New boutique hotel planned for historic building in downtown Columbia
A multi-million dollar project could transform a historic building into a new downtown Columbia hotel.
A three-story, 34-room hotel is planned at 1219 Assembly St., in a building likely most recognizable to local commuters for its large “Hussey Gay Bell” logo and historically recognized for its former life as South Carolina’s first National Guard Armory. It is located beside the upscale Cola’s restaurant.
A developer plans to convert the current office building into a hotel by constructing an addition on the back of the building, according to plans submitted to the city’s zoning department.
The developer has asked for a zoning variance from the city to reduce the number of required on-site parking spaces to eight, citing space constraints on the site and the availability of street and garage parking nearby.
The $7.7 million project is dubbed the Armory Hotel, according to the zoning application.
It was not immediately known what a timeline for the project could look like.
The State has reached out to the project’s architect for more details.
Downtown Columbia has attracted several new hotels in recent months, including a Holiday Inn that recently opened on Washington Street and a Holiday Inn Express that’s under construction a few blocks away on the same street. More in line with the smaller scale of the Armory Hotel, the 41-room, boutique-style Hotel Trundle opened in spring 2018 nearby, on Taylor Street.
Within the same block as the proposed Armory Hotel, a 144-room Choice Cambria boutique-style hotel is to be built at the corner of Park and Lady streets; its parking area would abut the much smaller Armory, zoning documents show.
There also are proposals — all pitched by prolific Columbia developer Ben Arnold — for as many as three new downtown hotels that could be tied to a possible future expansion of the Columbia Convention Center, though work has not begun on these projects.
Another project, a 130-room extended-stay hotel, has been proposed near Senate and Huger streets in the Vista.
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 12:21 PM.
