Tuesday, Jul. 21, 2009

USC to get new business building

Funds will come from leasing current building to Department of Justice

The University of South Carolina is expected to receive $106 million over 20 years by leasing the building that houses its business school to the Department of Justice, USC announced Monday.

The agreement is the heart of a broad plan to pay for the construction of a new, $90 million business school in the university’s research campus, Innovista, which has had building construction and tenant recruitment struggles.

“(This) announcement is a win-win-win, a grand slam home run,” USC president Harris Pastides said at a Monday news conference attended by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and much of Columbia’s power elite. “This is great for Columbia and our region. It truly is a great moment for our university.”

USC has long sought to move its Moore School of Business from the Close-Hipp building on Pendleton Street to a new facility.

Supporters of the plan point out it helps USC accomplish that goal while also providing for a $25 million upgrade to the Close-Hipp building where the business school currently is located and allows the Justice Department to expand its training operations at the nearby National Advocacy Center.

An estimated 250 Justice Department employees working in different locations near Washington, D.C., will be relocated to Columbia over an unspecified period.

Graham said U.S. taxpayers will save $42 million by having Justice Department employees working in South Carolina, which has lower costs than Washington.

“It was almost too good to be true,” Graham said of the plan. “But it proved to be true.”

Graham, a Republican, praised U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, both of whom were appointed by President Obama, a Democrat.

“I can’t thank Eric Holder and David Ogden enough,” Graham said, adding they offered their support for a leasing plan that was initiated during the administration of George W. Bush.

More than 10,000 federal, state and local prosecutors from across the country have been trained at the National Advocacy Center, an 11-year-old facility located next to the Close-Hipp building on Pendleton Street.

In May of 1999, the National College of District Attorneys moved its headquarters to the center, which Graham said is “maxed out” in terms of operational and training space.

Construction of a new business school is scheduled to begin early next year, with completion set for May of 2013, said Ted Moore, USC’s chief financial officer.

Once the new building is open, business school staff will move there and the Close-Hipp building will undergo renovations in three stages.

The first phase of renovations will cost an estimated $15 million.

A decade later, there will be $5 million more in renovations and, five years after that, another $5 million in renovations, Moore said.

The renovated building will have courtrooms, classrooms and meeting space, said H.Marshall Jarrett, director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys.

The new business building, to be built at a site bounded by Lincoln, Greene, Park and Devine streets near the Carolina Coliseum, will have classroom and meeting space.

Moore said the $90 million structure will be paid for with:

• $65 million USC will borrow using cash flow from leasing the Close-Hipp building

• $15 million that was raised to match a gift pledged by Darla Moore, the former bank executive for whom the school was named.

• $10 million in private funds raised by the business school

Pastides said the new business school would enter into a partnership with the state’s Centers of Economic Excellence program to help entrepreneurs and private firms leverage the university’s research breakthroughs into thriving businesses.

“We have learned though many recruitment efforts that when people (are considering USC and Columbia for businesses), they ask about ‘that school of business with the great reputation,’” Pastides said.

So the university is developing an “industry partners program” that would create a “portfolio” of access and assistance from both USC researchers and business experts, he said.

The researchers would provide technology for new and improved products; the business faculty and students would provide expertise to help develop and market those products.

USC’s leasing and construction plan does have three hurdles to clear — approval by the university’s board of trustees, the state Joint Bond Review Committee and the State Budget and Control Board.

Moore said the plan could be presented to the Budget and Control Board and to the Joint Bond Review Committee in December.

USC’s board could take up the plan as early as next month, board chairman Miles Loadholt said.

“The board is very, very enthusiastic about this,” Loadholt said.

Staff writer Jeff Wilkinson contributed to this report. Reach senior writer Wayne Washington at (803) 771-8385.

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