By James T. Hammond
jhammond@scbiznews.com
Published January 2012

My wife and I have feet firmly planted in two South Carolina cities. We work in Columbia, where we have lived for two decades. And we spend most weekends in the outskirts of Greenville, where I grew up.

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On one recent weekend, we spent several hours on the Swamp Rabbit Trail, which runs from downtown Greenville, through the Furman University campus, for 13 miles to Travelers Rest. The reclaimed railroad right-of-way now is a magnet for walkers, joggers and bicyclists. It exists because city and county leaders had the vision to reclaim the disused railroad and convert it to public space. People have responded enthusiastically and officials are busy working to extend the trail to other destinations.

We have come to love and enjoy both cities. Our tale of two cities gives us much opportunity to compare the renaissance that is under way in both places. Both have leaders who understand that a vibrant core business and entertainment district is vital to attracting and keeping the creative class. These are the people who start businesses, inhabit the renovated lofts, and supply the artistic and recreational assets that make any city an interesting place to live in or visit.

Greenville is clearly ahead of Columbia in creating the buzz that has lured restaurateurs, bankers and manufacturers who now are building headquarters, factories and entertainment venues that dot the Upstate.

Greenville’s success was no overnight wonder. Four decades ago, the late Mayor Max Heller spearheaded a small but determined group of civic and business leaders who had a vision for Greenville. The immediate result was a conference center and Hyatt Hotel complex that would anchor North Main Street. Two decades later, civic leaders and local philanthropists envisioned the Peace Center, built on the banks of the Reedy River, a small stream that flows under Main Street and in past generations was little more than a sewer for the textile mills on the west side of town.

In the past decade, the city and local developers came together to create RiverPlace, a multi-use development on the river’s banks, and the new city baseball stadium in the West End. Entrepreneurs and developers have filled in most of the mile of Main Street that once was remarkable only for the number of empty storefronts.

Today, a $100 million high-rise, multi-use building is going up at Washington and Main streets. It is the new commercial vision for the central business district by local developer Bob Hughes. From City Hall beside the historic Poinsett Hotel, visitors can choose from some 90 restaurants within walking distance.

Our other home, the state’s capital city, has leaders with similar visions for an urban core that hums with recreation, artistic and gastronomic opportunities, and also is inviting for its residential and career offerings.

Columbia has made some progress toward fulfilling that vision. Even with the late start, Columbia has the beginnings of a trail system that uses the region’s natural river assets. But fulfillment of that vision is incomplete.

Sometimes it seems the desire for a quick payoff obscures the vision of how a wide-ranging trail system and green space might spur commercial development and further residential growth in the central city.

A good example is the current debate over the future of the city-owned property that is currently the aging and under-utilized baseball stadium. Clearly a deal was in the works to rush sale of the property and convert it to a needed but poorly thought-out commercial development. In addition to losing a public recreation asset, such a development likely would aggravate the already flood-prone Rocky Branch Creek basin (Photo, left, by Thomas H. Hammond).

The baseball stadium site could turn out to be symbolic of the kind of future Columbia’s leaders choose for generations to come.

When Greenville was faced with such a choice at its Reedy River falls, it razed a highway bridge that obscured the landmark, closed a major traffic artery, and built a soaring footbridge that allows residents and visitors to enjoy this natural asset. Today, that footbridge is the symbol of the city, and is celebrated in reviews by airline magazines, and top 10 lists of great places to live and work.

Sasaki Associates, the planning agency for the University of South Carolina, has drafted visions on paper of what a Rocky Branch Creek greenway might look like. Much of the drainage of Rocky Branch Creek passes through the USC campus. But the value of restoring the watershed on university property would be diminished by a dam of development near the baseball stadium.

Since the city’s desire to sell the baseball stadium surfaced, a citizens group has come forward to work toward the goal of a Rocky Branch Creek greenway. The city leaders should pay attention to the legitimate desire of these citizens to see the creek freed from choking development, and to have the watershed developed into a new and desirable public recreational asset.

When the city of Greenville decided to redevelop the site of its former police and fire departments at Main and Broad streets, it put out a call for developers with a vision to enhance the downtown entertainment district. Local developer Bo Aughtry, who built the Hilton Hotel in Columbia, proposed a hotel and office complex that complemented the district. This Christmas, the city used a plaza between City Hall and the new Marriott Courtyard hotel to operate an ice skating arena. The result was a Main Street abuzz with people, in stark contrast to the decaying Main Streets of so many struggling Southern cities.

Columbia has an opportunity to turn the under-utilized baseball stadium into a unique attraction. People might one day be able to walk or bicycle from Five Points to the Congaree River along a Rocky Branch Creek greenway. Future generations would brag about the vision of the current generation in creating such a place. Such greenways actually attract a new kind of development that values green assets in an urban setting. And a carefully crafted development plan for the baseball stadium property might include both a greenway, and solution to the flooding issues, plus thoughtful commercial development of a portion of the property.

Short of such a vision, the city should earmark any funds earned from sale of the property and future taxes paid on it for development of other public recreational assets, such as the proposed Congaree River park. 

James T. Hammond is Editor of the Columbia Regional Business Report. Reach him at 803-401-1094, ext. 201.