Columbia may sell USC-leased lots near Colonial Life Arena. What comes next?
Columbia is looking to sell two large parking lots outside of Colonial Life Arena in the heart of the University of South Carolina’s vision for its ever-evolving campus.
What will happen to the lots remains an open question.
The city has owned the parking lots for decades and leases them to the University of South Carolina. The University also gets first dibs on the properties if and when they do go up for sale.
When asked if the university plans to purchase the parking lots, spokesperson Jeff Stensland could not provide details but said, “we look forward to exploring options with the city.”
While it’s not immediately clear how the university might use the properties if it were to purchase them, a long-held master plan for USC’s Columbia campus envisions development beyond the surface parking that currently spans more than 7 acres just outside the Colonial Life Arena, and immediately across Blossom Street from the university’s Greek Village.
Rickenmann said he anticipates parking will still be part of whatever redevelopment comes to fruition.
“Is that going to be a deck? Is that going to be a combination of a deck and a classroom, is that going to be housing?” he said, adding that the university’s master plan leaves the area open to multiple possibilities.
It’s not clear when the city might list the properties for sale, or for how much.
The total market value of the lots is around $13.5 million, according to county property records. Rickenmann said the city would reinvest the money it makes on the sale back into other city projects.
City officials discussed selling the parking lots during an executive session Tuesday, as part of the city council’s budget meeting, according to an agenda. The issue came up during an executive session last Fall as well.
City leaders have been discussing selling the lots for years, Rickenmann said.
Tens of millions of public dollars, including transportation tax dollars, have been spent in the corridor surrounding Colonial Life Arena as part of a long-held university master plan that envisions Greene Street as the campus spine supporting westward campus development.
A decade ago, city leaders finished major aesthetic and street upgrades at Greene and Lincoln streets to create Foundation Square, “a pedestrian- and bike-friendly gateway that eventually will connect the university with the Congaree River,” says a 2017 university press release.
In late 2022, the county finished an extension of the Greene Street bridge to Huger Street. Those projects cost around $50 million in total.
A final phase of work to extend Greene Street to the river is currently underway and being led by the city of Columbia.
Large developments have also cropped up in the corridor in the past decade, including the Greene Crossing student apartment complex built in 2015, and the Gateway 737 student housing complex next door that wrapped up construction last Summer.
