‘No longer neglected’: Development bringing market, health clinic to rural Richland Co. breaks ground
By By Mollie Naugle
Copyright postandcourier
COLUMBIA — Developers celebrated the groundbreaking of the Station at Congaree Pointe, a mixed-use complex coming to Bluff Road near Interstate 77 promising to bring resources to a rural area of Richland County.
The Station at Congaree Pointe will feature a 15,000 square-foot food market and five shared commercial kitchen spaces, as well as a 15,000 square-foot health center and pharmacy operated by Cooperative Healthcare.
Cooperative Healthcare is one of four entities partnering as owners of the development, alongside nonprofit Columbia Empowerment Zone, Richland County and the City of Columbia.
Columbia Empowerment Zone is behind the complex’s food market and restaurants. Executive director Felicia Maloney estimated the nonprofit’s portion of the Station at Congaree Pointe will cost around $6.5 million.
Richland County is also playing a role in the complex’s development with the addition of a substation for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, a magistrate office and municipal courts.
Richland County administrator Leonardo Brown said having services like the magistrate office nearby is much more convenient for residents of the Bluff Road corridor, which connects Columbia to Hopkins and Congaree National Park.
“Instead of having to travel a far distance, it’ll be closer to the community in which they live,” Brown said. “The ideal situation is to have those services in that area in which you live so that you don’t have to drive too far away.”
Ground has already been broken on the substation and magistrate office. Construction on Southeast Region Headquarters for the Columbia Police Department is also expected to begin in the next few years, according to Maloney.
Bluff Road is considered one of the more rural parts of Columbia, with the area planned for the Station at Congaree Pointe located between a junkyard and a recycling plant.
Columbia Mayor Daniel Rickenmann said the complex will bring new economic opportunities to the area and connect it with the core of the city.
