Adding its name to the list of Carolina cities that are exploding in growth and redevelopment, the decade-long-and-counting transformation of Columbia, South Carolina’s BullStreet District is yet another prime example of why the region is one of the hottest in the U.S.
A redevelopment of the capital city’s former South Carolina State Hospital campus—which dates to 1821—the project transforming the 182-acre campus is representative of similar efforts to repurpose large, outdated mental health facilities, such as Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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“The whole campus itself was run by the Department of Mental Health from the early 1800s until the late 1990s,” said Chandler Cox, project manager and director of commercial development at Hughes Development Corporation, who has worked on the project since its beginning a decade ago. “And really, the way that we care for the mentally ill changed and we no longer needed campuses like BullStreet within our state. You’ll see a lot of these campuses across the country in different places, particularly in capital cities.”
The district is well-positioned right off interstates 20, 26 and 77, with a connection to the major north-south I-95 freeway, offering a “no-turn-drive” to some of the other happening Carolina destinations: Charleston, Greenville and Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Asheville, North Carolina.
Envisioned and produced by master developers Hughes Development in partnership with the City of Columbia, the BullStreet District is fast becoming a tourism and meetings lure, with minor league baseball’s Columbia Fireflies (a Low-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals) playing in the year-round, event-friendly Segra Park.
Located about a mile from the South Carolina State House, the district features shady streets perfect for strolling but its infrastructure needed major improvements that would be financed through a public-private partnership and further spurred by the approval of a minor league baseball stadium in 2014. The project broke ground in January 2015 and will unfold and modify for at least another decade.
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In a constant state of motion since breaking ground in 2015, BullStreet District includes five residential projects that are either open or in development and expected to be finished by the end of this year.
BullStreet District Meeting and Event Options
One of the foundations of both the district and for meetings and events is Segra Park.
“Their goal is to do about 500 events per year, as they only have 66 home baseball games,” Cox said. “It’s a public park, so as long as there’s not a ticketed event, you can go and walk laps around the concourse or even host events there. You can even rent their batting cages to do a cool event—it’s one of the really great anchors of the district.”
Segra also offers club-level spaces that can be used for seated events of up to about 400, along with 20-person conference rooms.
Perhaps playing into the life sciences meetings segment, Cox said the University of South Carolina is building a health science campus in BullStreet, with the first phase under construction and completion targeted for 2027.
The two other meetings- and events-related venues are both historic renovation projects: the Laundry Building and the Central Energy Building.
The Laundry Building, named as such because it was the laundry facility of the hospital, opened in April and was developed by local developer Todd Avant, who has tackled many historic renovation projects. The venue offers 7,000 square feet of space for meetings with another 40% of the building yet to be developed, but which may wind up being used as office or restaurant space. A highlight of the venue is a lawn that is shaded by historic trees.
The Columbia Food & Wine Festival as well as BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina have already held events there, along with weddings, in the roughly two months it has been open.
The other historic renovation project is the Central Energy Building.
“It’s a little bit different because it is not a building that we anticipated saving as part of the BullStreet campus,” Cox said. “It was truly the central energy facility for the entire neighborhood—effectively the power plant.”
The building, a past and present landmark in the neighborhood, was saved by a church that was looking for a new home.
“They host church there on Sundays and they do everything from church events and things that are related specifically to their mission all the way to weddings, galas and conferences and seminars,” Cox said of the 15,000-square-foot open-floor-plan event venue with 8,000 square feet of rentable space.
The building was restored from being a windowless brick-and-steel power plant into a community hub that is one of the most in-demand event sites in the city, with many groups using the venue’s indoor/outdoor stage for bands and other entertainment.
“They’ve got big barn doors where they can be facing internally to the space and then turn it around and sort of be out on their back lawn,” she said. “So, there’s really a nice amount of variety between the sizes of the Laundry at 7,000 feet, Central Energy at about 15,000 and then Segra Park, which has a much larger capacity depending on the size needed. It’s one of the great things about BullStreet—there’s just enough room that it can serve a number of different purposes within a fairly small space.”
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The Future of the BullStreet District
Current BullStreet District projects include a residential area that will offer a public plaza gathering area that could be used for events and has a regional pizza restaurant and Columbia’s first outdoor food hall with nine restaurant bays under construction.
“The intention is that we will have the ability to close off this area between these two blocks and create a place to do big events or festivals,” Cox said. “I think there will be flexibility to do really interesting and fun, engaging events and opportunities.”
Cox said there currently is not a hotel component planned for the district, but “it’s definitely something that we’re thinking about, and how we would add it to the fabric of the community.”
There are a variety of properties available starting about three blocks away, including a Marriott, Holiday Inn, Sheraton and the boutique Hotel Trundle, with its Flutter Wing by Hotel Trundle extension just around the corner. The Moxy Marriott Columbia Downtown opened in January across the street from the South Carolina State House.
Columbia as a Meetings Destination
Located in a section of South Carolina dubbed the Midlands, the state capital is a popular meetings destination because of a location that makes it easy to get to from both the Lowcountry and upper part of the state.
“There’s a lot to do when you’re in Columbia that is really unique and fun,” Cox said. “Between the rivers and the art scene, there’s just a ton for groups. I actually did a conference there a couple years ago and people were blown away by the ability to be in all these little downtown neighborhoods that are cultured, but all of them have their own vibe and own personality, if you will.”
The heart of Columbia’s meetings and events offerings are located in the Vista Historic District, which contains the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, South Carolina State Museum and numerous restaurants, bars, galleries and specialty retail shops.
