[Innovista]

Just curious... you said that two of the five retail spots are now unoccupied. What is the second vacant spot? Did Tropical Smoothie, 9round, or Barberitos close too??

[Historic Congaree Vista Developments]

On 8/22/2016 at 9:20 PM, Nick2 said:

Oops, I misunderstood. It's the lot across the street although Park 7 does use that trailer I mentioned. And yes, target and apple are both promissory noted and have until feb 1 to back out. I'm certain now lol. Sorry guys, I should have gotten specifics before posting.

But either way, COLUMBIA IS GETTING AN APPLE STORE!!! Right in downtown too instead of a suburb.

Any new information on this project? I passed by the construction site during lunch today and noticed that there is finally some activity going on after months of no visible progress. A good bit of machinery is now on site along with a truckload of rebar and about a dozen workers moving massive amounts of dirt.

I figured this probably means they have settled the issues they were trying to work out with the city and the site design must be final with construction now underway. If so it would be interesting to see if it's going up as originally planned or if there is a new design that includes space for Apple/Target.

[Historic Congaree Vista Developments]

48 minutes ago, Nick2 said:

I'm fairly sure plans have changed from their previous submittal. Also as far as them coming to the vista/downtown instead of bullstreet. Two major things- The vista is becoming known as a high end shopping destination. Also more majorly: USC students. I guarantee USC students will use the store almost as often as the rest of the actual city combined and will also very much so buy from there. 

They may have made more sense in bull street but that's not where they're going as of right now. They did court apple specifically for bull street but the city wasn't able to offer quite the same amount of incentives as compared to the private developer and the city (I'm not positive about the city giving them incentives for the assembly street store so don't quote me on that haha).

Sorry to keep questioning you. I know you're only here trying to spread good news, and I'm happy to hear it. I'm just trying to understand... How is the Vista building such a reputation as a "high end shopping destination"? I get that it's a growing entertainment district with great restaurants, bars, galleries, spas, and salons, but where is this reputation for high end shopping coming from? The Vista has a relatively small Urban Outfitters to go along with a number of small boutique shops..... and? What am I missing? There are currently no other national retailers (other than an always-empty AT&T distributer) and only a handful of the boutiques would qualify as high-end.

The Commons at Bull Street, on the other hand, promises to be a true high end shopping destination. Bull Street is just over a mile away from USC's campus (even closer than that to Benedict & Allen) and an Apple Store in Bull Street would attract just as many student shoppers, if not more, than an Apple Store on the ground floor of a student housing development at Assembly/Pendleton.

I know you don't have all the answers and are only reporting what information you have. It's just a very curious move for Apple to make if it's true. Idk what kind of incentives Park 7 is offering that Hughes cannot, but they must be significant!

[Historic Congaree Vista Developments]

30 minutes ago, Nick2 said:

@carolinagarnet It's on the same block as the music farm so that google maps image is the right lot. I'm not sure how they'll fit it in because I haven't seen plans. I think they're planning on dedicating the entire first floor of the parking garage to parking for Apple specifically.

Apple stores only average 6-8k per store. The target express is 20k or so. I think that's feasible on a lot this size with proper planning. 

It's definitely feasible, just a big departure from the most recently approved plans which only consisted of less than 3K in retail. Adding retail of that size (At least 25K additional retail) would result in a sizable change in plans. They would have to replace a significant amount of residential units on the lower floors with a big retail space instead which would change the overall look/layout of the building. Wouldn't the developers have to resubmit new plans for approval at that point?

I have seen a few newer housing developments similar to this one with Target as the ground floor tenant and could totally see that happening here if they reworked the building plans, but Bob Hughes and the city have been courting Apple to Bull Street for years so it's still surprising to me that Apple would go with a student housing building on the edge of the Vista over anchoring a more retail-centric development at Bull Street. Not saying it won't happen, just seems odd/surprising.

[Historic Congaree Vista Developments]

There's no way. The retail space at that site is way way way too small to house a City Target, much less a City Target AND and Apple Store.

Have they made significant changes to to the project plan to include a lot more retail and less residential on the lower floors? The latest plan approved by the DDRC just doesn't show anywhere near the amount of retail space that would be needed for those.

[Bull Street Common]

Here's the short video about Bull Street

www.bullstreetsc.com