Main Street/CBD Developments

[Captain Worley]

Chill out a little. I was just wondering. It used to be a great venue and would probably be an easy rehab.

[emerging.me]

Chill out a little. I was just wondering. It used to be a great venue and would probably be an easy rehab.

Last I heard the current Arcade owner is kind of in a sweet place with it tax-wise or something and has no plans to sell or do any kind of major renovations. Maybe if someone makes him an offer he can't refuse. Otherwise, I think it'll stay dormant for a little while longer. Could be a SWEET place.

Edited October 27, 2006 by emerging.me

[Spartan]

I think Main St should be an extention of the Vista, and not something separate from it.

[Captain Worley]

^Agree 100% and I think eventually it will.

[Istvan]

I think Main St should be an extention of the Vista, and not something separate from it.

i think it'd be great if the entertainment nodes could be linked up; Vista on the West->Vista->Main, going along Gervais to Harden->Five Points.

right now, the Vista and Main Street are running together o.k. and will only get better with the Nick going the other side of the State House...I wonder what'll take its place?

anyway, the Vista and Main kind of run together (Gervais->The Whig, then down Main either way...Jammin Java and Rio before they lost the liquor license one way, Hunter Gatherer/The Nick/Cool Beans going south on Main past the State House.)

Edited October 30, 2006 by Istvan

[krazeeboi]

Do you guys think the coming investment on Lady Street will jump across Assembly? That would be cool. Assembly itself is dying to be a grand boulevard of sorts. The Vista-Main connection will not happen apart from a rehabbing/streetscaping of Assembly, IMO.

[Spartan]

Not in the near term, but maybe when Lady becomes as well established at King St. It will take a lot of time- though hopefully not 100 years!

[shahram72]

After seeing those photos I was agreement until I found out they were rentals. They are more than adequate for moderately priced rentals. The exposed plumbing and structure overhead is cool tho. I think it shows the nature of the building you are actually in. I like that part.

[krazeeboi]

City Center Partnership recently held its fifth annual meeting. The Columbia Star reported news on the meeting, and included was this excerpt which I thought was relevant here:

Ten obstacles are in the way for Main Street to take off: (1) challenging economics of small-scale retail; (2) lack of declared focus or priorities with maybe too many competing projects under way; (3) population base too small; (4) downtown Columbia fails to form an ideal merchandising mix such as Washington's Georgetown; (5) no merchandising plan leaves Main Street with incoherent mix; (6) not enough vibrant public spaces; (7) lack of customer-oriented parking accommodation (valet parking, for instance) exacerbates the parking problem and its system of penalties; (8) downtown is too intermittent, too interrupted, like the locations of the library and the post office, both cut off from Main Street by Assembly Street; (9) lack of coherent directional signage; (10) capital or lack thereof, and the best form of public assistance, tax-increment financing (TIF), is currently the center of a $6 million argument between the city and the county.

We've discussed many of these things here in different threads, but this just ties it all together.

[CorgiMatt]

City Center Partnership recently held its fifth annual meeting. The Columbia Star reported news on the meeting, and included was this excerpt which I thought was relevant here:

Ten obstacles are in the way for Main Street to take off: (1) challenging economics of small-scale retail; (2) lack of declared focus or priorities with maybe too many competing projects under way; (3) population base too small; (4) downtown Columbia fails to form an ideal merchandising mix such as Washington's Georgetown; (5) no merchandising plan leaves Main Street with incoherent mix; (6) not enough vibrant public spaces; (7) lack of customer-oriented parking accommodation (valet parking, for instance) exacerbates the parking problem and its system of penalties; (8) downtown is too intermittent, too interrupted, like the locations of the library and the post office, both cut off from Main Street by Assembly Street; (9) lack of coherent directional signage; (10) capital or lack thereof, and the best form of public assistance, tax-increment financing (TIF), is currently the center of a $6 million argument between the city and the county.

We've discussed many of these things here in different threads, but this just ties it all together.

Ligon the writer fails to mention, however, that Five Points and the Vista are considered part of downtown and that they have representatives who sit on the Downtown Business Association board. His article is supposedly about the City Center Partnership, but then he switches horses and refers to downtown, not the city center. When the city center does get more retail, we will have one huge nonstop downtown.

[krazeeboi]

It was a bit of switching around with the terminology, but I just assumed that this was more focused on Main, since the Vista and Five Points are seeing more progress.

Point #8 is a good one and one that we've discussed extensively lately around here, but I never thought about it from that angle. But I did say that it would be nice to see the post office moved and Finlay Park expanded.

[CorgiMatt]

It was a bit of switching around with the terminology, but I just assumed that this was more focused on Main, since the Vista and Five Points are seeing more progress.

Point #8 is a good one and one that we've discussed extensively lately around here, but I never thought about it from that angle. But I did say that it would be nice to see the post office moved and Finlay Park expanded.

I've always thought it would be great to relocate the post office and build dense multi-story housing there, maybe with Finlay Park extended up into the U that the housing could create.

[Spartan]

This is interesting because it sounds almost exactly like Spartanburg's situation, with the exception of #2 (we have Morgan Square as a focus).

[krazeeboi]

I don't, however, understand the part about competing projects. All of the various projects that are planned, underway, recently completed for Main are complimentary for the most part: condos (1520 Main), hotel (Palmetto building), apartments (Barringer), mixed-use (1556 Main), religious (Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox), entertainment (Nickelodeon relocation), etc. The only thing I see competing is possibly the Meridian and First Citizens towers.

[emerging.me]

I don't, however, understand the part about competing projects. All of the various projects that are planned, underway, recently completed for Main are complimentary for the most part: condos (1520 Main), hotel (Palmetto building), apartments (Barringer), mixed-use (1556 Main), religious (Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox), entertainment (Nickelodeon relocation), etc. The only thing I see competing is possibly the Meridian and First Citizens towers.

I think that may have been a part where the writer kind of switched gears and was talking about downtown as a whole -- I was lost there in a few places.

[CorgiMatt]

Jeff Wilkinson writes an article in today's The State about downtown Columbia, and he includes Five Points, the Vista, Devine Street and Innovista in what he calls Columbia's sprawling downtown. I wouldn't use the word "sprawling," because none of those areas are outside of Columbia's street grid system. I would just call it huge. The article is about connecting the dots, the vibrant areas, with pedestrian-friendly, aesthetically pleasing corridors. It is also about Historic Columbia's 10-year plan to restore the gardens of the historic homes to what they were when Columbia's gardens were known internationally for their beauty.

[emerging.me]

Lourie's is having a special event tomorrow -- Tues, Dec. 5 -- from 5-8PM. It's a sale and a wine and cheese thing. Valet parking on Taylor St. even. This seems to be an event that will test the waters of evening retail on Main Street. An email from City Center Partnership says that they hope it will grow into a "special night where all retailers and restaurants in the downtown Business Improvement District will offer specials."

[vicupstate]

I don't, however, understand the part about competing projects. All of the various projects that are planned, underway, recently completed for Main are complimentary for the most part: condos (1520 Main), hotel (Palmetto building), apartments (Barringer), mixed-use (1556 Main), religious (Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox), entertainment (Nickelodeon relocation), etc. The only thing I see competing is possibly the Meridian and First Citizens towers.

I think what is being referred to here, is that the CITY does not focus and prioritize it's projects. It has always juggled numerous 5 Points, Vista, Two Notch, Main St, Bull Street [Mental health], Olympia/Granby, Riverfront/CCI projects all at once. Rather than concentrate on a few projects and complete them, it merely makes incremental start-and-stop steps on all 50 projects.

Private money follows private money, but the private sector holds back because there is no telling when or even if the public projects will be completed fully.

This has been my bigest pet peeve with Cola for 15+ years. Persoanlly, I am in total agreemnet with all ten items.

Edited December 5, 2006 by vicupstate

[krazeeboi]

If downtown as a whole is being referred to, then I can see the point, but not Main Street specifically.

[krazeeboi]

Here's the response I got when I inquired about the Rodney Carroll fountain to be installed in Boyd Plaza: "We hope to have the fountain sculpture project completed in 2007. A model of the project is located on the museum

[krazeeboi]

Here's a video that documents what it takes to have a successful Main Street, using Ann Arbor, MI's Main Street as an example. I think a lot of this applies, and can be applied, to Columbia's Main Street.

[Spartan]

The part about the blank walls of banks reallt stuck me as being applicable to Columbia's main st. Someone should email that link to everyone on City Council, so maybe they will stop approving places like First Citizens without street level retail. This is exactly what I've been saying all along.

[krazeeboi]

Yep. I'm especially critical of the First Citizens tower, because it's new and it was built at a time when Main is supposed to be undergoing a revitalization. The older towers built in the 70's and 80's are also applicable, particularly with the dark, reflective glass. Any hope for Main will have to be realized north of Hampton. I also wish the art museum did a better job with the side facing Main. On the flip side, I wasn't expecting 1520 Main to have any type of street-level retail, but it appears as though they have something from the most recent pictures I've viewed.

Something else worth viewing are Anderson's downtown design guidelines (PDF file). It's also rather telling as to what's right and what's wrong with Columbia's Main Street.

[krazeeboi]

I couldn't picture the building in which the proposed private Argyle Social Club would go, but I found a picture of it online (attached). It looks like the original facade has been covered up on both buildings, and I hope to see both eventually restored. This should definitely be the case with the club, since it will be a new development. The city's downtown design guidelines (which most definitely should be in place) should address such issues as facades, signage, etc. so that Main doesn't look so haphazard in this regard.

[krazeeboi]

I didn't realize work had already started on 1537 Main; looks better already. Can't wait to see the finished product.