COLUMBIA, S.C. — The property that used to be a church in Columbia's Rosewood neighborhood will soon become a set of shops and apartments.
Cason Development has announced they're planning to renovate the Rosewood Church building into a residential and retail space. According to the company, the church campus will be turned in to 52 high-end apartments. Their targets to live there are working professionals and empty-nesters.
Developers say an existing building at 2809 Rosewood, across Sloan Street from the church, will be converted into retail space, and a second retail building, which will be home to a new Starbucks.
Three apartments are planned to be above the new retail building. A portion of Sloan Street will also be closed and become a part of the project, creating a dead end, but developers say a pedestrian, bike and golf cart friendly entrance to the project will be created from Sloan Street off Burney Drive.
No other tenants were announced for the other retail space located there, but developers say they're looking at options.
“Interest in the retail portion of this project has been outstanding from the start,” said Taylor Wolfe, a developer with Cason said in a statement. “We plan to be very selective while working through our tenant mix here. Our team wants to be sure we have a collection of retailers that cater to our apartments and serve the Shandon and Rosewood neighborhoods for years to come,” Wolfe said.
The Rosewood Church put the property up for sale in 2019 and has since moved to Moss Avenue. A church had been at that location since 1937. The current church sanctuary building that will be renovated was built in 1970. ”
Garvin Design Group of Columbia is the architect for the project and Boyer Construction is the contractor, according to developers.
“It’s exciting to be involved with repurposing an existing neighborhood church into really cool living spaces without altering the church’s appearance,” said Scott Garvin, president of Garvin Design Group. “The mix of permanent residents and the newly created retail next door will result in a very active development for this area of Rosewood.”
The project is Cason’s third announced Columbia mixed-use project. Work is already underway to convert the Klondike Building at 1813 Main St. downtown into apartments with retail, and also on a mixed-use project on Forest Dive at Brentwood Drive in Forest Acres with a mix of boutique retail and townhomes.
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