Revitalizing Main Street, Innovista, and the perils of development

Former "The State" Editor Brad Warthen drew my attention to an article in the Columbia Regional Business Report where in an interview with Mike Fitts, Mayor Elect Steve Benjamin had a novel suggestion:

Columbia already has the right major tenant to go into the former SCANA Corp. space on Main Street, according to mayor-elect Steve Benjamin: He wants the building to be the new home of the University of South Carolina School of Law.

Benjamin hopes the school could work out a long-term lease with the Palmetto Center, the building that now has about 450,000 vacant square feet in the heart of downtown. A long-term tenant such as the law school should be appealing to the owners, Benjamin said, and would keep the building in private hands and on the tax rolls.

“I want the law school in that building. I really do,” Benjamin said.

If the school were there, it would be surrounded by the offices of many of the state’s biggest law firms and several courts, including the S.C. Supreme Court, Benjamin said.

“It’s a perfect place for law students,” he said.

Benjamin said he has met with the building’s owner and real estate agent to pitch the plan. The building could be bought by a new owner and renovated for substantially less than it would cost USC to build a new school, he said.

Moving it there “would mean giving Main Street a big old shot of adrenalin,” Benjamin said. He compares the potential impact on downtown to what the Savannah College of Art and Design has brought to that city.

Columbia has been supportive of USC, such as building new parking for the Innovista project, Benjamin said. This would be an opportunity for USC to boost the city’s downtown, he said.

USC officials have not responded to the idea, Benjamin said. Some have seen only the obstacles to the plan, he said, but business leaders have seen the possibilities and like them.

To which I say, what a great idea! This could be a great boost for the Main Street District. And it's not the first foray into down town for the university that will keep the property on the tax rolls. In April The State reported that Innovista partners will be moving into the Wilbur Smith Building down town.

Meanwhile Mike Fitts followed it up with a story a couple of days later about yet another issue facing the city and University, the continuing struggle with the innovista campus. This time an independent developer is upset with the slow movement of both the University and City on his plans for a new student tower. From SCBiz:

COLUMBIA -- The developer planning to build a set of student towers ranging up to 28 stories high near the University of South Carolina campus is looking at other locations, saying that USC and Columbia officials seem hesitant to agree to the $100 million project.

“It’s very frustrating,” said developer Robert Threatt of Charlotte. “We don’t seem to be able to get there.”

USC’s new Innovista executive, Don Herriott, said the university and the city, which jointly control the property, were performing due diligence in asking for details from Threatt that would assure them the major project would go forward.

The plans for the complex were first introduced as part of the agenda for April’s meeting of the city’s Design Development Review Commission, but they were pulled from consideration at that time. The plans sketch out a huge new development looming over Devine Street and filling the block directly across from the entrance to the Greek Village.

The towers could be almost as tall as the Capitol Center building at Assembly and Gervais streets. The top floors in the U-shaped complex would be several hundred apartments for students and others wanting to live in the Vista. The complex also would offer a swimming pool and other recreation areas, along with retail space.

According to Threatt, the city and USC have been asking him to provide so much documentation that it would take nine to 12 months to satisfy them. He already has been working on the project for 15 months, he said, and has designed it three different times to satisfy local concerns, including ensuring it would mesh with the Innovista master plan created by Sasaki Associates of Watertown, Mass.

That’s more design work than his firm ever has done for a parcel of land it did not yet own, Threatt said.

Now, Threatt said, “I’m looking at a lot of different options.” He did not specify whether those options include sites outside the Midlands.

USC and Columbia are just trying to be good custodians of public land before it is turned over to a private developer, Herriott said. The land belongs to the city, but USC holds a long-term lease to use it for parking.

The city, through Columbia Development Corp. executive director Fred Delk, and the university came together to ask Threatt to provide references and documentation of his financial backing for the project, Herriott said.

They also wanted a development agreement, Herriott said, to be sure that Threatt would build something close to what he had proposed.

Threatt said private money is all lined up for the project, sitting in a hedge fund. Some investors are leery about putting their names out in public, Threatt said, but some financial accommodation should be possible.

Threatt said he understands that Columbia and USC have had past frustrations with developers.

Just last week, USC settled with Kale K. Roscoe and R. Timothy Heath, the developers hired to construct a private building for the university’s research campus. The agreement calls for the university’s Research Campus Foundation to pay the developers $890,000 from the Development Foundation.

That said, Threatt believes Columbia should be more welcoming of a project that would add $1.2 million to the city’s annual tax rolls. The complex would be built to platinum-level standards for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, he said, and would be one of the most forward-thinking developments in the country.

“Most people would have met me at the airport with a limo,” he said.

That last line is almost LOL funny, the presumptuousness.

But anyway, a few years ago when the city and University were wrapped up in the smoke screen of 'if you build it they will come,' this idea probably would have flown. Heck it's not to say that other residential developments within the vicinity haven't been successful, but again only after a rethink in strategy. It was only last year that Aspyre was trying to market itself towards the 'new urban professional' and was tied to the success of Innovista, it's now purely a student housing facility. Several years after construction finished Addesso condos are finally filling up after many mark downs in price. According to their website they're over 60% sold!

I suppose one could say Threatt is going after the right market with students, but has USC expanded their acceptance of new and transfer students so much that even more apartments are needed? It seems like there's a glut of student housing around Columbia -- I'm speaking anecdotally here when one considers the number of rental properties that have popped up over the last decade from South Columbia around the Stadium to the places right across the river, not to mention the single unit homes around town.

The developer has cited augmenting his plans for Innovista, but has he lived in a cave the past several months? The University and City while still supporting Innovista have scaled back the project, and rightly so considering the economy. But beyond that, if the need is there for additional student housing, and it could very well be, why would you build a 28 story tower in an area where most buildings are only 3-4 stories tall, especially across from the Greek Village. While the amenities sound nice, from a design and aesthetics perspective the tower would look out of place and quickly become an eyesore.