Midlands school district paid $16M for new property, double 2023 selling price
A Columbia-area school district bought a large piece of land in a fast-growing area. But did they pay too much?
Richland School District 2 paid $15.9 million a sprawling piece of property on Spears Creek Church Road in Elgin, according to Richland County property records.
It is more than double what the last owner paid for it two years ago. The asking price, documents from real estate firm Wilson Kibler show, was $16 million. School board members approved the purchase in a unanimous vote in August, but the sale was not finalized until late September.
The 30-acre parcel is across from Pontiac Elementary School. Most recently home to the Southeastern Health and Wellness Institute, a cosmetology school, it features a 1,290-space parking lot and a sizable commercial facility that was built in 2010. It’s located between Grace Presbyterian Church and a mostly vacant plot just off of Interstate 20, minutes from Sandhills Shopping Mall and about 16 miles northeast of downtown Columbia.
The district learned the property was going up for sale in June, and multiple parties were interested. The property, which had been a Verizon call center before the company left during the COVID-19 pandemic and never came back, had been on the district’s radar for a while. But it was unable to purchase it the last time it was up for sale, Anderson said.
“We jumped on it pretty quickly,” said Will Anderson, chief operations officer for Richland 2
According to property records, the parcel had previously been bought in September 2023 for $7 million by an LLC.
Anderson said the previous owners snapped up the property at a time when no one was buying office space and got a “heck of a deal.” But the school district got a good deal, too, he said.
“If you look at this cost per square foot now for office building space, we bought lower than what the market rate is going for,” Anderson said. “That price was too good of a deal not to purchase.”
To construct a building of its size alone would cost the district between $60 million and $80 million, Anderson said, not including the land price.
“It allows us not to borrow money later,” Anderson said.
Richland 2 has budgeted about $2 million to make minor renovations.
Some district services are in portable spaces, or spaces that don’t accommodate their needs. Those services, like pre-K programs and the district’s audiologist, could move to the property as early as January, Anderson said, and no later than next academic year. And while it will be used for immediate needs, he said, purchasing the property was also a strategic move.
The land is in a fast-growing part of Richland County. Growth has been so significant, in fact, that Richland 2 has proposed adjusting elementary school attendance lines for the area, to accommodate more students near Elgin and Fort Jackson and balance enrollment.
Pontiac Elementary, for example, is at 121% capacity. The school has 944 students in a building meant for 780 students, according to figures provided by Richland 2.
New housing developments off of Percival, Spears Creek Church, Clemson and Two Notch roads have been catalysts.
Anderson previously told The State that the district did not expect the growth to slow in the near future. However, plans for new schools are not currently being considered.
School board chair Angela Nash was not immediately available for comment on the property purchase.
