Midlands retirement community set to expand with townhomes, 183 apartments. Here’s where
Still Hopes, a prominent retirement community in West Columbia, will add almost 200 housing units and a clubhouse for retirees to its expansive property that sits right along the city’s border with Cayce.
The company, which serves just shy of 500 residents, per its website, is poised to construct a multi-story apartment complex and a handful of townhome cottages intended to serve those 55 and older along Ninth Street. The property once held the district offices for the Lexington 2 school district, which moved to the district’s $52 million Performing Arts Center.
“Still Hopes has been a very, very good neighbor,” said West Columbia councilman Joseph Dickey, whose district covers the area of expansion. “I’m happy to see them provide more options for those that want to live in their community and want to be in West Columbia.”
The project, called Brookland Commons, adds nearly 10 acres to the 43 acres the company already owns just off Knox Abbott Drive and is expected to increase Still Hopes’ resident capacity by 250 people, President and CEO Danny Sanford told The State.
The expansion comes as South Carolina’s population grows rapidly, including the number of adults over 55 years old. In Lexington and Richland counties the number of adults over 55 is expected to grow by some 12,000 people between 2023 and 2027, according to state projection data.
On the 10 acres along Ninth Street, Still Hopes will spend at least $40 million to build a multi-story apartment complex with 183 units that are set to range from studio apartments to units with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The decades-old nonprofit bought the property from the Lexington 2 school district in October for $3.7 million, according to county property records.
The old school district building will be renovated into a clubhouse for residents of the community and is set to include amenities like restaurants and a wellness center. The W-shaped apartment building will sit in the middle of the plot of land and a row of townhomes will be visible from Ninth Street.
“It doesn’t change the feel of the residential neighborhood, so you don’t end up with a high-rise building right on Ninth Street,” West Columbia Mayor Tem Miles said of the townhomes that’ll run along the street that connects Cayce’s Knox Abbott Drive to West Columbia’s Meeting Street.
The apartments will offer a more affordable, scaled-back version of what Still Hopes offers at the campus it’s operated since 1975 – residents won’t have to use a meal plan unless they want to and apartment units will have fully functional kitchens. The model is aimed at providing attainable care for middle-class seniors.
Entrance fees and monthly rates at the upcoming complex are set to be around half the typical rate for Still Hopes, Sanford said. The entrance fee, which gets residents into the community, will be in the range of $90,000 to $250,000 and monthly rates will range from $1,700 to $2,500.
“We’re trying to specifically offer a service to people that will be available to folks like school teachers, EMS, police men and firemen and pastors of churches. That tier of people, they haven’t really had a place,” Sanford said.
He said the hope is to break ground on the project in 2026. Once construction work begins, the expansion will take around two years to complete.
