Tallest new building in Five Points could be twice the height currently allowed
The sky could soon be changing in Columbia’s Five Points, the ever-evolving downtown-adjacent business district known for its college nightlife, but also more and more for its eclectic mix of daytime shops and restaurants.
Following the district’s growth over the past decade, developers hope to build a hotel and parking garage at the corner of Saluda Avenue and Blossom Street, where a now-vacant Wells Fargo bank branch once operated.
But the plans hinge on getting permission to build twice as high as what is normally allowed in Five Points. Gunnar Burts with We Love Five Points, LLC and Webb Yongue with Capstone Property Group have for over a year been developing plans for an 8-story hotel and parking garage at 705 Saluda Ave., a project they expect to stand 105-feet tall.
It would be the tallest building on Saluda Avenue, the always busy Five Points business strip where college students and professionals mix throughout the day at cafés and lunch spots.
If approved, the height exception would set a new precedent in Five Points — no other projects have been granted a height variance since the city adopted the Five Points Design Guidelines in 2006, the city’s zoning department said. Those rules set the maximum building height in upper Five Points at 75 feet, and in lower Five Points at 50 feet. The hotel and parking garage would be built in lower Five Points.
There are a handful of buildings in Five Points that exceed the height rules, including two condos on Greene Street that were built in the mid-1980s, and the Finlay House senior apartment building at 2100 Blossom Street built in 1971. But the vast majority of properties in Five Points are one and two-story buildings, the city’s zoning department confirmed.
The 105-foot height exception the developers are asking for is necessary to allow for both the hotel and the parking garage, which would essentially be stacked on top of each other, Burts said. Without that permission, the project might not move forward at all.
“We don’t know if we can build it yet,” Burts said.
The project would also fill one of the largest and most-primed for development parcels left in the district – a 1.22 acre site that reaches all the way back to the train trestle at Five Points’ western border.
The tallest part of the hotel and parking garage would be at the back of the project site, nearest the train trestle, Burts added.
Columbia’s Board of Zoning Appeals will consider the request for a variance to Five Points’ height restrictions at its Feb. 5 meeting. Without that permission, developers would have to reassess how or if the hotel plans could move forward.
Burts said moving this project forward will help accelerate the shift already well underway in Five Points, bringing more businesses just by virtue of there being more office space and activity geared toward the daytime.
Developers aim for high-end hotel
Tentative plans call for 120 rooms and a roughly 300 space parking garage, as well as a lobby café and bar, ground-level retail space, and a rooftop bar on the top floor. The hotel portion of the project would be in the building’s top three floors, with the parking garage underneath.
“From an esthetics and streetscape point of view, we don’t want just a naked parking garage. So that’s where office and retail and live/work will wrap around it to make it look pretty,” Burts said.
Five Points leaders have specifically wanted a parking garage in the district for years. At one point the City of Columbia had been prepared to spend $14 million on that effort, but “the funds just ended up not being there,” Burts said.
The parking garage portion of the project is set to receive $5 million from the state budget, after former lawmaker Dick Harpootlian and current state Rep. Seth Rose each requested $2.5 million for the work from the state’s 2024-25 budget.
We Love Five Points, LLC purchased the property at 705 Saluda Ave. in 2022 for $4.3 million. It’s valued at just over $2.5 million, according to county property records.
In some ways, the hotel portion of the project is just the driver for finally realizing those parking garage dreams, Burts said. We Love Five Points, LLC will be responsible for the development of that parking garage, with Capstone Property Group developing the hotel portion.
Exactly what kind of hotel could open on the site also remains up in the air, but Yongue and Burts both said they hope to see something higher-end. Yongue said he would like to see it operate as an independent up-scale property. Yongue estimated that the hotel portion of the work could cost $30 million or more, though he said that is just a rough estimate.
The work would include tearing down the existing bank structure and building an entirely new structure at the site, Yongue also noted.
Burts said he is also hoping to receive some city money in addition to the $5 million from the state, and the developers also hope to receive an abandoned building tax abatement.
Burts said that if everything goes to plan, he would hope to see construction begin sometime next year.
Capstone Property Group is also under contract to purchase the historic Veterans Administration building at 1801 Assembly St., and convert it into a hotel as well. That building has been vacant for over a decade, and has suffered multiple redevelopment false-starts.
Correction: This story has been updated with the number of floors planned for the project. (Updated on Jan. 29 at 5:40 P.M.)
This story was originally published January 29, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
