A hotel and parking garage in Columbia’s Five Points? City leaders hope for state money to help
Columbia and state leaders are still hoping to see a new hotel and a public parking garage come to Five Points after years of trying, and they may get some state money to help.
State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Columbia, has asked for a $2.5 million earmark from the 2024-2025 state budget to go toward a parking garage at the corner of Blossom Street and Saluda Avenue, where the former Wells Fargo bank is located. Rep. Seth Rose, D-Columbia, has also requested a $2.5 million earmark in the budget for the parking garage project, meaning the project could get $5 million from the state in total, if both earmarks are approved in the final budget in June.
“I fought very hard to eliminate the dive bars,” Harpootlian said of college-centric bars known for serving $1 shots and, in some cases, underage patrons, in Five Points. “But we’ve got to replace them with something.”
Harpootlian received criticism in 2019 for leading efforts to see the closure of several bars geared toward college students in the longtime nightlife district on the edge of the University of South Carolina campus. The university was also supportive of seeing the bars close, some of which had been cited for serving customers under 21 years old.
This new effort, Harpootlian said, is part of plans to make Five Points a more elevated district after the closure of several of those bars.
The state money would help pay for part of a parking garage that would support plans from the city to attract a hotel and potential new office and retail space into the district.
Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann did not provide specific details about those efforts but told The State, “We are working collaboratively with groups to bring hotels, offices and new retail to this corner that will provide a favorable economic impact to the present and future of Five Points.”
The state money for the parking garage is “by no means a sure thing,” Harpootlian added, as state lawmakers have yet to finalize the 2024-2025 budget, which is expected to be done in June. But he believes he has support from the Senate and did not think the House would oppose the earmark.
Columbia leaders have long hoped for a hotel and parking garage for Five Points.
The city in 2019 bought a former state office building at 2221 Devine St. for $3.8 million with the goal of turning that property into a Five Points hotel, but that plan never materialized. It was later slated to become townhouses, but that plan also fell through. Now the city is close to selling that Devine Street property, a city spokesperson confirmed to The State earlier this month. The city did not provide any details for what the site might be used for after the sale.
Past plans for the Wells Fargo bank site have also gone unrealized. The Wells Fargo branch at the corner of Blossom Street and Saluda Avenue closed in February 2021. That year, the city heard a proposal to turn the site into a hotel, but those plans have been up in the air in the years since.
Now, plans for a hotel and parking garage at that corner could be moving forward, but it’s unclear how far along those plans are. Harpootlian said he was asked by Rickenmann to support state money for the parking garage, which Harpootlian said would be part of the plans for a hotel.
“Speaking personally as a hospitality business owner in the district, we need a hotel badly,” Five Points restaurant owner Steve Cook previously told The State. “That, to me, is the Holy Grail for development in Five Points.”
In the past several years, Five Points has begun to change. Though it remains a hotspot for college nightlife, there also are new restaurants, new retail stores and yes, a handful of vape shops that have also been controversial among city leaders.
Harpootlian said the hope is to continue to see Five Points evolve into something more refined in the future.
This story has been updated with new information
This story was originally published May 21, 2024, 2:59 PM.
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