Friday, Oct. 12, 2007

Some put positive spin on SCANA departure

SCANA's plan to depart Main Street in 2009 has caused some teeth-grinding - generally regarded as a step backward in the rebirth of downtown Columbia.

But the show will go on, downtown cheerleaders say, depicting the energy company's decision to move its headquarters from the Palmetto Center building to Cayce as an exception to the pattern of the city's growth.

Gone are the days of an unfriendly city government and a downtown devoid of culture and good restaurants, said Larry Wilson, managing partner of The Trelys Funds investment firm on Gervais Street. In the early 1980s, Wilson founded Policy Management Systems Corp. and as chief executive moved the company from downtown Columbia to Blythewood.

Wilson said the company's growth - PMSC built seven offices for 3,000 employees in less than 20 years in Blythewood - and the city's unwillingness to ease parking requirements forced the company's relocation. PMSC, which had changed its name to Mynd, was bought by Computer Sciences Corp. in 2000.

"Today, our decision might be different," Wilson said. "Downtown has a lot more amenities, and city government is a lot more friendly."

One idea for dulling the impact of losing so many 9-to-5 employees is to convert some of the SCANA offices to apartments or condominiums, said downtown developer Tom Prioreschi.

The former New Yorker has made downtown lofts and apartments through renovations to places like the Barringer, Kress and Silver's buildings.

Now his firm, Capitol Places, is working on an eight-story condo building on Lady Street and putting lofts into the old Fire Department headquarters on Senate Street. Prioreschi criticized SCANA's decision to leave downtown as unenlightened but said Columbia's test for a successful downtown is the University of South Carolina's 200-acre technology and housing district that extends from the Horseshoe to the Congaree River.

"The real rubber will hit the road if (USC President Andrew) Sorensen is successful with Innovista," Prioreschi said.

The city of Columbia will ask SCANA for marketing assistance and flexibility in vacating certain portions of the two downtown buildings it inhabits as it shifts operations to Cayce, said Columbia Mayor Bob Coble.

City staff will meet with SCANA to discuss their pledge of help in the coming weeks, Coble said.

Also, a city staff member will fly to New York to meet with officials from Main Street Associates, the real estate investment trust that owns the Palmetto Center, where most of SCANA's offices are located.

And one downtown developer isn't even grumbling about SCANA's departure, detecting a silver lining in the absence of 900 workers.

"It hurts, but it's also an opportunity," said developer Wade Caughman. "We haven't recruited a lot of new businesses to Columbia - now we have to."

Caughman is creating the City Club- 46 townhouses and eight apartments - in the Vista, and he says luring a set of smaller companies to take SCANA's place would diversify downtown.

"We don't have a Fortune 500 company on Main Street anymore," Caughman said, "but you didn't know it anyway."

For SCANA, spokesman Eric Boomhower said, the decision came down to needing a suitable campus - one with convenient parking, improved security and customized buildings.

While local eateries, hotels and banks were a nice perk for SCANA's employees and visitors, Boomhower said, the building didn't fit the company's needs.

"This move isn't about convenience," Boomhower said. "It's about ensuring we are in the best position to continue meeting the operational needs of our business in the years and decades ahead."

Reach Ryan at (803) 771-8595.

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