Hotelier scopes out Vista as potential build site
An undisclosed hotelier is interested in building a new, 100-room hotel in the Vista, The State reported.
According to an attorney representing an investment group interested in the property, the hotelier is looking at a 0.6-acre lot at Lincoln and Lady streets that fronts the city’s new Lady Street parking garage.
The unidentified investment group owns other hotels in the state, and the new five-story hotel would have dedicated parking spaces in the garage. It would be located across from a Hyatt Place hotel that is currently under construction.
“Because of the high occupancy rates downtown, there have been a number of hoteliers looking at Columbia over the past few months. It wouldn’t surprise me if we had more,” said Fred Delk, executive director of the Columbia Development Corp.
Delk believes the potential hotel would boost activity at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. He also said the location is in the center of Vista activity, as there are 50 restaurants and bars within two blocks.
Mammoth bill potentially comes out of extinction
A bill that would make the Columbian mammoth the official state fossil has received a second chance, The State reported.
Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, reversed his objection to the bill, which was inspired by 8-year-old Olivia McConnell. He also added an amendment that would place a moratorium on new official state emblems and symbols.
“I am not in the business of breaking third-graders’ hearts,” Peeler said to the Senate.
Peeler dropped his opposition after receiving many tweets, emails and calls and hearing from Amanda McConnell, Olivia’s mother.
Scientists say the mammoth went extinct approximately 10,000 years ago. Olivia suggested the mammoth be the state fossil in part because its teeth were dug up by slaves on a South Carolina plantation, becoming one of the first vertebrate fossils found in North America.
SC closes minimum-security prison
State officials announced the closing of a prison in Columbia on Thursday, saying fewer inmates were returning to the corrections system, The Associated Press reported.
According to Bryan Stirling, corrections department director, the Campbell Pre-Release Center on Broad River Road has started to close down. Inmates are being moved to other low-level facilities, while uniformed officers are being transferred to other jobs in the prison system.
“Closing Campbell Pre-Release will consolidate pre-release programs and services and allow us to reinvest in security at SCDC by adding contraband officers at the Broad River complex and filling vacancies in other institutions,” Stirling said.
The department’s website said 139 inmates were living in Campbell as of Thursday morning. There are a total of 2,380 inmates in South Carolina prisons and seven other minimum-security prisons.