Vista advocates: Retail next wave in downtown development

With downtown's population more than quadrupling to 5,000 residents in the past two years, the area’s boosters say more retail will soon follow as more people flood the Vista and Main Street.

“We’ll blink and there will be 8,000 people living here,” said Meredith Atkinson, executive director of the Congaree Vista Guild, which represents Vista merchants.

Her comments came at a gathering held by the group Thursday morning at Kaminsky’s, a one-year-old dessert bar on Gervais Street in the Vista. The eatery is part of the Charleston-based Homegrown Hospitality Group, which also owns Liberty Tap Room and Pearlz Oyster Bar — all within two blocks of each other on Gervais Street.

Atkinson acknowledged that downtown’s population growth has been fueled mostly by the rise of large private student housing projects tied to an expanding University of South Carolina. The Hub, located in the 21-story former Palmetto Center office building, brought nearly 850 students to Main Street two years ago.

“That started the explosion,” she said.

Since then, another four mostly student-only housing projects have opened, adding about 2,000 students to downtown’s population. This year, another three projects totaling about 1,600 students will open, with at least two more on the way in 2017.

Atkinson added that the student housing boom will taper off after that, replaced by “market rate” apartment projects geared to young professionals, downsizing baby boomers and others.

For example, the CanalSide apartment community located at the foot of Taylor Street on the Columbia Canal is undergoing its third expansion, bringing the total number of units to 675. And the new $100 million Kline Center, planned for the corner of Gervais and Huger streets, will add another 300 apartments.

Another half dozen market-rate apartment projects are also planned for downtown, including the massive Palmetto Compress Warehouse renovation that will add nearly 200 apartments to the mix.

“The student population is tapering off,” Atkinson said. “But (market rate apartments) will keep up the momentum.”

Fred Delk, executive director of the Columbia Development Corp., which encourages and guides investment in the Vista, said all those new residents will drive the next step in downtown’s development: retail. That means everything from convenience stores to boutiques to dry cleaners to grocery stores.

“We’re going to need more retail to service those people,” he said.

The Kline Center will have a substantial but not-yet-announced retail component. And the 181-acre redevelopment project at the old State Hospital campus on Bull Street could add up to 60 shops, cafes and restaurants as well as a a movie theater.

One of the retailers who chose the Vista is LeAnn Norris. She and her husband, Michael, opened Glowout salon last May in a former auto mechanic garage on Park Street across from Art Bar.

She said they chose the Vista over Harbison and Northeast Richland because of the growing downtown population and the presence of USC and the State House

“Our prospective clientele are young professionals, government officials and college students,” she said. “It’s an up-and-coming area and we really saw the potential.”

This story was originally published February 11, 2016 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Vista advocates: Retail next wave in downtown development."