Residential

Residential

Innovista is expected to bring 3,000 new residences to the immediate area, providing many nearby housing options for researchers and others who will work in the district.

This will only strengthen Columbia’s foundation as a city that was ranked second of “America’s Most Livable Mid-Sized Communities” in 2005 by the national non-profit organization Partners for Livable Communities--not to mention the city's 2008 inclusion in Relocate-America's "Top 100 Best Places to Live."

Commuting that’s a breath of fresh air
Commutes will be measured in footsteps, not minutes or hours. Innovista’s momentum and a renewed interest in the nearby Congaree River have already sparked several new or planned downtown developments.

In fact, nearly 1,000 new residences have been completed in the past few years, with another 1,000 planned at seven new developments. Among them:

Completed

• Adesso--Italian for “now”--a six-story complex with 115 upscale units at the corner of Blossom and South Main streets, across from the Horizon Center
• Capitol Places, five locations of renovated apartments and condos--ranging from studios to three-bedroom units--along the Main Street corridor.
• Olympia & Granby Mills, 345 high-end lofts and apartments in converted textile mills.
• Renaissance Plaza, 55 condos in a live-work development on bustling Lady Street.
• Vista Commons, 184 one-, two-, and three-bedroom units in a gated community a short walk from the Vista center.
• Whaley Row, a 27-townhome development convenient to the University campus, the Three Rivers Greenway, the University's new baseball stadium and Williams-Brice Stadium (football).

In Progress

• The Battery at Arsenal Hill, a mix of affordable housing--20 town homes, 16 single-family homes, and 8 bungalows--near Finlay Park.
• CanalSide, a 725-unit development of apartments, condos, and row homes along the Columbia Canal next to Riverfront Park.
• The City Club, luxury townhouses and condominiums located on Gervais Street across from the State Museum and EdVenture
• Congaree Park, 49 single-family lots in a gated community of custom homes the along the West Columbia Riverwalk
• The Lofts at Printers Square, 11 environmentally friendly lofts that promise to be Columbia's most expensive.
• 521 Gervais, seven town homes in a former 19th century printing plant that had previously been renovated for a Publix grocery store.
• 900 Pulaski, a gated community of 22 brownstones town homes and 22 singe-family lots a short walk from the bustling entertainment of Gervais Street in the heart of the Vista.

You’re safe at home
Additional residential development is planned at the riverfront location for the Carolina Gamecocks’ new baseball stadium. Up to 17 singe-family, 1,500-square-foot homes will be built and cost no more than $140,000.

More established neighborhoods such as Shandon, Old Shandon, Hollywood/Rose Hill, Rosewood, Elmwood Park, Earlewood, and Cottontown are only a few miles’ bike ride or drive.

Affordable housing prices
Housing costs in South Carolina are less than two-thirds of the national average. The median mortgage payment for homeowners was $991 a month, lower than 39 other states, according to 2005 Census data. The median price in South Carolina was $141,600, well below the national average of $222,000, according to 2006 National Association of REALTORS data.

Former University President Andrew Sorensen has said he wants to ensure that housing, particularly on University-owned property around the baseball stadium, will be affordable. Gil Walker, executive director of the Columbia Housing Authority, which will manage the residential site, told The State newspaper the project will “promote owner-occupied, market-rate homes which are affordable.”

Residential Links

Building Our City
Special oline section of The State newspaper

City Center Partnership
Manages Columbia’s downtown Business Improvement District, a 36-block area

Congaree Vista residential listings
The Congaree Vista Guild’s listing of residential developments and real estate companies

Live Columbia
A blog promoting residential development in downtown Columbia

Living Here
Special online section of The State newspaper

Columbia Development Corporation
City-established nonprofit that promotes development of Vista