USC begins acquiring Bull Street land for new medical school

The University of South Carolina’s real estate arm has started buying pieces of the Bull Street property for its new medical school.

The USC Foundation in December purchased five acres of land along Harden Street from the S.C. Department of Mental Health. The university paid $600,000, money donated to it by Bob Hughes, the property’s Greenville-based master developer.

“He was giving us the land, in effect,” USC Foundation director Russ Meekins said.

Hughes has pledged eventually to donate 16 acres of the property to the state’s flagship university, which plans to build a $200 million medical school and health sciences complex there.

USC has lobbied state legislators for $50 million to kick-start the project since last year. So far, those efforts have been unsuccessful.

This story was originally published March 20, 2017 at 5:29 PM with the headline "USC begins acquiring Bull Street land for new medical school."