CELEBRATE | BUILDING MILESTONES

DOWNTOWN CHURCH, a Presbyterian congregation based in downtown Columbia has announced it will relocate to the Bull- Street neighborhood. The church plans to move from its current home at 701 Whaley to the former Central Energy facility at BullStreet by Fall 2018. Members of the community and local musicians gathered together for a special christening of the new space. DOWNTOWN CHURCH was founded in 2012; since then, the church has outgrown the space it now occupies. BullStreet's master developer, Hughes Development Corporation, donated the 12,731 square-foot Central Energy Facility to DOWNTOWN CHURCH, which will invest roughly $2.5 million on the renovation. The church does not intend for the new building to be a typical church structure; it will maintain the industrial look original to the building and feature a stage situated in front of a roll-up garage door to support indoor and outdoor events. The church is known for demonstrating its interest in being a community partner, hosting events at venues like The Nickelodeon and the Columbia Museum of Art. They also host an annual Christmas bluegrass show for local musicians and the public. The Central Energy Facility played a crucial role during the decades it was in use. In addition to underground piping, more than a mile of elevated trellis carried steam and cold water pipes from the central energy facility to buildings across the 181- acre S.C. State Hospital site, providing heating and cooling to the entire campus until it was decommissioned by the S.C. Department of Mental Health in 2005. A significant task within the BullStreet project is a massive installation of modern, underground power, water, sewer and telecommunications lines, none of which existed on the site until construction began in 2014 in advance of the first Columbia Fireflies baseball game in April 2016. As master developer at BullStreet, Hughes Development Corporation was obligated to save five of the S.C. State Hospital campus' original buildings, but with the central energy facility renovation, the count on the number of buildings that will be saved has grown to nine. While the church is excited about moving, the congregation also acknowledges how vital 701 Whaley has been to their story. Visit www.downtownchurch.me for more information.

Some things deserve a video. Some don't. This does: today, we got our official building permit for construction at Central Energy, our new home on the BullStreet campus.

The haul was long and would have been impossible without the help of Hughes Development Corporation, Hammer Construction, our general contractor and Garvin Design Group, our architects, among many others.

If you're wondering when the building is going to be done, watch the video all the way to the end. When you see it you'll know, this was done by professionals - specifically, Soda City Productions.