Condos planned at Main, Blossom

By C. GRANT JACKSON, Business Editor

A six-story, $43 million luxury condo and retail store development will be built at Main and Blossom streets.

Atlanta-based Holder Properties, developer of the downtown Meridian building, and the USC Development Foundation are partners in the project, called Adesso -Italian for "now."

The project will have 115 one-, two- and three-bedroom condominiums, 6,500 square feet of ground-level retail space and an underground parking deck.

Condo prices will range from $275,000 to $550,000, the developers said.

Construction is expected to begin this summer, with completion slated for a year later.

The project will be adjacent to the university. The main entrance and lobby will open onto Main Street. The C-shaped building will surround a courtyard and pool area. The exterior will be finished in stucco and stone, to complement nearby USC buildings.

Other amenities include a club room and lobby concierge services.

It could be the first of two such buildings in that location.

Businesses being displaced by the Adesso project include the Addams University Bookstore, Brantley Meats, the Pizza Hut and DCP Food Mart.

The Addams Bookstore, which has been at Main and Blossom for 15 years, will move to 100 Assembly St. The new 12,633-square-foot space is currently being up-fitted, and operators of the store hope to move by April 1.

The owner of Brantley Meats, the oldest operating business on Main Street south of the State House, said earlier he expects to relocate, probably in Cayce. The Pizza Hut was also looking for a new downtown location, while the food mart owners had not determined their plans.

The development foundation acquired and contributed the property for the project.

John Holder, chief executive of Holder Properties, originally acquired options on all of the property and then came to the university, said Susie VanHuss, executive director of the USC Development Foundation.

The foundation agreed to work with him and as a result "he assigned the options to us to acquire the property," VanHuss said. The foundation paid about $6 million for the four businesses plus two other small pieces of land involved, she said.

That property will be the foundation's "equity in the partnership, and our equity will be cash," Holder said.

As the condominiums are sold, the development foundation will receive a percentage of the profit, he said.

VanHuss said the foundation would have preferred to retain title to the property and give Holder a ground-lease. But that is not feasible with a condo development, she said.

The foundation has an agreement with Holder that "if the project ever went away we would have the first right back to the land," VanHuss said.

VanHuss said one of the main reasons for partnering with Holder was to influence the project.

"We think it will be a real stimulus for the research campus, which is getting ready to do things on the block right across the street," VanHuss said.

Construction is starting on the Horizon Center, the block bounded by Blossom, Main, Wheat and Assembly streets, which will contain a university research building, a private partners building and a parking garage.

Private developments like Holder's are what the university hopes will happen to areas in the Innovista, as the university develops the research district.

"It is that synergy that you get from multiple things going on that we think will be the real value in this to the university, to the city and certainly to the foundation," VanHuss said.

Holder expects the market for the condos to be people involved with the university, including staff, professors and others from around the state who have an affiliation with the university, as well as legislators and professionals who work in downtown Columbia.

"We are trying to pick off the demographic that wants to be in a downtown location and be in a university setting," he said.

Residential units will have 10-foot ceilings, crown molding, hardwood floors, granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances.

A second building could be built on the corner of Blossom and Assembly if the foundation is able to acquire that property, which is currently The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Institute of Religion.

The church is willing to work with the foundation on a swap for the old Columbia Women's Club building next to the Maxcy Gregg tennis courts on Blossom Street, VanHuss said. But technical engineering issues have held that up, she said.

Holder originally wanted that property and said he planned a larger project in the 250- to 300-unit range.

But after doing some market studies, "we just thought that was a little bit bigger bite than we wanted, so we scaled it back and looked at a two-phase project," he said.

Phase two, which would duplicate Adesso, is predicated on acquiring the Blossom and Assembly corner, Holder said.

Holder will develop, market and manage the project. The company has developed more than 8 million square feet of property valued at more than $1.2 billion.