More than 100 new apartments planned for growing Columbia district near downtown

Another new housing project may be coming to North Main Street in Columbia.

Developers are seeking approval to build two four-story apartment buildings with a resident center and space for a retail shop on the southern corner of Scott and Main streets, just as you get onto Main Street from Elmwood Avenue.

The project, to be named The Woodley, would have 102 units with one- and two-bedroom options, and the developer will create 91 surface parking spaces and nine on-street parking spaces, according to planning documents submitted to the city of Columbia.

The project also includes 1,800 square feet of retail space, which could host a storefront or office space.

If approved, the project would join other new housing projects that also have been proposed or are underway along the North Main corridor, building onto the steady growth of the North Main area that’s come over the past several years.

Just north of The Woodley, on the upper corner of Scott and Main streets, developer Steve Middleton plans to redevelop the former Jim Moore Cadillac site into luxury apartments, with 250 units and a 360-space parking garage. That project was first pitched in 2021, but the developer in January renewed the site plan with the Planning Commission.

The two apartments would be built among a blossoming stretch of businesses on North Main, including Curiosity Coffee Bar, Sweet Temptations Bakery and Uncle Willie’s Grocery Store.

Behind the apartment sites, on Sumter Street, sit Indah Coffee and Il Focolare Pizza in the Cottontown neighborhood.

Elsewhere in the corridor, nearby at 301 Sunset Drive, developers are working to turn an abandoned shopping center into a 300-unit apartment complex. Developers just received a tax break for the project, which is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2027.

Another apartment complex, Benton Crossing, is far along in construction at the corner of River Drive and Benton Street off of North Main, with about five dozen apartments included in the four-story building.

Along with new housing, new businesses have emerged along the North Main corridor, such as the new Peak Drift Brewing facility. The area has also seen beautification efforts through street improvements and the renovation of Hyatt Park.

The Columbia Planning Commission will consider the new project at a meeting Thursday.