Talk about Town: New Cottontown development and The Haven in Rosewood
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Talk about Town
Talk about Town is a monthly series hosted by The State reporter Laurryn Salem on Instagram. Laurryn takes readers on behind-the-scenes looks and exclusive tours of new local businesses coming to the Midlands. Head to
every first Monday of the month to follow along!
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Let’s talk about town. Follow The State on exclusive new business tours each month
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Talk about Town: New Cottontown development and The Haven in Rosewood
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On this month’s Talk about Town series on Instagram, I visited the Freeze Automotive building development in Cottontown and The Haven business in the Rosewood neighborhood in Columbia.
At the former Freeze Automotive shop on the corner of Jefferson and Sumter Streets in Columbia, Karen Yip and her company Yip Premiere Real Estate are developing the garage building into a retail or restaurant space.
After construction workers started demolition to the building last week, high, barrel ceilings were uncovered in the garage building. Yip said they plan to add large garage doors to the building and a landscaped outdoor seating area to fit the character of the neighborhood, but are otherwise leaving a blank slate for interested tenants.
The space can be one large unit or divided into two units depending on the tenants. The building will be ready for lease in the next two months, according to Yip.
Developers have flocked to Cottontown, an area in the North Main Street district of Columbia, in the past few years to remodel older brick buildings for retail and restaurant use. The most recent opening down the street from the Freeze Building was NoMa Warehouse, an artist-focused coworking business.
For those in the residential neighborhood of Cottontown, Yip said she is open to ideas or suggestions for what type of tenants neighbors want to see move in.
On the other side of town in Rosewood, a new business called The Haven Events is accepting memberships for its coworking space and bookings to rent the space for events.
The Haven is a mostly blue and orange building near the intersection of Rosewood Drive and Assembly Street covered in a mural by McClellan Douglas called, “A Southern Affair.” The mural has many iconic South Carolina elements like a Carolina Wren, magnolia branches, a fire belly anole lizard and portraits of 13 different people.
Inside the space, owner Lauren Taylor runs her other businesses, RealtyHaven and RentHaven. The Haven Events has coworking space for rent during the week, a conference room and a huge event space for weekend rentals such as bridal showers or corporate gatherings. Taylor is also planning to cover the back parking lot in AstroTurf to create an indoor/outdoor space.
During football season, tailgaters can rent parking spots at The Haven because it is within walking distance to Williams Brice Stadium.
Taylor is selling memberships now, but the building will officially be open for coworkers and event hosts by mid-May.
Talk about Town is a video series on The State newspaper’s Instagram account that runs the first Monday of each month. Laurryn Salem tours new businesses or developments before they open to give readers an exclusive look at what’s coming to town.
This story was originally published May 4, 2021 at 10:48 AM.
