Development in downtown Columbia is booming. Here's what to know

A wave of new construction and redevelopment is reshaping downtown Columbia, from high-rise apartment towers on Main Street to a boutique hotel in a century-old armory. Multiple projects are advancing through city approvals and construction phases, adding hundreds of housing units and reviving historic properties.

Here are key takeaways:

• Developer Core Spaces is in the midst of building a pair of conjoined high-rise towers on Main Street that would deliver roughly 725 apartments — a 22-story student housing building next to a 26-story market-rate tower — being built on a parking lot beside the Wells Fargo building.
• In the Vista, developer Subtext has purchased 931 Senate St. to build a seven-level, 221-unit mixed-use apartment building with about 2,600 square feet of ground-floor retail, a pool courtyard, a wellness suite and a rooftop deck overlooking the State House.
• Near USC’s Greek Village, a $63.5 million, 237-unit seven-story apartment building is now under construction at Catawba and Lincoln streets, with a 300-plus-space parking garage and a separated “cycle track” bike lane.
• The nearly 130-year-old J. L. Shull Building at 1612 Main St., built in 1897, is set for a major transformation after owner Jin Young Paik received design approval May 21 to add a ground-floor restaurant and two apartments on the second floor.
• Plans have reemerged to convert the 120-year-old South Carolina State Armory at 1219 Assembly St. into Armory on Assembly, a 44-room boutique hotel with curated lounge space and rooftop dining, with developers returning to a Columbia design board this week to renew expired historic-building permissions.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.