Bull Street Commission — Columbia, SC
Date: 2019-08-19
Time: 14:00

BULL STREET COMMISSION MEE TING AGENDA

 August 19, 2019 - 02:00PM
 Mayor's Conference Room at City Hall
 1737 Main Street
 Columbia, SC 29201

Bull Street Commission was established when Council voted unanimously to approve the
creation of the Bull Street Commission to be comprised of seven (7) members serving in an
advisory role to the city in advancing the vision and the goals articulated by this Council in
achieving quality development on Bull Street, including funding issues, benchmarks and
development activities. The commission will be chaired by a member of City Council and
comprised of six (6) other representatives from the following categories: the business
community including a minority business owner, the Coalition of Downtown
Neighborhoods and the historic preservation community. All appointments will be
approved by City Council and appointees will be duly sworn to advise the city and the
developer in the discharge of their respective responsibilities. The Bull Street Commission
is asked to meet at least every other month and report to Council at least twice a year.

Commission Chair: Howard Duvall
Commission Members: Ellen Cooper, Lyle Darnell, Dr. John Dozier, Rebecca Haynes,
Robert Lewis, and Sabrina Odom

CALL TO ORDER

PRESENTATIONS

1. Bull Street Development Update - Mr. Robert Hughes, President of Hughes Development
 Corporation and Ms. Chandler Cox, Project Manager for Hughes Development
 Corporation

FUTURE MEETING DATES

  Monday, October 21, 2019

  Monday, December 16, 2019

ADJOURNMENT




 1

BULL STREET COMMISSION MEE TING AGENDA

 August 19, 2019 - 02:00PM
 Mayor's Conference Room at City Hall
 1737 Main Street
 Columbia, SC 29201

Bull Street Commission was established when Council voted unanimously to approve the
creation of the Bull Street Commission to be comprised of seven (7) members serving in an
advisory role to the city in advancing the vision and the goals articulated by this Council in
achieving quality development on Bull Street, including funding issues, benchmarks and
development activities. The commission will be chaired by a member of City Council and
comprised of six (6) other representatives from the following categories: the business
community including a minority business owner, the Coalition of Downtown
Neighborhoods and the historic preservation community. All appointments will be
approved by City Council and appointees will be duly sworn to advise the city and the
developer in the discharge of their respective responsibilities. The Bull Street Commission
is asked to meet at least every other month and report to Council at least twice a year.

Commission Chair: Howard Duvall
Commission Members: Ellen Cooper, Lyle Darnell, Dr. John Dozier, Rebecca Haynes,
Robert Lewis, and Sabrina Odom

CALL TO ORDER

PRESENTATIONS

1. Bull Street Development Update - Mr. Robert Hughes, President of Hughes Development
 Corporation and Ms. Chandler Cox, Project Manager for Hughes Development
 Corporation

FUTURE MEETING DATES

  Monday, October 21, 2019

  Monday, December 16, 2019

ADJOURNMENT




 1

BULL STREET COMMISSI ON MEETING MINUTES

 August 19, 2019 02:00 PM
 City Hall, 1737 Main Street, Mayor’s Conference Room


CALL TO ORDER
Chairman Howard Duvall called the meeting to order at 02:07 p.m.

  Attendee Name Present Absent Late Arrived
  Howard E. Duvall   
  Ellen Cooper   
  Lyle Darnall   
  John Dozier   
  Rebecca Haynes   
  Robert Lewis   
  Sabrina Odom   
PRESENTATIONS

1. Bull Street Development Update - Mr. Robert Hughes, President of Hughes Development
 Corporation and Ms. Chandler Cox, Project Manager for Hughes Development
 Corporation Received as information. No action was taken.

Mr. Robert Hughes, President of Hughes Development Corporation provided an update on the
Bull Street Development to include the REI Co-op Building that is currently under construction.
The Bull Street Park is 20-acres along Gregg Street. There is 1,600 feet of new day lighted
stream; 1,000 linear feet of restored stream; and walking trails, picnic shelters, a two-acre pond,
and other features. The one-acre dog park will be finished soon. The park should draw people to
the Bull Street District. He thanked Rebecca Haynes for her input on the stream design. Merrill
Gardens is a 196-unit active senior living project. The windows are in and the balconies are
being added. They hope to have residents moving in early next year. The new Dominion Energy
substation is being relocated to the back corner of the project. We have worked on this
agreement for many years. All of the Bull Street District will have underground power. We
brought the first draft of the plans for the Babcock Building with us. Everything is progressing as
we anticipated. The fifth unit has been sold at Town Park and the next phase should start very
soon. There will be 28-two and three story town homes along Calhoun Street. We will begin
demolition of two buildings along Harden Street along with a portion of the cinder block wall in
preparation for work for the University of South Carolina on the site. A 250-unit multi-family
project with over 60,000 sq. ft. of retail will be the first project at Bull Street to apply for the City


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of Columbia and Richland County’s tax incentive. We are in the early design stages for how the
center section of the Williams Building will be preserved and maintained. We are working with
retailers for the retail district. We are excited about what is coming.

Ms. Rebecca Haynes asked about the location of the future stoplight.

Mr. Robert Hughes, President of Hughes Development Corporation said a stoplight is in design
at Williams Street. It does not intersect with the neighborhood. Freed Street will be right in, right
out with no left turn on Bull Street. Williams Street will have a left turn on Bull Street and a full
stoplight.

Ms. Ellen Cooper said people coming off of Freed Street will be able to make a right turn on Bull
Street and they will be taking Confederate Avenue. That is a big concern.

Mr. Robert Hughes, President of Hughes Development Corporation said this was all part of the
traffic study that was done when the ballpark was originally designed in 2015. The entrance
along Bull Street will enhance the visibility of the Bull Street District.

Mr. Lyle Darnall asked if there is a junior anchor or catalytic type of retail.

Mr. Robert Hughes, President of Hughes Development Corporation said it is an interesting
balance between going after large anchors and throwing a lot of people to your center while also
creating that pedestrian feel with more than one shop on a 100’ run with sidewalks. There is a lot
of grade change that impacts some of the decisions we are making. Bull Street needs to be
authentically Columbia. It cannot serve one demographic. It has to be a nice mix of national,
regional, and local. We will never sacrifice time for quality. We want to get this right and retail
is the biggest piece of that.

Ms. Sabrina Odom asked if there will be a lot of shaded areas, street furniture, and trees for
people who like to shop and rest.

Mr. Robert Hughes, President of Hughes Development Corporation said absolutely. A lot of the
trees are evergreens and live oaks. We are being forward thinking about the trees we plant.
Centers that work from a retail perspective are the ones where people come and stay. In March
2018, Bull Street was designated as an Opportunity Zone by the Governor and in June 2018, it
was approved by the Federal government. The Opportunity Zone legislation was implemented to
enhance development and growth opportunities in low income census tracts. We hope this will
drive a lot of development and interest in Bull Street. We have set up an Opportunity Zone Fund.

Councilor Duvall said redevelopment of the Medical School seems to be a perfect place to use
the Opportunity Zone Fund if the State does not come through with bonds.

Mr. Robert Hughes, President of Hughes Development Corporation said if they go the private
developer route, any private developer would be looking at programs like that.




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Ms. Chandler Cox, Project Manager for Hughes Development Corporation explained that
Hughes Development Corporation went before the City of Columbia Design Development
Review Commission (DDRC) in May with a request to change one of the thoroughfare
connections. This allows us to integrate the site back into the fabric of Columbia. There are three
connection points along Calhoun Street. We asked the DDRC to consider moving our connection
point towards the current hole in the Calhoun Street Wall at Talley Street. The application was
rejected by the DDRC and we are in the process of appealing that.

Ms. Rebecca Haynes asked why the application was rejected.

Ms. Chandler Cox, Project Manager for Hughes Development Corporation said we were not
given a reason why it was rejected. It didn’t meet all of the standards. We are asking for
clarification.

Councilor Duvall said one of the objections was that the offset of Henderson Street created a
traffic hazard.

Ms. Chandler Cox, Project Manager for Hughes Development Corporation said Kimley-Horn did
our traffic study and they looked at this intersection. The width of Calhoun Street allows for
better traffic flow in and out of the site at Talley Street.

Ms. Melissa Gentry, P.E., Assistant City Manager said there are different perspectives about the
historic nature of the wall.

Ms. Chandler Cox, Project Manager for Hughes Development Corporation said the goal was to
do as little to the wall as possible. We worked with Amy Moore and the City’s Preservation
Office to come up with the proposal. In March, we withdrew our DDRC application to work with
the City. We hired a historic consultant after that consultation with Amy and her team in an
effort to make sure this was appropriate.

Council Duvall asked if this is an alternative to the proposal to widening the existing taller fence.

Ms. Chandler Cox, Project Manager for Hughes Development Corporation said yes, this was
granted in the code and the Bull Street Development Agreement. We proposed giving up this
intersection in exchange for going through Talley Street. Our proposal is to widen it to create a
22’ intersection.

Ms. Rebecca Haynes said you would not have to remove any trees in this scenario; you are just
taking out part of the wall.

Ms. Chandler Cox, Project Manager for Hughes Development Corporation explained that
Hughes Development Corporation said we propose to do as little as possible.

Councilor Duvall asked if there would be any required signalization or turn restrictions on
Calhoun Street.




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Ms. Chandler Cox, Project Manager for Hughes Development Corporation said there would not
be signalization at either location. Calhoun Street is wide enough to have a center turn lane.
There has been a lot of press recently about Bull Street in the New York Times, WIS, Columbia
Regional Business Report, and a realtor news magazine. We are also doing an upcoming
podcast.

Councilor Duvall said that was an excellent report. Things are moving along much faster than the
public realizes.

FUTURE MEETING DATES
The next meeting will be held on Monday, October 21, 2019.

ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was closed at 2:54 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by:



Erika D. Moore, CMC
City Clerk




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BullStreet Commission Meeting
 August 19, 2019
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 Current Construction Projects

 Upcoming Work

 Opportunity Zone Designation

DDRC Application, Denial and Appeal

 Recent Press

 Q&A




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Recent:

NY Times: Former Mental Hospital to Recreational Hub

WISTV: “We’re ahead of schedule,” says BullStreet District…

CRBR: Construction begins for first national retailer at BullStreet


Upcoming:

Realtor Magazine story on “Megadevelopments”

“The Rock Doc” Podcast




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