Community leaders announce Bluff Road improvement project

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — When you think of well-developed areas in Columbia, your first thought is probably not Bluff Road.

However, community leaders are hoping to change that.

“I don’t know if there are too many events where you have this type of collaboration,” said Sen. Darrell Jackson, a Democrat from Hopkins.

Thursday afternoon, city, county and state leaders announced a project coming to Bluff and Atlas Road in Columbia called ‘The Station at Congaree Pointe.’

“This dream started 20 years ago,” said Columbia mayor Daniel Rickenmann. “It has grown from people knowing that we need investment, housing, healthcare here to all of these different pieces. It opens up an opportunity for people to grow a business. If someone has a dream, they can follow it right here.”

The project aims to bring affordable assisted living, healthcare, a marketplace and a police substation to the Lower Richland community.

“The visibility of having deputies and police officers working out of here is going to improve this area even more,” said Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott. “The Lower Richland area is a great community. It has been left out a lot in the past. Those days are over with.”

Mayor Rickenann believes ‘The Station at Congaree Pointe’ will create community activity and spur economic development in the area.

“I think this becomes an incubator and a corridor,” Rickenmann said. “It ties this community to downtown as well as downtown to this community.”

While groundbreaking for the project is scheduled for the near future, the transformation of Bluff Road will begin as soon as this week. 

“The first building you need to knock down is the bail bonds building,” Sen. Jackson said. “You see that bulldozer? Tomorrow, if the weather permits, that building is coming down.”

The project will use state funds and private investment and is being spearheaded by Columbia Empowerment Zone.