderings very soon.

krazeeboi

April 20th, 2006, 09:42 AM

I was SO excited when I read this. I sincerely believe that this will be the linchpin, in concert with the several other projects going on/soon to commence in the city, that will most certainly take my future home to the next level.

USC, Guignards unveiling plan to reinvent downtown (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/14383412.htm)
By JAMES T. HAMMOND and C. GRANT JACKSON
jhammond@thestate.com gjackson@thestate.com

Condos, retail would ring park, campus

USC today will unveil a sweeping plan for its research campus and 500 acres of the city center that includes a major new riverfront park and 3,000 new households that school planners hope will attract researchers and students seeking an urban lifestyle.

The densely built, walkable downtown will have as its crown jewel a riverfront park — the largest in the city — with two footpaths, a marsh with boardwalks, a grassy amphitheater and, near the Congaree River, the reflooded southern tip of the Columbia Canal.

USC’s partners in the venture are members of Columbia’s Guignard family, which owns more than 100 acres of undeveloped riverfront land between Gervais and Catawba streets.

Condominiums, town houses and retail storefronts would ring the Innovista research campus just west of Assembly Street, as well as the park, between Huger Street and the river.

The research campus would connect with the riverfront property through a new university main street: a tree-lined Greene Street stretching from USC’s Horseshoe to the river and featuring a new public sculpture garden.

The plan is “a once-in-a-century opportunity to transform a midtier city into a world-class destination,” said USC trustee William Hubbard. “It’s ambitious, but we can do it if we all pull together.”

The estimated cost to fully develop the new roads and other infrastructure is $105.6 million, including $63.4 million for the waterfront park alone.

No funding source has been lined up yet, but the possibilities include federal and state grants, private gifts and local taxpayer support. Sasaki Associates Inc. of Boston, which designed the plan, said for example that a 15-year extension of the special tax district in the Congaree Vista would produce an estimated $69 million.

Other than the infrastructure, the rest of the plan is heavily dependent on nearby landowners, as USC and the Guignards own only about one-third of the 500 acres involved. Much of the land, however, either is undeveloped or underutilized. The plan would have no force of law unless the city decided to incorporate all or part of its features into Columbia’s zoning laws.

Mayor Bob Coble described the plan as “transformational” for Columbia and USC.

“All the dreams we’ve had for Columbia and the university are coming together in this plan,” Coble said. “I believe Columbia’s moment has arrived for great things to happen.”

Regarding the financing of the $105 million plan, he said, “it is only doable with everyone — federal, state and local governments and private participants — pulling together. No one entity can make this happen.”

The project is expected in its first 15 years to create an economic impact of $875 million in private market revenue, 8,700 jobs and $17.7 million in annual property taxes.

USC hired Sasaki to propose the plan, and the Guignard family joined the process. City and waterfront landowners who have seen the plan, including Guignard family members, say it will transform the city in ways few had imagined until they saw the proposal.

Sasaki has guided the transformation of inner-city waterfronts in Charleston, Greenville and throughout the nation and has guided USC’s development for the past decade.

Steve Benjamin, a Columbia attorney who is on a community steering committee formed to promote the Sasaki plan, said he was so impressed with the vision that he believes the city and USC have no choice but to go forward with it.

Attorney Bill Boyd, who heads the steering committee, described the plan as “stunning.”

The central feature of the plan would transform a large portion of the 100 or so acres of wild, undeveloped riverfront between Gervais and Catawba into a world-class public park with condos, offices and retail shops on a high bluff along an extended Williams Street, overlooking the water-oriented park.

The new USC baseball stadium south of Blossom Street, conceived as an afterthought to a planning agreement between USC and the Guignards, has become a keystone to the entire concept. The outfield stands will face the river, and fans will enter the park from center field.

“For the first time, I’ve seen a collaboration I think will work,” Boyd said. “This can make Columbia different from many other cities.”

Charlie Thompson, spokesman for the Guignards, acknowledged that his family-owned company has left the city at the altar several times with plans for its riverfront land that never were realized.

But he said his family’s long-standing commitment to public space and river access have made them cautious about proceeding. “It’s important to do it right. We only get one chance,” he said.

Sasaki is no stranger to such transformative planning. The company worked with Georgia Tech and the city of Atlanta to design the Atlanta Olympic Village. And they are working with the University of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia to redevelop the riverfront there.

Richard Galehouse, Sasaki’s point man on the USC plan, described it as “a vision that goes beyond either of the parties” and said it would transform the area into “a modern laboratory of the forces at play in our cities.”

The plan reveals only a few details of how USC plans to develop land it already owns in the zone from east to west between the historic Horseshoe and the river and north to south from Gervais to Catawba.

USC already has announced plans for public-private development on at least three blocks on or near Assembly Street. In a large swath of USC-controlled property west of the Colonial Center, the plan only anticipates the possibility of a major bridge over the railroad tracks at Greene Street and an alumni center on Greene west of the tracks. Carolina The Coliseum, replaced as an arena by the Colonial Center, is being studied by Sasaki for possible future uses.

The planners said the proposal doesn’t require any additional property purchases by USC to implement the plan. It is, they said, a first-ever effort by USC and the Guignard family to work together as agents of change, to influence the future private development in the zone, and to create a new style of urban life in Columbia where people can live, work and play within the same several blocks.

Galehouse and others emphasized that the plan is just the first step in a lengthy process that will require raising millions of dollars of public and private money and acceptance by numerous parties as diverse as property owners, city government, federal transportation and flood control authorities, and USC trustees who, like many residents, will see the plan for the first time today.

krazeeboi

April 20th, 2006, 09:43 AM

KEY FEATURES OF THE PLAN (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/14383396.htm)
What USC and Columbia’s Guignard family are proposing:

• A large riverfront park on the Guignard property that would complete Columbia’s portion of the Three Rivers Greenway

• The park — the project’s “crown jewel” — would feature two footpaths, a marsh with boardwalks, a grassy amphitheater and, near the river, the reflooded southern tip of the Columbia Canal.

• The extension of the north-south Williams Street through the Guignard property along a natural bluff, one block west of Huger Street

• Condos with riverfront views on both sides of Williams Street’s bluff

• The extension of Greene Street across Huger, ending at the park

• The “greening” of Greene Street from the USC Horseshoe to the river, creating a pedestrian-friendly street with a public sculpture garden

• Three river landings, at Senate, Greene and Wheat streets, with expanded river access for canoes and kayaks

• Very urban, densely situated condo, apartment and retail buildings — mostly three and four stories high — ringing USC’s research campus, Williams Street and the greenway and stretching into nearby areas of the Vista; dependent on private developers

• Retail and office space sprinkled among the condos; dependent on private developers

• Burial of power lines on 18 acres of the Guignard property to make way for the park and condos

krazeeboi

April 21st, 2006, 01:37 AM

http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/hiltonconstruction6.jpg
http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/hiltonconstruction4.jpg
http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/hiltonconstruction5.jpg
http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/hiltonconstruction6.jpg
http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/hiltonconstruction21.jpg

And just for reference purposes, here is the rendering of the final product:

http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/columbiahilton.jpg

krazeeboi

April 21st, 2006, 02:42 AM

Alright, here are the renderings that were presented for Innovista, USC's downtown research campus. The first shot is the downtown near the banks of the Congaree River presently, then the renderings follow.

http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/waterfrontnow.jpg
http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/innovistaaerial.jpg
http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/coliseumpromenade.jpg
http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/greenest.jpg
http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/towpath.jpg
http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/waterfrontpromenade.jpg
http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/amphitheatre.jpg
http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/ballpark.jpg
Looking towards USC's baseball stadium

waccamatt

April 21st, 2006, 04:28 AM

It has gotten to be very difficult to keep up with all of the developments in the Columbia area, especially downtown. The value of projects under construction, about to be started and proposed is in the multi-billions right now.

krazeeboi

April 21st, 2006, 05:12 AM

Waccamatt, you are so right, it really HAS gotten difficult to keep up with everything.

LSyd

April 21st, 2006, 05:22 AM

uhm, DAMN!!! awesome...glad to see some some updates, i was wondering about them as i plan my move back to Cola.

-

waccamatt

April 21st, 2006, 05:26 AM

Get back here, quick, LSyd!

waccamatt

April 23rd, 2006, 09:18 AM

Quick update on the construction of the Hilton Convention Center Hotel: the foundation is complete and the crane is in place; construction on the parking garage (looks very nice and not at all like a garage) is proceeding, too.

StevenW

April 23rd, 2006, 02:54 PM

Good news! :D

waccamatt

April 30th, 2006, 08:52 AM

Here's a quick update on some projects

Carolina Walk and The Spur (both near Williams-Brice Stadium) have topped out

Carolina Walk

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/urban%20access%20tour/carolina%20walk.jpg

The Spur

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/urban%20access%20tour/the%20spur%20topped%20out.jpg

Construction is progressing on the Convention Center Hilton

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/urban%20access%20tour/hilton%20constr.jpg

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/urban%20access%20tour/hilton%20constr%20progressing.jpg

The First Citizens Tower is opening on Monday May 1st

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/urban%20access%20tour/1st%20citz%20opening%20monday.jpg

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/waccamatt/brandons%20main%20st%20night%20pics/1st%20citz%20night.jpg

Other major projects downtown: construction on Canalside is beginning on Monday and Renaissance Plaza is nearing completion; the Adesso Condos will start construction in June. I should have some photos of these projects soon.

krazeeboi

May 5th, 2006, 09:25 AM

I found a rendering of the Pendleton Street garage serving the convention center; it will be the nicest parking garage in Columbia once finished:

http://www.coolumbia.net/pix/coming/hilton3.jpg

Raleigh-NC

May 5th, 2006, 02:48 PM

Great pics, guys!!! I really like the First Citizens Tower... Very classy, IMHO :okay:

sonofaque86

May 5th, 2006, 09:37 PM

That would've been our signature tower if that First Citizens would've been 20 or so stories...I think it's the best looking building downtown even though it's only 9 stories

Raleigh-NC

May 5th, 2006, 09:52 PM

I bet there will be a time when they'll regret not going higher, but it's a great looking tower, anyway.

LSyd

May 6th, 2006, 04:51 PM

it will be the nicest parking garage in Columbia once finished:

damn, i'll say. i bet they did that to avoid grief with design review.

That would've been our signature tower if that First Citizens would've been 20 or so stories...I think it's the best looking building downtown even though it's only 9 stories

maybe design review had something to do with that...when the meridian was submitted, one guy said, "i'd rather have 3 5-story buildings." the gist being that he liked D.C. and Charleston.

then again, i have no problem w/it being 9 stories, especially given its location. although i want a prettier 20 story, too.

-

krazeeboi

May 11th, 2006, 12:40 AM

Here are some more renderings of the Pendleton Street parking garage. The garage features retail space along Lincoln Street facing the Convention Center and glass stair and elevator towers on two corners. A major CMRTA bus stop will be located along Pendleton Street to encourage visitors to use mass transit and provide convenience to the Hotel and Convention Center patrons. The garage connects to the first level of the Hotel for easy access by visitors.

http://www.quackenbusharchitects.com/public/img/portfolio/1118775214_25_Garage3.2.jpg

http://www.quackenbusharchitects.com/public/img/portfolio/1118775136_25_Garage1.2.jpg

http://www.quackenbusharchitects.com/public/img/portfolio/1118775182_25_Garage2.2.jpg

krazeeboi

May 24th, 2006, 10:05 AM

The announcements just keep rolling on in...

Two hotels planned for Huger corridor (http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/14652426.htm)
Construction is expected to be completed in 2007

By DELAWESE FULTON
ddfulton@thestate.com

Two new hotels are on the horizon for downtown Columbia as the city center experiences new growth and investor interest.

Naman Hospitality and Sree Hospitality Group LLC plan to build hotels along the Huger Street corridor — the first since the Comfort Suites at Taylor Street opened four years ago.

• Charlotte-based Sree plans to build a $15 million hotel with at least 120 rooms at Huger and Lady streets.

• Naman, based in Florence, said it will spend about $13 million to build a five-story, 93-unit extended-stay hotel at Huger and Richland streets, across from Trustus theater.

Those additions — along with the 222 rooms promised by the convention center Hilton hotel — could signal a significant improvement in the growth and quality of Columbia’s hotel inventory, which has been flat for at least three years.

“It’s Columbia just being discovered for its climate — weather and business climate,” said Dave Zunker, vice president of the Columbia Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“Columbia is very welcoming ... and it’s trickling over into investments.”

Including the hotel projects, Zunker said, Columbia has attracted investments totaling $500 million in the coming five to 10 years.

Several projects in and around the Congaree Vista — the planned Hilton, USC’s Innovista project, college and minor league baseball, condo development and other major hotels undergoing hefty renovations — are sparking development in the Huger Street corridor, Columbia Mayor Bob Coble said.

And that development, Coble said, is boosting Columbia’s standing as a viable market for conventions and tourists.

“All are leading growth toward the (Congaree) River ... and all the way to Olympia,” Coble said.

Compared to the full-service Hilton, scheduled to open in summer 2007, the Naman and Sree hotels will be limited-service.

Ashok Patel, chief executive of Naman hotels, said construction will begin late this summer and take about a year to complete. He would not speculate on what brand the hotel would open under, citing negotiations.

He did say it would be a 75,000-square-foot extended-stay hotel with units twice the size of regular hotel rooms.

Given concerns about traffic near the proposed location of the hotel — just south of where I-126 and Huger meet — Patel said guests will enter and leave the hotel grounds along Richland Street, not Huger.

Naman already owns three Columbia hotels in the Harbison area — a Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn and Wingate Inn.

Sree hotels is also no newcomer to the Columbia market and has reported its interest in developing a hotel on Huger since 2000.

The company owns two Columbia hotels — the Governor’s House Hotel downtown and the Fairfield Inn by Marriott near Columbiana Centre — and once owned a Comfort Inn on Two Notch Road.

Like Naman, Sree has not reached an agreement on a hotel flag yet. Sree chief executive Ravi Patel, no relation to Ashok Patel, said it probably will be another three weeks before the hotel’s brand can be announced.

Sree plans for its hotel to have 120 to 140 rooms and consist of four to five floors. Construction on the hotel is expected to begin this fall and be completed by the end of 2007, Ravi Patel said.

krazeeboi

May 24th, 2006, 10:31 AM

OK, here are the brands I'd like to see downtown, and hopefully at least one of these brands will be included either in the Kline Steel site (unrelated to the above developments) or the hotel planned at Huger and Lady: Embassy Suites, Marriott Courtyard, Radisson, Crowne Plaza (a bit of a stretch, but I think that would fit will with the Kline development), Hyatt, DoubleTree, or heck, why not Aloft (http://www.hospitalitynet.org/web/154000431/11009462.search?query=hotel%20brands)? Since the hotels will be located in the Vista, I would hope that the hotel brands would be more mid-scale to upscale. The Vista is getting some awesome density right about now.

Methinks this is a sign that Columbia is becoming more of a destination, no?

krazeeboi

May 24th, 2006, 08:17 PM

Here's a graphic depicting the downtown location of the two proposed hotels:

http://www.thestate.com/images/thestate/state/14655/214775354960.jpg

Raleigh-NC

May 24th, 2006, 08:58 PM

After a while, the list of new projects becomes hard to keep up with and becomes a torture!!! I feel your pain :lol:

krazeeboi

May 24th, 2006, 09:28 PM

:hahaha:

waccamatt

May 25th, 2006, 04:38 AM

I'd like to see an Aloft open at the site on Huger at Lady (the correct location adjacent to Trustus Theatre); I think it would fit in with the vibe in that part of the Vista.

krazeeboi

May 27th, 2006, 04:15 PM

That would be perfect.

totalcatharsis

May 28th, 2006, 01:20 AM

LSyd

May 28th, 2006, 02:28 AM

stupid statehouse and overly-conservative city design/review commission.

-

krazeeboi

May 28th, 2006, 05:26 AM

I had lunch with Dr. Sorensen the other week ago, and he said something along the lines of many of Columbia's height restrictions pertaining to the ability of visitors and citizens to be able to see the Statehouse dome from the major highways. Thus, many major tower developments will be seemingly restricted to north of Gervais and east of Assembly. On the upside, the North Main redevelopment leaves open room for tower construction along the east side of Main north of Elmwood.

Apparently 8 stories is pushing it. I somewhat understand that sentiment, because even Georgia's state capitol remains visible amid the towers that surround it. If anything, as it has been implied, it will spread future towers out beyond that little cluster on Main. I'm hoping that eventually, the BOA tower can get connected with the rest of its siblings though infill.

Tower construction north of Elmwood would be great; it would extend the CBD. I would expect the majority of new towers to still be located south of Elmwood, though. Anything east of Main would be appreciated.

waccamatt

May 28th, 2006, 08:04 AM

It is better for the taller buildings in Columbia to be east of Assembly and North of Gervais anyway...because the elevation of the land is higher. If a skyscraper was built in the vista, for example, it wouldn't appear very tall because the ground level elevation gets rapidly lower as you move west from Assembly Street.

LSyd

May 28th, 2006, 08:21 AM

^ i agree; and i like the 1st Citizen's building's height b/c it really fits in w/that block, and the landmark of the capitol.

i was talking about back when Meridian was approved and i covered that meeting, how one member of the design and review voted against it, saying he was three 5-story towers instead...so that Columbia would be more like Charelston or Washington, D.C. and while i can sort of admire the sentiment...the genie of going at least moderately tall in Cola was uncorked about 90 years ago. build tall in certain areas by far, keep it in moderation in others (the feel of the Vista, for instance.) no need to be a nazi about it.

-

krazeeboi

May 30th, 2006, 03:19 AM

Three 5-story towers???? I'm glad they didn't listen to the guy. Even DC's buildings have more height to them than that; most have around 12 stories.

krazeeboi

June 2nd, 2006, 12:33 AM

Latest Hilton convention center hotel/Pendleton Street parking garage construction photos:

http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/hiltonconstruction7.jpg

http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/pendletonstgarageconstruction2.jpg

http://www.MyOnlineImages.com/Members/antical79/images/pendletonstgarageconstruction.jpg

UrbanMyth

June 2nd, 2006, 11:57 PM

I LOVE THE "DUMBAMENDMENT" SITE!!!!!!! May I use it too????

krazeeboi

June 3rd, 2006, 12:35 AM

And here I thought one Capital City was about to get some positive press as far as development goes from the other Capital City. :)

waccamatt

June 11th, 2006, 04:28 AM

I LOVE THE "DUMBAMENDMENT" SITE!!!!!!! May I use it too????

It isn't my site, but if you contact the SC Equality Coalition I'm sure they could work something out.

LSyd

June 20th, 2006, 04:02 AM

i'm very impressed with how far along the Vista has come since i moved away 3 years ago...there's more people, more infill, more lights. Klein's gone, but i saw that underway in January...i hoped they'd keep some of it up/or reused it.

the lots at Gervais and Assembly NEED to be filled in though...one would be nice as a plaza, the other with a landmark building (rebuild the turn of the century low-rise at Main and Gervais.)

-

krazeeboi

June 25th, 2006, 09:59 AM

I don't imagine those parcels will stay vacant for long. For at least one of the corners, I'd like to see something simple, like retail on the bottom floor and apartments on a second floor. Matt mentioned a hotel for the northwest parcel; not a bad idea.

I was thinking a plaza for one of the lots as well.

The Vista in general still has tons of land available for infill. The lot at the corner of Wayne and Hampton, west of Memorial Park and adjacent to Renaissance Plaza, holds great potential. It's good that Laurel is starting to get some attention, with the Battery at Arsenal Hill project.

krazeeboi

June 25th, 2006, 10:00 AM

Urban village looks to future
By JEFF WILKINSON
jwilkinson@thestate.com

BUILDING OUR CITY | FIVE POINTS

With completion of its utility and streetscaping project in sight, Five Points boosters are planning for the urban village to grow up.

The Five Points Association is building a master plan, dubbed “Future Five,” that would encourage residential development on Harden and Blossom streets, and preserve a mix of retail stores, bars and restaurants.

The trick will be keep Five Points’ funky vibe intact.

“No one wants homogenized, generic development in Five Points,” said Doug Quackenbush of Quackenbush Architects and Planners. “But we do want investment.”

The plan envisions:

• A parking garage at the corner of Santee and Blossom streets

• A row of “live-work” units — first-floor shops with apartments or condominiums above — on Harden Street between College and Gervais streets

• New residential development on Walnut Street to better tie the northern section of the village to the King Park neighborhood

• Other live-work units in pockets throughout the village, particularly along Blossom Street

“Residential development will make the village ... more dense, urban and interesting,” Quackenbush said.

The plan also is to try to find ways to encourage a continued mix of retail among the village’s bars and restaurants, Quackenbush said. Planners want the village to be perceived as more than a college party district. But he said there have been no discussions about how to do that, such as capping liquor licenses.

“We’re still exploring how to maintain an equal balance between hospitality and retail,” he said.

There are significant challenges to reaching the plan’s goals.

As with the 500-acre swath of the Vista covered by a master plan developed by USC and the Guignard family, scores of people own property in the 71.5-acre area the Five Points plan covers.

So the job of convincing property owners and developers to adhere to the plan will have to involve more carrot than stick.

“We want to lay out a vision and provide incentives for people to follow that vision,” said Dennis Hiltner, owner of the Gourmet Shop on Saluda Avenue and the Five Points Association’s president.

Rather than presenting pretty pictures of parking garages and condo complexes and hoping that vision happens, Quackenbush and the association are working with city planners to develop an incentive package for developers.

Although any changes would have to be adopted by City Council, planners are likely to push for steps like:

• Granting parking variances, such as allowing a mixed-use development — like apartments over stores — to share required parking spaces.

• Loosening restrictions on mixed-use development, such as allowing a residential building with first-floor retail to build higher than the present five-story limit without the required setbacks. Setbacks require more land and make projects more expensive.

• And streamlining permitting, such as allowing staff to greenlight certain mixed-use residential projects without many of the steps now required, such as newspaper advertisements, public hearings and commission approval.

“We want to develop tools to make development happen the right way,” Quackenbush said.

The architect said a report should be completed by the end of the summer.

A public input session then would be held to get feedback from merchants who might not belong to the association, as well as residents and Five Points customers, Hiltner said.

“It think this will have a very positive effect on the surrounding neighborhoods and all our stakeholders,” he said.

Peter Webb hopes so.

Webb has been in business in Five Points for 14 years. He ran a salon on Saluda Avenue before business dried up because, he says, of the streetscaping project.

Now, he runs a costume jewelry and clothing shop called Wish at the same location.

“I sort of reinvented myself,” he said.

Webb said Five Points must continue to distinguish itself from the boutiques on nearby Devine Street and the decorative art shops and galleries in the Vista.

“But I don’t want to see corporate (chain) stores,” he said. “You can get that at the mall.”

Iley Wildes is the manager of Natural Vibrations on Harden Street. The store’s stock in trade is hemp clothing, tie dye and hippie gear.

She says parking is the most pressing problem facing Five Points — “our parking meter money is going to build garages in the Vista” — but agreed Five Points has to distinguish itself from the Vista and Devine Street to stay vital.

“Why in the world would the city want two or three of the same thing?” she said.