New ‘high-end’ housing set to be built across from SC State Fairgrounds
Developers are planning to build 71 townhomes at the current Seawells catering property on Rosewood Drive, directly across the street from the South Carolina State Fairgrounds’ main entrance.
Mayor Daniel Rickenmann called the project an asset for the community, saying “we need young professional housing in proximity to downtown.”
The townhomes won’t be for rent, however, and the project is intended to attract “high-end” buyers, with estimated price tags between $500,000 to potentially more than $700,000 for the three-story tall townhomes, real estate developer Steve McNair with Palmetto Alliance Property Group told members of city council.
McNair also said the new townhomes could put between $44 and $49 million onto the city’s property tax roll once complete.
The location is also half a mile from Williams-Brice stadium. The area around the stadium sees bumper-to-bumper traffic on gamedays. McNair previously told the city’s planning commission that the high-end townhomes would be a good fit, in part because of the heavy traffic in the corridor.
Developers had first looked at building a student housing complex at the location, and McNair said the townhomes project is more realistic given gameday traffic and the development’s now-smaller footprint.
“It was putting 20 pounds in a 10-pound bag,” McNair told Columbia’s Planning Commission earlier this year about the mixed student housing complex.
The project follows similar housing going up in Greenville, both are led by Lennar Homes. McNair said he’s been tasked by that developer to find “good urban infill projects.”
The State newspaper has reached out to McNair for additional information about the townhomes but did not immediately hear back.
Seawells catering, which has been in business since 1946, isn’t necessarily closing. Some in that family may carry on the business at another location.
“Some of the brothers are getting a little older and thinking about handing it off to one of the sons, letting them continue, maybe somewhere else,” said Seawells’ realtor George McCutchen.
The plans for the townhomes aren’t yet set in stone. The city Tuesday gave final approval to rezoning and annexation requests that will allow the project to move forward. The specifics of the building plans still must go through the standard approval process. McCutchen told members of city council that already, the plans for the townhome project are “pretty far along … if it were to be approved.”
