Decision delayed on 15-story Assembly Street tower

A Columbia design board has delayed a decision on a proposed 15-story apartment tower on Assembly Street next to the Richland Library.

Members of the Design Development Review Commission said they were not satisfied with some design details suggested by the city’s planning staff for the proposed Edge building. But rather than let staff work with the developers, they said they wanted to review the changes at a work session at a later date.

The elephant in the room, however, is a small-two-story building on the site. It is one of only 10 buildings remaining from the city’s former African-American business district. Preservationist are asking for iron-clad assurances that the building will be incorporated into the tower or moved within the district and renovated.

“Stating that intention is not enough,” said Robin Waites, executive director of Historic Columbia.

Although the board had no purview over the decision to raze or renovate the building, the delay would give Chicago developers CRG Real Estate Solutions, the city of Columbia and other interested parties more time to work out a deal.

Jay Case, one of CRG’s principles, said one of the hold-ups is that the company doesn’t own a site a block away at the corner of Washington and Parks streets that has been targeted as the building’s new location.

Current plans call for the two-story brick building that currently stands at 1401 Assembly St. to be removed to make way for a 355,000-square-foot building. The storefront has served many purposes since it was constructed in 1914, most recently as a beauty salon.

The storefront originally opened as a pharmacy co-owned by Dr. Eugene K. DeLoach, the local manager of the Keeley Insititute, a controversial organization at the time that marketed a “cure” for alcoholism, according to the Historic Columbia Foundation.

As the area around Assembly and Washington streets developed into Columbia’s main black business district, the upper floors became the office for Nathaniel J. Frederick, who served as principal of the Howard School and editor of the African-American newspaper the Southern Indicator. He also helped organize the local chapter of the NAACP.

The $70 million project will need final design approval by the board before it moves forward. City Council will have final say on the project. The board did not set a date for the workshop.