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I can agree on Innovista to a point.. it still seems to be more of USC vision(as it should be) and the City was forced to get on board and/or didnt really try to incorporate or build off of it to suit any City Planning objectives....other than spill over.. Not sure what the city did to even advance it through incentives to potential companies/tenants.. but maybe others are aware...
The city wasn't "forced" to get on board; they were actually pretty happy to do so because Innovista had the potential to accelerate the development of the riverfront, a long-term goal of the city. Here's a write-up from a few years ago that covers much of this history.
It was mostly the responsibility of the university to get companies on board, but remember it was the recession that pretty much undermined everything. Firstly, it was the developer of Centennial Campus at NC State University in Raleigh who was supposed to spearhead everything, but he backed out after the recession. Then it was former leaders/developers from UK's Coldstream Research Campus who were called in, but they were eventually let go also. USC's endowed chairs program was supposed to be the linchpin to get it all going, but that never seemed to shake out as it should. And you don't even hear anymore about hydrogen cell research efforts at USC, which is what they were truly betting on. When the former CEO of Roche in Florence took the helm, he basically said Innovista was going to be more of an idea than a physical campus. However, elements of the master plan have come to pass, such as the area around the arena and the Greene Street extension is still on the table I believe.
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BullStreet also had community input.. BUT.. some neighborhoods were upset that the city was investing heavily in one site that wasnt in any of the City's more traditional neighborhoods especially in light of the infrastructure challenges with flooding and so forth that happened right after this deal was inked... I guess there is always that balancing act between Downtown/Hot New Neighborhood and the rest of the City that happens in any community.
True, but Bull Street was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You just don't even see that much available land hitting the market in the middle of a city's urban core these days. Not even the CCI property was that large.
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All of what you said about Columbia's founding and being a creature of State/Federal Government... I wholeheartedly agree and now is a reckoning of sorts where we have to look beyond that for Columbia 2.0 in order to remain competitive as the DC effect of government $$ does not really carry us anymore...
I am really curious on who the next Mayor will be. To the extent that a "weak" Mayor can make things happen..I think being a negotiator and a cheerleader for business and development citywide will be key while increasing the livability of city neighborhoods. Truth be told.. I dont know of many "bad" neighborhoods in the City proper.. There are some streets or apartment complexes here and there.. but there doesnt appear to be notorious neighborhoods that you could put on a T Shirt with "Straight Out of " in front of it and people would instinctively avoid you.... Richland County proper does have areas/subdivision and some may ring the city.. but here again to clean all of these areas up would require some degree of coordination and consolidation.. that, to your point, is political and undesirable from the politicos.
The city is in a chicken/egg situation with regard to taxes and investment. Taxes are a bit too high to encourage investment right now, but you need greater investment to increase tax revenue. But what incentives do the school districts have to reduce taxes on their own accord? Not many. Some sort of deal with have to be worked out so the next mayor is going to have to truly be a heckuva negotiator/broker of deals even more so than usual.
Has anyone heard any info regarding progress on the convention center project? Its running out of time per the private developer for the hotels. etc. He said if it was not resolved by the end of the year, he will move on to other projects
Has anyone heard any info regarding progress on the convention center project? Its running out of time per the private developer for the hotels. etc. He said if it was not resolved by the end of the year, he will move on to other projects
It’s been listed on the City and County agendas during executive session when they close the doors. I think you’ll hear something about it soon. I’m interested to see what comes out because the parking garage deal seems extremely sketchy.
Another partnership for the greenways and riverwalks. Hopefully with the infrastructure money coming to Columbia the riverfront park in between Blossom and Gervais could be a possibility.
Also on that subject, is Dominion ever going to clean the coal tar out of the river? It seems like that was mentioned as something that needs to be done before Cola can build a park in that area, since large trucks will be hauling the tar out of that area for a while once work begins.
Ya it’s not looking great right now, lot of anti Columbia convention center
Rhetoric by South Carolina state politicians
Really? I've not seen this and it would be quite unusual for politicians elsewhere in the state to comment on a local matter in a city they neither reside in or represent.
Another partnership for the greenways and riverwalks. Hopefully with the infrastructure money coming to Columbia the riverfront park in between Blossom and Gervais could be a possibility.
Also on that subject, is Dominion ever going to clean the coal tar out of the river? It seems like that was mentioned as something that needs to be done before Cola can build a park in that area, since large trucks will be hauling the tar out of that area for a while once work begins.
Unless it was overturned, I believe the decision was to cap the tar with concrete(?) rather than remove it. Also the riverfront park is not scoped into the penny tax fund, so it's currently unfunded and to my understanding, largely abandoned as a plan.
Unless it was overturned, I believe the decision was to cap the tar with concrete(?) rather than remove it. Also the riverfront park is not scoped into the penny tax fund, so it's currently unfunded and to my understanding, largely abandoned as a plan.
I think the timeline went as follows:
In 2016-2017, SCE&G talked about cleaning up the coal tar from river, then reversed plans to do that in 2017 and said they will cap it with concrete instead.
In March 2nd, 2019 (according to an article in The State that I could only read the headline), DHEC instructs SCE&G to clean tar from river.
July 31st 2019
"We are very pleased that DHEC has instructed SCE&G to again pursue removing the coal tar from the Congaree River. The agency has been overseeing this project more than a decade, and understands the importance of getting this right. We look forward to working with SCE&G and regulators as they restart the planning and permitting process."
I also read that the "cleanup" will involve cleaning up to 70% of the tar in the river. I'm not sure if that number is still included in the latest plans. Other than that, I couldn't find any other updates. I'm sure SCE&G are dragging their feet to do this as well as the fact this will be an extremely tedious and difficult process to plan and accomplish.
Ah, and one last article I found from the P&C that was updated in 2020. I cant read it but I'll post the link.
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Richland County proper does have areas/subdivision and some may ring the city.. but here again to clean all of these areas up would require some degree of coordination and consolidation.. that, to your point, is political and undesirable from the politicos.
