EXCLUSIVE: Hughes buys 16 acres to complete acquisition of former mental health campus in downtown Columbia

Bull Street developer Bob Hughes has reached an agreement to buy the final portion of the former state mental health agency property, a 16-acre tract for $3.6 million.

The purchase of the Hall Psychiatric Institute and the surrounding land was finalized in December by a judicial order that completes Hughes’ acquisition of all 181 acres of the former Bull Street campus, once a self-sustaining mental health community within the heart of Columbia.

The final 16 acres is close to the $37 million city stadium that is to open this spring and abuts Colonial Drive, the northern boundary of the campus that Hughes promises to develop into a vibrant residential, retail and office community.

Agency deputy director Mark Binkley said he does not know what Hughes’ plans are for the newly acquired parcels. The Greenville developer’s first building on the property, which is along the first base line of the stadium, is nearly complete.

Hughes’ company also has had conversations with mental health officials about the possibility of buying 10 acres across Harden Street from the campus, Binkley said.

“It’s been just mentioned in passing,” Binkley said of talks that Binkley initiated because the agency might declare as surplus the land that surrounds and includes C.M. Tucker Nursing Care Center. Binkley said he and Hughes’ representatives have talked about the property several times, most recently last summer.

The William S. Hall Institute purchase is tacked onto the $15 million price tag for the first 165 acres, Binkley said. That raises the total for the entire 181 acres to $18,612,715, according to Circuit Judge DeAndrea Benjamin’s Dec. 17 order.

Judge Benjamin is the wife of Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, who spearheaded the effort for the capital city to build the stadium. The mayor also pushed through the city’s commitment to some $75 million for roads, sewer and water service, other infrastructure and parking garages on the sprawling property.

Hughes is not due to make another payment until Sept. 30, at which time he will have paid $6.5 million of the now $18.6 million price, Binkley said. Hughes has paid $4.4 million so far, the deputy director said.

Hall Institute’s purchase was green-lighted after mental health agency leaders determined it was too expensive to refurbish the 51-year-old building to keep using it for treating children, its most recent use, Binkley said. The least expensive option would have cost more than $10 million, he said.

The children that were there have been transferred to the Bryan Psychiatric Hospital off Farrow Road in the north Columbia area, Binkley said.

He said the agency could reap more than the $18.6 million from the sale because of a profit-sharing agreement that would provide the department 35 percent of net proceeds from any land that Hughes sells to other developers.

It will cost about $600,000 to remove asbestos tiles and drywall from Hall Institute, a price that will be absorbed by Hughes or any subcontractor who buys the building from Hughes, Binkley said.

Since it opened in 1965, Hall Institute was used largely as a teaching hospital for mental health professionals and for psychiatric research, according to an agency history.

Later, the institute extended its reach to the University of South Carolina School of Medicine and Palmetto Health Richland hospital for students studying neuropsychiatry and behavioral science.

This story was originally published February 8, 2016 at 4:41 PM with the headline "EXCLUSIVE: Hughes buys 16 acres to complete acquisition of former mental health campus in downtown Columbia."