5-story office, retail development going up on Gervais

Columbia City Council approved a five-story office and retail project on Gervais Street in the Vista on Monday that lets the developers provide about 200 fewer parking spaces than city codes require.

The decision could send a signal to other developers eyeing the Vista and the city’s other commercial corridors that parking requirements are in play in negotiations with the city.

But the Vista Guild merchant group is vowing to fight future waivers, its president said.

“Hopefully, this is a one-time deal and is not precedent-setting,” Logan Raye salon owner Sewell Gelberd said.

The group fought the compromise with the developers, the Miller-Valentine Group, at last month’s Planning Commission meeting. But it acquiesced, Gelberd said, because the developers had to conduct an expensive environmental cleanup of the former Columbia Supply Co. site.

“They spent millions to clean up that eyesore,” he said of the site where, for about 100 years, a company manufactured and sold gas to city residents that was made from resin, coal, oil, turpentine or other material.

The project, called “Center Vista,” consists of two buildings totaling 74,500 square feet on the front of the lot and redevelopment of the 1,600-square-foot historic Columbia Supply office building.

As part of the compromise, the back half of the lot, which faces Lady Street and has been eyed for a hotel, will be paved for now and used to provide 50 temporary parking places. Also, the company will lease 50 more spaces somewhere in the Vista that will be reserved for employees.

Any building constructed in the future on the back half of the lot will be considered a separate project and have to independently go through the planning and rezoning process, which could require additional parking.

The developers also are required to provide bicycle racks.

Mayor Bob Coble said the Planning Commission and City Council approved the project with the parking variance because a garage was recently built at the Hilton convention center hotel four blocks away and another is planned at Lady and Lincoln streets, across the street from Center Vista.

“The fact is, it’s a pedestrian-oriented building in an area where you want to encourage people to walk,” Coble said.

The mayor added, however, that each development in the Vista, Five Points, USC’s Innovista or other high-growth districts in the city would be considered “on a case-by-case basis. This is an exception to the rule.”

The project would have first-floor retail with four floors of office space above. In a further compromise, the developers agreed to limit bar and restaurant uses to 60 percent of the ground-floor retail space.

Merchants have expressed concern that the Vista is attracting too many bars and restaurants in comparison to retail stores.

Miller-Valentine’s Dale Stigamire said the firm has received “strong interest” in both the office and retail space but has not signed any contracts pending council’s decision. There also has been strong interest in putting a restaurant in the historic building, he said.

The group is putting the back half of the lot up for sale through Colliers Keenan, “and the highest and best use is probably a hotel,” Stigamire said.

Fred Delk, executive director of the Columbia Development Corp., which guides investment in the Vista, hailed the project as right for the Vista.

“The offices will bring additional people to the neighborhood during the day,” he said. “They’ll be coming out for lunch. They will need additional services like copy shops and coffee shops. And some may choose to live in the neighborhood.”

Reach Wilkinson at (803) 771-8495.