Plans for Huger at Gervais streets get initial review
Developers say they are ready to move forward with the construction of the first of two buildings in the long-awaited redevelopment of one of Columbia’s most high-visibility corners.
Urban Homes developer Russ Davis told the Design/Development Review Commission Thursday that he has a major hotelier lined up and has in hand the land at Huger and Gervais streets, formerly the Kline Iron and Steel Co. property, which also is the western gateway to the Vista.
The commission did not take formal action and will review the plans again. The 306-unit project also must go to Columbia’s Planning Commission for a zoning change in August, city officials said. City planners originally slated the Kline project for site plan approval at Thursday’s planning meeting, but deferred that until August in favor of an informational presentation.
Two mixed-use buildings are to have four to six stories of residential development above the first story. A retail/restaurant development will be featured at ground level in both buildings, according to plans submitted to the commission and discussed in an informational meeting Thursday.
The Kline property is a prime 6.5-acre site that ultimately is planned also to accommodate two parking structures. A third mixed-use structure and the hotel are slated for a later phase of development of an overall 545,000-square-foot footprint valued at a reported $100 million.
The Kline property – family-owned for at least 90 years – is one of the largest undeveloped tracts remaining in Columbia’s city core and has been the subject of large-scale development proposals since at least 2006. That’s when the Kline family disclosed plans for a $120 million condominium, office and retail development also featuring a hotel, that later was scrapped.
The first building in the initial phase of development will be at the corner of Huger and Washington streets – a four or five story luxury apartment building with restaurant and retail space on the first floor, the plans submitted to the city indicate.
A parking garage for that building is to be west of the apartment complex, toward the State Museum and the Congaree River.
The second apartment complex planned in the initial phase of the development would be on Gervais Street, on the western edge of the Kline property. That building is proposed to be five to six stories of residential space wrapped around structured parking, with one retail space on the ground level facing Gervais Street.
One of the major new additions to the current plan before city planners is a pedestrian connection from the end of Lady Street at Huger Street to the State Museum’s parking lot.