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Main Street/CBD Developments


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So. Freaking. Excited.

"Trustee Fennell asked if Sasaki was currently involved with an update to the University’s Master Plan. Mr. Gruner responded that Sasaki had recently been on campus to look at the South Main Street area and was working on how to continue to evolve the research campus."

http://www.sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/board_of_trustees/documents/minutes_archive/2016/b-g_091616.pdf

I love Sasaki's work and I can only imagine that they will try to closely tie. South Main into the larger redevelopment of campus.

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6 hours ago, carolinagarnet said:

So. Freaking. Excited.

"Trustee Fennell asked if Sasaki was currently involved with an update to the University’s Master Plan. Mr. Gruner responded that Sasaki had recently been on campus to look at the South Main Street area and was working on how to continue to evolve the research campus."

http://www.sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/board_of_trustees/documents/minutes_archive/2016/b-g_091616.pdf

I love Sasaki's work and I can only imagine that they will try to closely tie. South Main into the larger redevelopment of campus.

Sasaki will do a tremendous job with it. The Master Plan for the westward expansion of the city/USC towards the river is awesome!

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/8/2016 at 8:09 PM, growingup15 said:

This is awesome. Those Agape folks are really committed to Main Street, and I'm glad to see another facade improvement. The Army Navy store was one of the worst offenders LOL.

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Cramped courthouse drives Richland leaders to explore building a new one

http://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article114550928.html

Is this finally happening? 

If they make the move what do you guys want to see there. Me personally would love to see a mixed used retail office space at the bottom and an apartment, condo or hotel tower on the top.15-20 floors.Which would definitely shift a lot of development north even quicker.

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4 hours ago, growingup15 said:

http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article114784288.html

 

A independent Boutique hotel coming to Sumter St. 

Interesting...all three buildings are being connected to create a hotel. That's pretty cool; I thought for sure those buildings would be used for retail.

2 hours ago, growingup15 said:

 

Cramped courthouse drives Richland leaders to explore building a new one

http://www.thestate.com/news/local/crime/article114550928.html

Is this finally happening? 

If they make the move what do you guys want to see there. Me personally would love to see a mixed used retail office space at the bottom and an apartment, condo or hotel tower on the top.15-20 floors.Which would definitely shift a lot of development north even quicker.

They've been talking about this for years now...I wouldn't hold my breath.

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On 10/21/2016 at 2:28 PM, carolinagarnet said:

So. Freaking. Excited.

"Trustee Fennell asked if Sasaki was currently involved with an update to the University’s Master Plan. Mr. Gruner responded that Sasaki had recently been on campus to look at the South Main Street area and was working on how to continue to evolve the research campus."

http://www.sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/board_of_trustees/documents/minutes_archive/2016/b-g_091616.pdf

I love Sasaki's work and I can only imagine that they will try to closely tie. South Main into the larger redevelopment of campus.

USC just bought the SC Bookstore property. The store has a lease through 2024, but it lends credence to the sense that USC may have an eye on redeveloping the entire street.

http://www.thestate.com/news/local/education/article114711883.html

 

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1 hour ago, krazeeboi said:

1634 Main Street will have its facade restored, plus other exterior improvements: http://www.columbiasc.gov/depts/planning-boards-commissions/ddrc/agendas/20161110/7_main_1634_eval_nov_2016.pdf

Love it. It's amazing how quickly the buildings on Main are now being restored. There are definitely a few prime candidates on that block, so let's hope the momentum continues.

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1 hour ago, carolinagarnet said:

Love it. It's amazing how quickly the buildings on Main are now being restored. There are definitely a few prime candidates on that block, so let's hope the momentum continues.

Yeah, the Bailey Bill has been a huge boon for Main Street in particular. It's great to see these old buildings find new life; they represent the fundamental building blocks of vibrant, pedestrian-friendly urban areas.

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7 hours ago, krazeeboi said:

Interesting...all three buildings are being connected to create a hotel. That's pretty cool; I thought for sure those buildings would be used for retail.

They've been talking about this for years now...I wouldn't hold my breath.

Wow no hope at all.  Why do you even respond if you're gonna be negative. 

 

I would of been like maybe they are finally making momentum now i hope this works out and go through.  

 

No instead you go DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH like really dude. 

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I think the towers are slated for the united way site, not the courthouse. They have it in their budget to demolish them that they keep in kicking down the road. They may be waiting for Bull Street to begin phase 2 before the towers are even a thought. Regardless. the vista is going to be transformed within 2 years. Canal-side, Kline, and SCE&G lots should be in construction within a year. Columbia and USC's plan to slam thousands of students in downtown might be paying off. 

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10 hours ago, mpretori said:

I think the towers are slated for the united way site, not the courthouse. They have it in their budget to demolish them that they keep in kicking down the road. They may be waiting for Bull Street to begin phase 2 before the towers are even a thought. Regardless. the vista is going to be transformed within 2 years. Canal-side, Kline, and SCE&G lots should be in construction within a year. Columbia and USC's plan to slam thousands of students in downtown might be paying off. 

Heck yeah.  It's amazing that downtown just suddenly picked back up again in development. Still not as fast as Charlotte but eventually we'll get there. 

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19 hours ago, growingup15 said:

Wow no hope at all.  Why do you even respond if you're gonna be negative. 

 

I would of been like maybe they are finally making momentum now i hope this works out and go through.  

 

No instead you go DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH like really dude. 

Yes, really. You don't have to like everyone's responses here, but as long as they adhere to the rules, it's all good.

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On 11/15/2016 at 4:34 PM, growingup15 said:

Wow no hope at all.  Why do you even respond if you're gonna be negative. 

 

I would of been like maybe they are finally making momentum now i hope this works out and go through.  

 

No instead you go DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH like really dude. 

You need to come back to reality and understand that there are opinions outside of yours, probably more informed ones too.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've noticed lately that my riders I've been picking for Uber in downtown are from other cities and places around the nation and most of them are here for jobs. A lot of doctors . I've had people and family from Nashville, Washington state,Detroit, Florida, Ohio, New York and California. 

I kinda like that. Makes Columbia feel like bigger city.

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On 10/21/2016 at 2:28 PM, carolinagarnet said:

So. Freaking. Excited.

"Trustee Fennell asked if Sasaki was currently involved with an update to the University’s Master Plan. Mr. Gruner responded that Sasaki had recently been on campus to look at the South Main Street area and was working on how to continue to evolve the research campus."

http://www.sc.edu/about/offices_and_divisions/board_of_trustees/documents/minutes_archive/2016/b-g_091616.pdf

I love Sasaki's work and I can only imagine that they will try to closely tie. South Main into the larger redevelopment of campus.

This is interesting in light of the news that the foundation is buying much of the property on Main Street between Pendleton and Blossom. http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article117280073.html

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On 11/27/2016 at 7:13 PM, carolinagarnet said:

This is interesting in light of the news that the foundation is buying much of the property on Main Street between Pendleton and Blossom. http://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article117280073.html

Sasaki does great work. The city consults the Sasaki plan daily. I, too, am interested to see what they might be planning.

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  • 1 month later...

Big day at the Free Times. Let's unpack thishttp://www.free-times.com/news/local-and-state-news/city-richland-officials-open-talks-about-new-county-courthouse/article_fdc7151a-d2b9-11e6-bad5-43913f94115b.html

The current courthouse opened in 1980 and is 200,000 square feet.

For reference, this is roughly the size of 1221 Main (NBSC, Oak Table, etc.), which is 16 stories (10 stories of office + 5 stories of parking + ground floor) and on roughly the same size lot (I think). 

Rose says, if the county were to explore constructing a new courthouse, it would be his preference that it be in the city center.

There are not many open lots and the city already owns the former United Way land catty-corner to the current courthouse.

However, the mayor says the current courthouse likely is not big enough for the city’s long-term consolidation needs.

"Our needs assessment calls for us to have about 300,000 square feet to consolidate all existing city offices in one space,” Benjamin says. “[The courthouse] is 200,000 square feet, with some significant rehabilitation needs."

So to recap, the county needs 200,000+ square feet and the city needs 300,000. If we use 1221 Main as an example, each floor on that size lot would be roughly 20,000 square feet. The city may be able to eke out another 5,000 if it builds straight up (1221 main juts in slightly), so let's say 25,000 for good measure. If the city decides to build on its current plot, we're talking about 12-15 stories of office space. They would also probably need to include garage parking and a ground floor, so we're talking about say 18-24 stories, depending on requirements.

That's just the city. Include the courthouse and you add 8-10 floors minimum. Now I can't see the building feasibly having 10+ stories of parking, so they would probably construct a separate parking garage. Still, we're talking about 21-26 stories with city offices, courts, and ground floor retail. If the county really is busting at the seems, 25-30 stories may be more realistic.

The scenario that Benjamin originally discussed involved a public-private partnership. Give that the county is the county, they probably have more of an appetite for a lower scale building. The city, on the other hand, clearly wants a skyscraper. Here's how I see this playing out:

  1. Columbia partners with a private firm to build a 25-30 story building on the former United Way site. This would include ground floor retail, 8 floors of parking, 14 floors of city offices, and say 4 floors of private office space. This would allow the city to sell any owned office buildings and break leases in rented space.
  2. Richland County buys land (maybe on Assembly across from the library?) and builds a 10 story courthouse: 6 floors above 3 floors of parking and a ground level on a half block. I don't think it's feasible to expand the existing courthouse, nor would they want to, so they'll probably sell that land and free up space for something overlooking Finlay Park. 

I think the timeline for this is 5+ years, but it's still very exciting. Part of this will also mean a selloff of city and county surface lots downtown to finance the new construction. This is far more exciting as each entity owns valuable land in the CBD. GrowingUp15, I'm starting to embrace your sense of optimism! 

As this is highly speculative on my part and I'm not an expert, feel free to poke any holes in my logic.

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Wouldn't it just be logical for the County to build a new courthouse somewhere and the city take over the current one? Isn't City Hall across the street? So no need to replace that space.  If more space is needed, build on the worthless grass lawn in front of the Judicial Center.   

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14 minutes ago, vicupstate said:

Wouldn't it just be logical for the County to build a new courthouse somewhere and the city take over the current one? Isn't City Hall across the street? So no need to replace that space.  If more space is needed, build on the worthless grass lawn in front of the Judicial Center.   

Benjamin addressed that: “Our needs assessment calls for us to have about 300,000 square feet to consolidate all existing city offices in one space,” Benjamin says. “[The courthouse] is 200,000 square feet, with some significant rehabilitation needs.” I assume the 300,000 is in addition to City Hall. I've never been in the building, but from the outside it appears to be pretty small.

Old buildings like the county courthouse generally have electrical, plumbing, and HVAC issues, not to mention lead paint and asbestos abatement. The courthouse is also just an odd, unattractive building in my opinion. If the goal is to consolidate government offices, add depth to the skyline, and put current city and county land back on the tax rolls, then building vertically on as small a footprint possible is a probably the best possible solution.

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Lead paint wouldn't be an issue as it was built after 1978. I don't think asbestos would be either by that construction date. i doubt a private sector user would have an interest in it, so a government use would allow he building's value to be realized in the sale. Otherwise it is a tear down, which would add $1-2mm in demo costs. It is an ugly building but a decent budget would allow for a better appearance. 

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