Charter school leases temporary space on Marion Street

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A charter school which ran into community opposition of its plans to locate a campus on a five-acre site in Cottontown has leased temporary space on the other side of Elmwood Avenue in downtown Columbia.

Clear Dot Charter School, which announced plans last year to locate at the former Jim Moore Cadillac dealership at 2222 Main St., has leased a 21,580-square-foot office suite at 2015 Marion St. Colliers International’s Tommy Tapp represented Uptown Properties LLC in the transaction.

An open house for the 2019-2020 school year is scheduled at the Marion Street property tomorrow from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m., according to the school’s website.

Reached by phone today, Clear Dot principal Lindsey Ott said the site would serve as a temporary campus for the charter school. She said the school has a permanent campus but would not say where that was or if the Cottontown site was still in consideration.

“I’m not willing to discuss anything about our permanent facility,” Ott said.  

The public, tuition-free charter school was proposed for the site of the former car dealership in the fall of 2018. The Cottontown/Bellevue Historic District Neighborhood Association expressed formal opposition to that plan in a letter dated Oct. 30, 2018, citing concerns including increased neighborhood traffic and a lack of parking for school events.

The locating of a school on the five-acre tract across the street from Cottontown pioneer The War Mouth gastropub would also remove the land from property tax rolls in an area still seeing an influx of commercial businesses, including nearby Cottontown Brew Lab and Citta del Cotone, a pizzeria which opened last November.

At full capacity, Clear Dot would have 1,300 students in grades K-12, according to its application with the S.C. Public Charter School District, which was denied in April 2017. The school was approved for sponsorship through Erskine College’s Charter Institute for the 2019-2020 academic year.   

In other area real estate transactions:

• Tapp represented T&Z Associates in the lease of a 9,740-square-foot Save-A-Lot Center at 6012 N. Main St. to Variety Wholesalers Inc. Tapp also represented Heathwood Rental Co. LLC in the lease renewal of 4,036 square feet of retail space at 2841 Millwood Ave. to Millcreek Pet Food Center.
• Columbia-based computer hardware manufacturer XForcePC has purchased a 2,800-square-foot office building at 1063 Center St. in West Columbia for $199,500. NAI Columbia broker John Gregory represented seller GSM Properties.