Columbia’s Five Points has been under construction all year. When will it finally end?
If you’ve been avoiding Five Points this year, you’re not alone. A long-sought but disruptive project is underway in the entertainment district to make the corridor safer for pedestrians, which has the highest crash numbers in the city.
The work has been ongoing since April, and leaders say they know it’s affecting business and the aesthetics of the area, but that the benefits of the project outweigh the temporary downturn for activity in the district.
“It’s frustrating, because you can see the sort of improvements that have been made, but you can’t really use them yet,” said Steve Cook. The current vice president and past president of the Five Points Association is the owner of longstanding fine-dining destination Saluda’s and the new Arroyo Tacos and Tequila restaurant, both in Five Points.
Cook said he’s excited to see the finished work and believes it will make the area look better and feel safer.
Orange cones and construction tape have colored Harden Street, the main drag going through Five Points, most of the year. But you can also see fresh concrete and new trees. The work is coming together, just slowly.
He said he knows he’s losing business at the new restaurant, but because it opened in the midst of the construction he doesn’t have a normal baseline to compare to. But he believes people are simply avoiding Five Points during the construction.
“Is it 1% of customers or 10% of customers or more than that? Who knows?” Cook said.
But Cook said he thinks if businesses continue to weather the storm, the work will ultimately make Five Points more attractive and draw in even more customers. Making the area more walkable, which the project aims to do, should also help.
Between 2013 and 2018, there were 232 crashes on a half-mile stretch of Harden Street, and 27 of those incidents led to injuries. City and state leaders had the results of that study for half a decade before construction on the roughly $5 million overhaul could begin.
Specifically, Harden Street is being cut from four lanes to two between Devine and Blossom streets and mid-block cross walks are also being added in. Bike lanes will also be added to Harden and Devine streets running through Five Points, and Devine Street will be reduced to fewer lanes in the next phase of the project.
State Rep. Seth Rose, D-Richland, helped secure $800,000 from the state budget for the Five Points work. The remaining roughly $4 million needed for the work is being paid by a federal grant.
All of the Five Points work is expected to be finished by summer 2025, a DOT spokesperson said. But Rose said the bulk of the work will be finished around the time of March’s St. Pat’s in Five Points — the neighborhood’s signature annual event that is one of the largest festivals in the area, drawing a purported 45,000 festival, according to organizers.
The next phase of the construction project will be painting in the new traffic pattern, once DOT finishes building concrete “bump-outs” that help slow traffic and make the street safer for pedestrians, Rose explained.
“All in all, I think I’m very happy with the way it’s turning out,” Cook said, but he added, “I’m ready for it to be completely done and all of these construction cones to get the hell out of Five Points.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2024 at 11:43 AM.
