$300,000 allocated for King Street location
A few weeks ago, there was hardly a speck of garnet at 258 King St. in Charleston.
But today, with the opening of Carolina on King, USC's Lowcountry welcome center, the storefront is awash in the university's hallmarks.
The goal, said Luanne Lawrence, vice president for communications, whose office is responsible for the store, is to raise USC's profile in one of the state's largest cities and a key tourist destination.
"Columbia can feel like 20 hours away (from Charleston), and it's not necessarily a destination when you're here," Lawrence said. "So how do we keep it top of mind when you're in this beautiful city that you might want to come up to Columbia and take a visit there as well?"
The new space hopes to invoke the feel of campus with a brick path meandering through stacks of Gamecock merchandise toward a picture of the Horseshoe's gates and walls adorned with photos of athletic victories and historic buildings.
It'll hope to do so in the heart of downtown, on the main drag of King, between Wentworth and Hasell streets. It sits in the heart of one of the city's prime shopping locales, where it's nestled between Victoria's Secret and an incoming Anthropologie store.
The last tenant in the 1400-square-foot space, Oxette, a Greek jewelry store, left in June, after USC bought out the last three years of its lease for $246,000. The university allocated $300,000 for the project, according to its 2013 budget.
That's typical for a property of that size, according to Jennifer Davis, the founder of Domicile Real Estate Brokerage, which handled the deal. USC is spending about $58.57 per square foot per year; typically, according to Davis, such a space would cost between $45 and $60 per foot.
Aristotelis Mpougas, one of the store's owners, declined to comment Monday, but he told The Post and Courier in June that it wasn't making enough money to justify the lease.
"Selling the lease was a great exit strategy for our business," Mpougas told the Charleston newspaper. "Oxette was profitable but not to the extent that we had forecast for future commitments."
Lawrence said she wasn't worried about that aspect of the new center. She expects the storefront, which will sell T-shirts, hats and a range of other USC regalia, won't be profitable, she said.
Instead, the merchandise is just a hook to draw visitors inside and let them interact with USC. Its director, Ashley Slane, will offer help with getting financial aid, applying for admission, buying sports tickets and navigating the university's other processes.
And, Lawrence said, it'll cater to a growing area that sends a lot of students and donations USC's way. About 15 percent of the student body lives in the area, she said, and the approximately 10,000 alumni living there have given about $15 million in the Carolina's Promise capital campaign.
It's also planning to coordinate with the Darla Moore School of Business, which has a satellite location a few blocks away on Market Street, to host athletics recruiting events, alumni get-togethers and admissions seminars. The financial details of that arrangement are not yet clear, she said.
But as the center gets its open, it's already getting used to day-to-day life in Charleston, as the city was drenched in rain and saw flooding throughout the area Tuesday — including on King.
"It's one thing to have a rainstorm in Charleston," Lawrence said. "It's another to be in a building that you're just moving into and to discover where the leaks are. We've been moving stuff around."