Main Street McCrory building gets new life

Technology and history shook hands Thursday when YRT2, a tech company that creates "smart" homes, announced it will move its headquarters to a historic building on Columbia's Main Street.

The Charlotte-based company - Your Residential Technology Team Inc., or YRT2 - will occupy one floor of the McCrory Building at Main and Taylor streets. The building's street-level floor has stood empty since Dollar Zone closed about five years ago

The rest of the three-story landmark is undergoing a $6.5 million renovation into a restaurant, high-end condos and a spa/salon, as well as retail and office space, said Russell Cann, the building's owner and an investor in YRT2.

All five of the condos are sold, with prices ranging from $235,000 to $650,000. All of the commercial spaces except for the retail have been leased.

City leaders are calling the announcement good news for historic preservation and the downtown economy.

"This helps everything from downtown development to Innovista," said City Councilman Daniel Rickenmann, who worked to recruit YRT2. "We're bringing in a company that's a forerunner in their field. They'll help stimulate downtown and further our mission to capture and keep talent here."

The city provided no incentives to bring the company here, Rickenmann said.

The announcement is Main Street's first piece of good news since SCANA revealed last month it will move its headquarters and 900 jobs from Main Street to Cayce.

But YRT2 will create far fewer jobs, about 35. These will be engineers and management positions, said Keith Johnson, president and CEO of YRT2. He will relocate to Columbia from Texas.

"The growth that's been happening in South Carolina for new homes, in the coastal region particularly, has been phenomenal," Johnson said. "We look at Columbia as a center point for all of the markets we want to be in. We can get to lots of places from there easily."

Beginning in January, Johnson and his staff will occupy the second floor of the McCrory building.

Built in 1876, the three-story post-bellum masonry structure has had many lives - the Wilson Hotel, a five-and-dime store, a bank, apartments and office space.

Much of its original structure was changed in the 1950s.

"We're trying to get it back to the original as close as possible," said Cann, who has been consulting with the Historic Columbia Foundation on the project.

YRT2 already has a satellite office in West Columbia with about 25 employees.

The company has teamed up with D.R. Horton, Centex Homes and other home builders to wire new houses in South Carolina and North Carolina with custom systems that manage Internet, telephones, television and security.

The costs of the flat-screen TVs, security cameras and other tech gadgets are either rolled into a homeowner's mortgage payment or into dues paid to the homeowners' association.

The company made headlines earlier this month when it announced it will pay $3.5 million to purchase the naming rights for the planned Coastal Carolina University arena.

Reach Smith at (803) 771-8462.