SC moves to sell its mental health headquarters. Here’s how much it’s asking for
State officials have put the building that houses the South Carolina Department of Mental Health up for sale, nearly a year after a breakup of state health and environmental agencies was formally finalized.
The mental health department has been headquartered at 2414 Bull St. for decades. The building it sits in was built in 1970, according to county property records, and is right next to one of the fastest-growing mixed-use developments in Columbia, the BullStreet District.
With the department set for a new home in Cayce, South Carolina hopes to get upwards of $5.1 million for the four-story office building and the eight acres it sits on. The property is being marketed as two different parcels – one being the building and the six acres it sits on and the other being the two-acre lot behind it.
The state is set to begin accepting bids to purchase the property May 16, according to documents from the Department of Administration.
The move comes nearly a year after South Carolina’s health agency was split into multiple different agencies at the beginning of July, a breakup that impacted state agencies outside of just the Department of Health and Environmental Control.
In that split, DHEC became two different agencies: the Department of Public Health and the Department of Environmental Services. Some of DHEC’s responsibilities involving food safety were routed to the Department of Agriculture.
That switchover was costly, requiring millions of dollars to be spent towards things like updating computer systems and purchasing new equipment. It also includes the $500 million bill, over the next two decades, to relocate several state health agencies, which included the Department of Mental Health headquarters.
The department’s headquarters sits right next to the BullStreet District, a burgeoning mixed-use redevelopment project that houses Columbia’s minor league baseball stadium, Segra Park, a slew of luxury apartments and big-name chains like Starbucks and REI.
