State selling prime Vista real estate in downtown Columbia
A prime piece of real estate owned by the state in a blossoming Vista corridor is for sale, and its future could follow recent trends toward multifamily residential or retail development, downtown leaders expect.
A little over an acre at 1028 Huger St. and 516 Senate St., formerly used as a parking and maintenance hub for state vehicles, has been put up for bidding by the South Carolina State Budget and Control Board.
The site is a parking lot with a white brick building built in 1940, surrounded by chain-link and barbed-wire fencing.
The assessed value of the 1.27 acres of land and more than 16,000-square-foot building surpasses $1.3 million, according to data from the Richland County Assessor’s office. Generally, property in the area has been selling for a little north of $1 million per acre, said Fred Delk, director of the Columbia Development Corp., which guides and encourages investment in the Vista and other parts of the city.
The property is across Huger from the old Grice’s Market to the west and, to the east, abuts the S.C. Telco Federal Credit Union along Pulaski Street, across the street from the Vista Commons apartments.
The site’s future could likely follow recent downtown development trends to include multifamily residential development, Delk said.
“Multifamily (development) is starting to pop up now, and what’s going to be right behind that is going to be additional retail development all throughout the city center,” Delk said.
The site has been vacant for several weeks now, according to Scott Capell of the State Budget and Control Board.
The vehicles that had been stationed there were relocated to a lot at 1430 Senate St., near the intersection with Bull Street, and a garage along Assembly Street, according to Scott Hawkins of the State Budget and Control Board.
The state is accepting sealed bids on the property until Sept. 12. It’s not the usual way that property changes hands downtown, and no one has stepped forward publicly to say they’re bidding on the land.
Catty-corner from the Huger-Senate site, along Huger behind the Gervais Street McDonald’s, is a property slated for development as a four-story apartment complex. And just one block north along Huger Street, a $100 million development is planned for the former Kline Iron and Steel Co. site, with a 280-unit apartment complex, hotel, parking, retail and office space.
The face of Huger Street itself could see changes in the future, with beautification efforts a part of a local request for State Infrastructure Bank funding. The street also is scheduled for upgrades and beautification from money raised by Richland County’s penny-on-the-dollar sales tax, which funds transportation projects.
Given the surge of development in the area, the timing is appropriate for the state to consider other uses for the Huger-Senate property, Delk said.
“If you add up the number of residents that are going to be along that Pulaski Street corridor in the next couple years, it’s literally thousands. So the nature of that property is going to change,” Delk said.
While a residential-retail mix or some other mixed use of the land is possible, Delk said, he does not expect the property to be targeted strictly for retail development, as it is situated near a number of other residential sites and is not highly visible in the city center.
Sarah Lewis, director of the Vista Guild, which represents many businesses in the district, said adding more retail businesses to the district is always a goal.
“With all the development coming to the Vista, all the thousands of residents who are going to be living there ... it’ll be great for them to have retail that they can walk to, not drive,” Lewis said. “That’s the importance of having retail all in one area. They like to cluster. It just makes sense.”