Main street apartments target students, build business district
Downtown Columbia developers are looking to USC students and young professionals to bring a new edge to downtown.
The Palmetto Center on Main Street, formerly the SCANA headquarters, was approved by the City Council on May 15 for conversion to a private apartment complex to house around 800 students.
The housing is not a collaboration with the university, and it will be up to students to rent the apartments.
The increase in students will help the city by increasing the need for goods and services and possibly initiating new businesses, according to Krista Hampton, director of city planning and development services.
“It will be better for the urban environment,” Hampton said.
The Columbia Marriott hotel is adjacent to the Palmetto Center, and Marriott’s Area Director of Sales and Marketing Richard Secord said the hotel’s leadership is excited and hopeful that it will bring business.
“I think it’s going to really enhance the downtown area,” Secord said.
Students who live in the dorms will be about a mile away from the Business Administration Building, compared with Olympia & Granby Mills and The Retreat, which are two and five miles away from the BA Building, respectively.
As for concerns about students moving into the district, Hampton said she hasn’t heard many aside from worries about stereotypical student partying. She said it will be up to the building’s owners to manage that, but as of now, they aren’t expecting too much trouble.
Secord said that the Marriott wasn’t worried about partying being a problem, but he hopes that the students are mostly upperclassmen.
Though the building has been approved, the development process has not yet begun, according to Hampton.
“I’ve heard a verbal commitment that the apartments will be nice, high-end student housing,” said Hampton.
A price range for the Palmetto Center has not been released.