Will private student housing boost Five Points? | The State

When University of South Carolina freshman Lauren Dunn was looking for new, off-campus housing for her sophomore year beginning in August, she chose Station at Five Points, a 660-bed private student housing development at the corner of Gervais and Harden streets.

She had a lot of options. Six of the mega-complexes for students have opened near USC since 2014, and another four will be ready for residents this fall.

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“I can walk to Food Lion or get my nails done or go to the bike shop,” she said inside Station’s leasing office in the 900 block of Harden Street shortly after signing up for the fall semester. “Anything around here I’ll be likely to use.”

That’s sweet music to the village’s businesses and property owners, particularly those north of College Street. It’s an area that is part of Five Points proper but has historically been seen as separate from the densely packed shops, restaurants and bars surrounding the Five Points fountain.

It is is even in a separate City Council district.

“People have always thought of Five Points as being around the fountain,” said Amy Beth Franks, the executive director of the Five Points Association, a merchants group. “But we go all the way to Gervais Street.”

The area is noted for the comparably sterile Food Lion strip shopping center, which houses a grocery store, office supply store, pet shop and several other businesses, such as the Ultratan tanning salon and spa.

Danielle Patton, the Five Points’ Ultratan manager, said she is looking forward to the students moving in.

“It’s so close girls can walk here,” she said. “And people passing through will see what’s available on Harden Street.”

Anchor on Harden

While the Food Lion storefronts are full, in large part because of an expansive parking lot, the row of storefronts across Harden Street in the 900 block have long been vacant, with the notable exception of the Hip Wa Zee costume and vintage clothing store, the El Burrito restaurant and the building that houses Bombshell salon.

The area got a boost in 2012 when Waffle House opened north of College, and last year when Rise, a boutique bakery and eatery, opened two lots down. (Television food guru Alton Brown recently said the bacon, egg and cheese biscuit at Rise was the best breakfast sandwich he has ever had.)

Now, with the advent of Station, the storefronts have been renovated or are in the process of being renovated – two by former S.C. Secretary of Commerce and Columbia resident Joe Taylor and four by longtime Five Points developer and business owner Richard Burts.

“The properties just fell into disrepair and then the recession hit,” said Burts, who owns the building that houses Saluda’s Restaurant and Starbucks.

Burts opend his first business in Five Points in 1988. It was called Monterrey Jack’s, and it helped launch the career of a band called Hootie and the Blowfish

“I’m not concerned at all about renting any of the space,” he said. “And it’s great to sit down (by the fountain) and see (Station) on the horizon. It’s really going to anchor that end of Harden.”

‘An amazing opportunity’

Burts added that Station developers Peak Campus of Atlanta met often with the Five Points Association and the University Hill Neighborhood Association on the design and other aspects of the project.

“They’ve done a great job with the architecture and fitting into the Five Points area,” he said. “They listened to our comments and heeded our suggestions. It was a great collaboration.”

Station representatives declined comment. Efforts to reach a Peak Campus spokeswoman were unsuccessful.

Franks said with the new foot traffic from Station, plus a parking variance, the 900 block is ripe for tenants.

“We have an amazing opportunity to develop further down Harden Street,” Franks said, adding that vacant lots surrounding the Cook-Out restaurant near the intersection of Harden and Gervais streets would now be more attractive to developers.

“We’re losing an opportunity if we don’t take advantage of that,” she said.

Franks said more energy north of College will have a positive affect on Five Points as a whole, making it more of a destination to more people.

“It’s not often you get 660 new residents in your neighborhood,” she said.

Maintaining a balance

Anne Sinclair represented the fountain area of Five Points on Columbia City Council for 20 years until she elected not to run for re-election in 2008. She is a ringleader of the Kudzu Queens, the fabulously attired group who star in the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Five Points.

Sinclair said that the development should be a boost for all of Five Points, not just the northern end.

“I hope it brings new energy,” she said, noting that the clothing stores along Saluda Avenue that cater to young women should benefit greatly from the new residents.

But the former councilwoman also worries that an influx of 660 students could change the eclectic mix of people in the village.

“I hope it remains a balance of people from the neighborhoods who want to go and students as well,” she said. “That’s what makes Five Points special. And I love it.”

Overall, she said, “It will really make a difference in Five Points, and I think it will be good.”

Michael Duganier, co-owner and managing partner of Publico, a bar and restaurant that opened in the old Garibaldi’s space across from the fountain in November, predicted that the new residents will make more entrepreneurs and developers look at Five Points as an opportunity.

“If I was coming in here now it would be on the positive side of the pros and the cons,” he said.

In the meanwhile, future resident Dunn, a self-proclaimed foodie and devotee of college food blog Spoon University, said she is looking forward to exploring her new neighborhood, especially Rise.

“I’ve heard good things about it,” she said. “And now I’ll have to try that sandwich.”