One business leaves, another grows in BullStreet’s budding tech village

One young Columbia tech business is closing while another is expanding at the Bakery at BullStreet.

The Greenville-based Iron Yard coding school, which opened in 2015 in Columbia, will close after its current class completes the program this summer.

In its place, the SOCO co-working space is expanding to offer more offices and space for meetings and events. One of its fastest-growing member companies, software company Krumware, will benefit by being the first to move into the new private offices at the Bakery.

And that’s a good sign, SOCO co-founder Greg Hilton said, because he believes creative entrepreneurs are the future of industry in Columbia.

The Iron Yard and SOCO moved into the century-old Bakery building together last fall, the first businesses to occupy what’s envisioned as a technology and creative village within the fledgling BullStreet development.

“They did some great work while they were here,” Hilton said of The Iron Yard. “They laid the groundwork for growing our tech community, and we’re thankful for that.”

A spokesperson for The Iron Yard said the company “will be focusing on increasing opportunities at our other campuses as well as investing in our growing corporate training programs, online learning platform and new part-time course formats.”

The Iron Yard still has 15 code school campuses across the country, including in Greenville, Charleston, Atlanta and Charlotte, according to its website.

For Hilton, the turnover at the Bakery is less about the loss of one business – “That happens every single day,” he said – but about the opportunities for the growth of homegrown, entrepreneurial talent.

“Columbia’s technology and creative community is growing – we need the space,” Hilton said. “There are more creators doing incredible things ... growing stuff locally here in our community.”

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 1:49 PM with the headline "One business leaves, another grows in BullStreet’s budding tech village."