Main Street project left half-finished

By JEFF WILKINSON jwilkinson@thestate.com

Erik Campos

The fountain in front of the Richland County Judicial Center was installed during the first part of the Main Street streetscaping project.

MAIN STREET STATUS

The problem: Spending on the first three blocks cut into the money for the next three blocks.

The consequences: It's unclear when the city could afford to finish the job, leaving the street a visual mishmash. It's also putting retail on hold in the unfinished blocks: No one wants to open a business without knowing when the street and sidewalks will be torn up and how long the work might take.

Expected completion date: Unknown MAIN STREET FINANCES

Phase 1, Gervais Street to Hampton Street

I. WHERE THE MONEY CAME FROM

FUNDING SOURCES AMOUNT

City general funds $3,870,170

Hospitality tax bond sale 2,495,912

City sewer funds 583,357

Total funding $6,949,439

II. WHO GOT PAID

CONTRACTOR/SERVICES JOB PAID

Engineering and Design

Mid-South Consulting Engineers Telecommunications 22,800 (Charlotte)

Chao & Associates Original fee (six blocks) $767,395 (Columbia) Change orders 314,270

Total fee $1,081,665

General Contractor

Greenwall Const. Services Inc. Original bid $5,486,649 (Myrtle Beach) Change orders 54,290

Total charges $5,540,939

Subcontractors - sums paid are confidential (*)

C & I Electric Street lighting, electrical (Myrtle Beach)

Cornerstone Corp. Asphalt (Columbia)

Dimensional Concepts Inc. Brick paver installation (Charlotte)

Edisto Concrete Concrete sidewalk, curb, gutter (Orangeburg)

Enviro AgScience Inc. Landscape and irrigation (Columbia)

GS2 Engineering Testing (Columbia)

J. Moore Electric Contractors Traffic signal system (Columbia)

Lanier Construction Asphalt paving (Gaston, N.C.)

L.C. Gaskins Construction Water and sewer (Jacksonville, Fla.)

Others

Gage Group Ground radar imaging $7,500 (Columbia)

Imaging Technologies Services Printing services 2,870 (Columbia)

The State newspaper Advertising 920

S.C. Black News Advertising 210

The Star Reporter Advertising 247

(*) paid by contractor

SOURCE: City of Columbia

The Main Street streetscaping and utility renovation project was billed as a six-block, $10 million makeover to turn the old thoroughfare into "South Carolina's Main Street."

Today, only three of the six blocks have been completed - from Gervais Street to Hampton Street - at a cost of more than $7 million.

There isn't enough money to work on the other three blocks, city officials say, and no one seems to know when there might be - or when the work could begin. Maybe in 2007.

"We have an unfinished Main Street, and I have no idea when we will finish it," City Council member Ann Sinclair said.

The half-finished project has left the venerable street looking a bit unbalanced.

Michael Roh is director of planning and facilities for the Columbia Museum of Art, at Hampton and Main, the dividing line between the finished and unfinished sections of the street. He likens the two halves to East and West Berlin before the fall of the wall.

From Hampton to the State House, the street is a zone of fresh-scrubbed sidewalks and a crisp, optimistic vibe. The stretch north of Hampton is marked by cracked sidewalks, dim lighting and an air of uncertainty.

That uncertainty "stymies development of the stores," Roh said. "No one is going to move into those storefronts if the street is going to be dug up" soon.

Critics claim City Council erred when in 2003 it voted to proceed with four streetscaping and utility renovation projects at the same time.

The decision to dig up downtown's three main commercial districts and the Two Notch corridor at the same time was made because of pressure from powerful interest groups in those areas.

The decision strained the city's ability to manage the projects, pay for them and buffer the effect on businesses and neighborhoods.

The blocked businesses and disrupted traffic have become an issue in the April 4 city elections.

"We have limited resources, and they were allocated too thinly," said Kirkman Finlay III, son of the late Mayor Kirk Finlay Jr. and scion of the influential Hampton family.

Finlay is a shoo-in for a district council seat, since incumbent Hamilton Osborne dropped out of the race. Finlay also owns the Rising High restaurants on Main Street and in Five Points.

As with all three downtown projects - Main, Lady Street and Five Points - city officials blame more intensive and unexpected underground utility work for cost overruns or delays.

But on Main Street, the city granted a six-month delay to coordinate with the contractors building two new high-rise office towers - the first on the street in 15 years.

"You want (the improvements) to attract businesses, so those were positive delays," said Steve Gantt, Columbia's assistant city manager for development.

Greenwall Construction of Myrtle Beach was the general contractor on the Main Street work - the same firm that is experiencing long delays and even city fines on Lady Street.

But city construction managers say Greenwall's supervisor on Main Street was able to handle the challenges much better than the string of supervisors that rolled through Lady Street.

"The delays (on Main) were justifiable," Gantt said. "There was no comparison to Lady Street."

The problem on Main is budget.

Cutting into the original project budget was the addition of a partial block in front of the Wachovia building on Hampton and a section around a donated fountain at the entrance to City Hall and the Richland County courthouse.

Because of those additions and more-complicated utility work than expected, there isn't enough money to greenlight the second phase. Leaving the job half-done worries some.

Jim Papadea is a former council member who pushed for the Main Street project. He said his and other council members' votes to embark on four projects at once was a mistake.

Failing to finish the street in a timely manner "sends the wrong message" to businesses and developers wanting to invest there, he said. "But I'm concerned about the money" being there to finish."

Along with Papadea and Coble, the City Center Partnership, an alliance of businesses that backs economic development in the central business district, pushed for Main Street to receive a new look.

In addition to cosmetics, the old street badly needed a water, sewer and telecommunication upgrade to service new residential and office developments.

Stopping work now kills momentum on the street, said the City Center Partnership's executive director, Matt Kennell.

"We're disappointed, but it's obvious that it is not happening now," he said. "But given the amount and intensity of the other streetscaping projects, I guess it makes sense to wait until at least next year," although there's no guarantee it might start then.

Kennell worries about the effect the work on the northern phase of the project will have on businesses - particularly the 1600 block of Main Street between Taylor and Blanding streets, with its cluster of storefronts and small retailers.

"They are the most fragile," he said. "We need to work with those businesses as much as possible."

But Kennell also worries that waiting to complete the project is stifling potential investment on the northern end of the street.

"Not knowing when it will happen is also disruptive," he said. "It is really affecting our development."

The bright side, however, is the excitement generated by the completion of the three southern blocks and the construction of the two office towers.

"The return on investment with just those two buildings is pretty amazing," Kennell said.