New apartments, retail could be coming to Devine Street in Columbia

A new residential and retail development could be coming to Devine Street.

The developer that owns and manages the upscale 700 Woodrow apartments on Devine Street in the Old Shandon neighborhood is seeking zoning exceptions to build a pair of new multifamily residential buildings with street-level retail space next to the Devine Street fire station, on the property formerly occupied by the Aflac insurance offices.

A four-story and five-story building are planned to house up to 95 residential units at the corner of Devine and Maple streets, according to plans submitted to the Columbia Board of Zoning Appeals by Devine Station Office LLC, which owns the properties.

Devine Station Office is a sibling company of Estates Management, which developed the 75-unit 700 Woodrow apartments just a block away.

The development would straddle Maple Street, with the easternmost building standing next to the fire station.

In addition to the neighboring 700 Woodrow and the fire station, the proposed Devine Street development would abut the GranDevine condominiums, formerly the Schneider School, to its north and would sit facing a string of Devine Street storefronts that include Non(e)such, Devine Robin, Anytime Fitness and Britton’s.

The development would complement the residential and commercial neighborhood surrounding it as well as “help enhance public safety by providing for an engaged and active environment even after daytime businesses close,” the developer wrote in its application to the zoning board. The board meets Tuesday to consider the project.

The Old Shandon neighborhood association and the Devine Street Association both support the development plans.

The developer has been meeting with an Old Shandon neighborhood committee over recent months to seek input on the development plans, neighborhood president Derek Riley recently wrote on an online neighborhood messaging board. Riley wrote that the neighborhood has no opposition to the zoning and parking exceptions the developer is requesting from the city.

In a letter of support to the zoning board, Marion Moses, immediate past president of the Devine Street Association, wrote that the business group is comfortable with the developer’s plans at Devine and Maple and is confident the living units will be marketed to professionals, not college students. The developer’s zoning application does not specify a demographic group to whom the units would be marketed.

But the association has concerns that future owners of the property might try to use it as student housing, “which would vastly change the landscape and feeling of Devine Street,” Moses wrote. In its letter, the association asks the zoning board to consider including language in a zoning variance to restrict the future leasing of residential properties to students.