Junk Removal in Columbia, SC

What could be the largest hotel in the capital city, along with nearly 200 new apartments and an underground parking garage, could soon be built near the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.

The proposal from longtime Columbia developer Ben Arnold’s Arnold Companiescomes several months after Arnold’s plans for a much larger project in the same location fell through.

The massive project, dubbed Vista Depot Hotels and Apartments, is the latest attempt to add hotel rooms around the convention center. Arnold’s proposal would entail a 301-room hotel, a 183-unit apartment complex and a 380-space subterranean parking garage.

It would see the first-of-its-kind dual-branded Hyatt House and Hyatt Centric hotel built at the intersection of Gervais and Wayne streets in downtown Columbia’s Vista district. Arnold is hoping to build a 4-star, full-service hotel and says when finished, it will be the largest hotel in the capital city.

The California-based architecture firm Kollin Altomare Architects is also involved in the project.

Arnold had previously been in talks with Columbia and Richland County leaders for a much larger project that would have involved expanding the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center along with constructing three luxury hotels and a massive parking garage.

That project had an estimated value of $511 million but relied on city money to expand the convention center and city and county assistance on paying back the cost of building the parking garage.

That deal fell through when Richland County leaders balked at the cost of the parking garage after several months of back and forth.

Arnold’s new proposal is still a massive development for Columbia. The hotel portion of the development promises roughly 10,000 square feet of rooftop restaurant and bar space with a retractable roof for indoor and outdoor options.

In addition to the 301 new hotel rooms the project aims to develop, Arnold also plans to build 183 market-rate apartment units behind the hotel modeled after another of his projects, The Palms apartments.

“We feel like Columbia can handle more of that kind of housing,” he said of The Palms, which opened on Lady Street in April. Arnold said that project has been successful, with tenants ranging from empty-nesters to downtown workers.

The proposed apartment complex, called The Residence at Vista Depot, would be on the southwestern portion of the property, facing Wayne and Pendleton streets, and offer studios and one and two-bedroom units.

A pool terrace, yoga studio, fitness center and dog spa would also be included in the apartment building.

A 380-space garage would be built to support the apartments, the new hotel and Vista traffic in general. The garage would be below the new apartment complex, Arnold said.

Just behind the apartments, the University of South Carolina is developing another student housing complex at 737 Gadsden St. That combined effort will also see Wayne and Pendelton streets improved, Arnold added.

Construction on the Vista Depot complex could begin in early 2024, though Arnold says high interest rates and rising construction costs may delay the project. Still, he said he is positioning himself to move forward.

Between the hotel, apartments and parking garage, Arnold says the project will create 1,600 construction jobs and 160 permanent jobs.

Arnold said his previous plan for the trio of hotels to support the convention center would have benefited Columbia more, but “that opportunity went out the door.”

He believes the new project will still be an economic engine for Columbia while providing something the city doesn’t currently have: a full-service 4-star hotel. He added the hotel may still help support the convention center.

The city’s Planning Commission will consider the proposal at a Jan. 12 meeting. The city’s Design/Development Review Commission also will consider the project at a Jan. 19 meeting.

It’s unclear how Arnold’s proposal could impact future plans to expand the city’s convention center.

When expansion plans were still on the table, the state gave the effort $9 million. Later, when the deal fell through, Columbia had to return the money.

Arnold owns about 12 acres around the convention center, and his new project will be built on about 6 acres.

Local leaders have been split on whether an eventual convention center expansion is still in the cards. At least some local leaders still want to see it happen in the near future.

This story was originally published January 4, 2023 5:00 AM.

A department store Santa Claus stood, hand on the switch, ready to pull.

To Santa’s right, children and parents began a rallying cry: “FIVE, FOUR, THREE…”

To Santa’s left stood Mayor Daniel Rickenmann, leading the countdown.

“...TWO, ONE!”

And then there was light. Or rather, lights — 28,000 of them, sparkling overhead.

Downtown’s newest installation, a “ceiling of lights” above the 1600 block of Main Street, lit up the street to applause in mid-December. It’s set to be a year-round feature, and there’s even talk of extending the reach of the lights in the future.

But it wasn’t children and dogs and couples holding hands that first traveled under the newly illuminated downtown banner.

They couldn’t, really. There was traffic.

As Columbia’s Main Street continues to blossom, and as the city and its partners invest more in making the downtown hub a destination, some residents have wondered if now is the time to make the roadway totally car-free.

“One step closer to making Main St. pedestrian only!” Transmission Arcade owner Josh Rainwater wrote on Twitter in response to the new light display.

“I literally said this out loud the moment I saw it,” another person agreed.

Matt Kennell, president and CEO of Columbia’s Main Street District, has heard this idea floated a few times before. He can understand the desire.

“It sounds good when it’s a beautiful day and there’s a lot of people downtown and lots of energy,” he said.

But despite Main Street’s growth over the last decade, Kennell said the corridor isn’t quite to the point of being able to support year-round foot-only traffic.

There just isn’t enough stuff there yet, he explained.

“It takes a lot of pedestrian activity, a lot of residential, a lot of just activity to make it work year-round,” he said.

There’s no question that making the area more pedestrian friendly is part of the reason for Main Street’s success over the last decade. In 2010, the city completed $12.8 million worth of streetscaping on Main Street, from Gervais to Blanding streets, according to previous reporting from The State. In the 12 years since, Main Street has boomed. Housing availability is growing exponentially, and retail and restaurants have found success, too.

The city has found opportunities to lean into that success, closing Main Street to vehicular traffic every Saturday morning for the Soda City Market.

But Main Street still likely isn’t dense enough — meaning there aren’t enough people and businesses in the immediate vicinity — to make a pedestrian-only plan work full-time, Kennell said.

Research seems to agree.

Researchers at Cornell University in 2020 conducted a wide-ranging study called “The rise and fall of the American pedestrian mall.”

They looked at 125 pedestrian malls that were created in the 1960s and ‘70s and found only 43 of the 125 were still in existence. In their analysis of the pedestrian commons, they identified a handful of indicators that suggested whether they would succeed or wither away.

They found that sprawl — the opposite of density, in planning terms — was a major factor in the failure of pedestrian malls. A simple Google mapping of Columbia will tell you that, indeed, the city is quite sprawling. In 2014, a study by Smart Growth America ranked Columbia as one of the most sprawling medium-sized metros in the country.

The researchers also found that without a major walkable attraction already nearby, car-less commons were also more likely to fail. For Columbia, that may be another barrier to the success of a hypothetical pedestrian mall.

The area immediately surrounding Main Street is notoriously unfriendly to pedestrians. Crossing Assembly Street to the west has been described as “daunting,” and Vista residents have been pushing for lane reductions on Gervais Street to the south.

The state Department of Transportation and the University of South Carolina are also expected to begin a streetscaping project on the portion of Main Street south of the capital. When all of that work is done, the entire corridor should be more walkable, regardless of whether cars are allowed on the streets, Kennell said.

The Cornell research did find that the presence of a college campus boosted the success of some pedestrian malls, such as in Boulder, Colorado, where the flagship University of Colorado is located, and Ithaca, New York, which has both Cornell University and Ithaca College.

Though, those communities are much different in size and layout than Columbia.

“Perhaps someday, if downtown keeps growing like it is, it would make sense to do (pedestrian only,)” Kennell said. “But I don’t think we’re ready yet to do it all the time.”

Two Reese's Community care homes in Columbia were issued emergency suspension notices on an emergency basis.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Two assisted living facilities in Columbia have been cited by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) as posing an immediate threat to the health, safety, and welfare of the residents who live at them.

Reese's Community Care Home 1 at 1203 Muller Ave., and Reese's Community Care Home 2 at 717 Cindy Dr., both in Columbia, have been issued emergency suspension orders after DHEC staff conducted an inspection on the facilities on Dec. 8-9 and Dec. 12 and found the following violations:

Residents who had been living at the facilities -- mainly senior citizens -- have been relocated with the assistance of local and state authorities. The residents' families have been notified and local officials -- including the S.C. Office of Ombudsman, the S.C. Department of Social Services, the S.C. Department of Mental Health, and the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services -- are continuing to work with the families.

DHEC's report describes the findings in part: "The Facility was in deplorable condition. Bed bugs and roaches were throughout the Facility and on residents. Traces of insect residue and attempts to treat the insects were throughout the Facility. The interior and exterior of the Facility was unclean and cluttered. The Facility's food supply was insufficient in terms of quality and quantity. Furthermore, residents had not been administered medications ordered by physicians and/or authorized healthcare providers. The lone staff member present at the Facility had inadequate training, was unable to render care/services to the residents, and failed to demonstrate working knowledge of the appropriate regulation."

The full report is attached below:

DHEC also cited Bowles Community Care Home No. 1 and No. 2 of Charleston County, administering emergency suspension orders against those facilities as well. The McClellanville assisted living facilities had violations including:

Gwen Thompson, DHEC’s Director of Healthcare Quality, said, “It is the responsibility of community residential care facilities to operate in compliance with all applicable laws. Our ultimate goal is for all of our state’s community residential care facilities to operate in accordance with these laws, which exist to establish standards for protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the residents they care for. If a facility creates a dangerous living condition, we will take immediate and decisive actions to protect residents, who are always our top priority.”

DHEC regulates South Carolina’s community residential care facilities (also known as assisted living facilities) to ensure they provide quality care to their residents as required by law and regulation. The agency routinely monitors the compliance of these facilities through inspections, incident reporting, and complaint investigations.

DHEC encourages the public to use an online complaint form if they suspect any type of wrongdoing at a healthcare facility or service regulated by DHEC. Anyone unable to submit a health facility complaint online can call DHEC at 1-800-922-6735 and indicate that they wish to file a complaint against a health facility or service, and DHEC will follow up as needed.

Severe weather could return to the Columbia area Wednesday, and that includes the possibility of more tornadoes in the Midlands.

A line of strong thunderstorms and showers will move across South Carolina, with rain and wind beginning to affect the Midlands Wednesday morning, the National Weather Service said.

The storms could persist through the evening, and the greatest impact to the Columbia area — along the Interstate 20/Interstate 77 corridor — is expected between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., according to a briefing issued Tuesday by the National Weather Service.

There is potential for some of these storms to produce damaging wind gusts and isolated tornadoes, according to the briefing.

The “strongest wind gusts are expected between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. ahead of the line of storms and just behind it,” the National Weather Service said.

Wind gusts upwards of 35-40 mph are forecast, and a few damaging wind gusts in excess of 60 mph are possible, the National Weather Service said.

Across the Midlands powerful winds and tornadoes could cause considerable damage to trees and branches, in addition to mobile homes, roofs and outbuildings. Vehicles would also be under siege in the case of a tornado.

Damage to trees and branches creates the possibility of downed power lines and outages.

The storms are forecast to dump three-quarters of an inch of rain or more on the Columbia area. Localized amounts could be higher, and there is a 90% chance of rain Wednesday, the forecast shows.

New rounds of heavy rainfall after Sunday’s record-breaking 2.41 inches of rain could result in isolated flash flooding, according to the briefing. The record was for every Jan. 22 in the Columbia area, since precipitation totals began being measured.

All of the recent rain could pose another issue. While gusty winds will blow around loose outdoor objects, they could also cause isolated tree damage given the saturated soils, the National Weather Service said.

No warnings or watches have been issued, but that is subject to change as the storms get closer. A lake wind advisory is scheduled to go into effect for all Midlands counties at 10 a.m. Wednesday and run through 2 a.m. Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.

Temperatures are expected to climb into the upper 60s during the storms, before dropping to a possible low of 39 overnight, the forecast shows. Thursday, Friday and Saturday are all forecast to be sunny, clear days with temperatures in the 50s, before the next chance of rain on Sunday.

In the first week of January, five tornadoes were confirmed in the Midlands.

During those Jan. 4 storms, wind bursts as powerful as 90 mph were recorded as tornadoes were confirmed in Lexington, Orangeburg, Aiken and Calhoun counties, the National Weather Service said.

A week later, another tornado was confirmed just across the state line in Georgia, before the storms marched through the Midlands, according to the National Weather Service.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - The Richland County Sheriff’s Department responded to reports of a man waving around a pocket knife in the Walmart on Two Notch Road.

According to officials, the incident took place on Wednesday, Jan. 4, around 2 p.m.

Witnesses in the Walmart told deputies the man was waving the pocket knife around and threatening employees and shoppers in the self-checkout area.

Prior to deputies arriving at the scene, individuals in the store tried to calm and subdue the man.

One shopper, veteran Demario Davis was captured on video, knocking the man on top of the head, forcing him to drop the knife.

“Me and my son, we were following behind and he was like once the cops get here, I’m going to start cutting people up. So this one guy was like, aye man, you need to come outside and he put the knife in the guy’s face and started swinging it. Once I saw him swinging it, you know I’m a veteran and we’re trained on stuff like that in basic training for situations like that,” said Davis.

Davis says he kept the man down until Richland County Deputies responded.

“My first instinct was to neutralize the situation so I just casually walked over and waited until I had an opportunity to get him and I got em I guess. I’m a community person, so if I see something in the community that’s not right, with all the violence and things and attacks going on, gun violence you know, you want your people in the community to step up as well. The cops can’t do it all by themselves.”

When deputies did arrive on the scene, RCSD’s Crisis Intervention Team assessed the man and decided to take him to a local hospital for an evaluation.

At the moment no charges have been filed.

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