At a regularly scheduled meeting on Friday, the USC Board of Trustees considered Bull Street development land for a new medical school building. The new campus, which would be a $200 million project, could use a 16-acre portion of the downtown Columbia development space.
USC does already own 14 acres of the space in the vicinity of Palmetto Health Richland hospital. The board also considered building the new campus there, according to The State newspaper. If the trustees approve of using the Bull Street development, which trustee Eddie Floyd said would be a gift, the land USC owns could remain an option in the future.
“We want to build a health campus," Floyd said. "We want to build not just a medical school."
Floyd also said that a nursing school, pharmacy school or the likes could be built on "extra land."
“If you’ve got enough land, and the need comes up to change, you’ve got a place to go," he said.
The State reports that USC plans to incorporate a life-science facility and a parking garage to the new campus. There was an attempt earlier in the year to get a $50 million start on the project that state legislators shot down.
The medical school's current site leaves much to be desired, officials say, and yearly rent is expected to increase more than seven times.
This part of the Board of Trustees meeting, the “Bull Street Property Preliminary Land Acquisition Project,” will be run by the Buildings and Grounds Committee at 10 a.m. Friday.
—Compiled by T. Michael Boddie, News Editor