Commercial real estate brokers in Columbia, SC

What they're saying about the Rivals in Red Tour at Williams-Brice Stadium

“This event offers a rare opportunity to watch in person two of the best Premier League teams right here in Columbia. As a lifelong European football fan, I look forward to joining tens of thousands of spectators at Williams-Brice Stadium for a great match.”

“We are excited to host two of the greatest sports brands in the world at Williams-Brice Stadium. We look forward to having this wonderful and historic match, bringing soccer fans to attend from all over our state and region to the Midlands. This event highlights the collaborative spirit between the University, the city and the state.”

“We had an incredible time during last year’s visit to the US and we are pleased to be returning with the men’s team to prepare for the 2024/25 season. The popularity of English football is continuously growing in the US, and we’ve come to expect passionate and enthusiastic support from our US fan base. They didn’t disappoint last year and everyone at the club is looking forward to reconnecting with those fans again this summer. Having secured some of the best sporting facilities the US has to offer, the club will create the optimum environment for the team to reconnect after their summer break, and work on match fitness before the start of the Premier League season. The quality of opponents lined up to play is at the highest level, giving the players an opportunity to gain valuable playing time, and for fans to see some of the most famous teams in world football playing live. As is the club’s tradition during preseason, we’re expecting this tour to not only help prepare our first team players, but also give some of our exciting up-and-coming Academy talent the opportunity to experience training and playing within a first team environment at some of the most impressive and historical US stadiums”

“Our supporters are in for a real treat, with two massive games against two of our greatest rivals, these will be fantastic occasions in amazing settings and we can’t wait. “Our clubs are the three most popular Premier League teams in North America, a fact underlined in our televised game with Arsenal in December, which became the most watched Premier League game in US history. “We know there are millions of super passionate American fans who love this club and what it stands for, many are members of one of the 67 official supporters clubs spread across the States.”

“This historic match between two of the world’s most prestigious soccer clubs will bring tens of thousands of fans to our state and further strengthen South Carolina’s international profile. Thank you to the University of South Carolina and all those involved in bringing the Premier League and the international spotlight that comes with it to South Carolina.”

“As a City, we are extremely excited about the Premier League’s decision to partner with the University of South Carolina, Experience Columbia, the sports council and others to bring the World’s top soccer teams and players to play matches before thousands of fans in Williams-Brice Stadium in downtown Columbia! This collaborative effort benefits a Community, our City and the Palmetto State.”

“We’re thrilled to host the clash between two historic clubs, Manchester United and Liverpool, in Columbia at Williams-Brice Stadium on August 3rd, 2024. This historic event not only marks the first time our city welcomes such a prestigious game but also the inaugural international match at Williams-Brice Stadium. It showcases the excellence of the University of South Carolina, our world-class facilities, and passionate fan base, making Columbia an ideal host. This celebration highlights our city’s growing prominence, emphasizing collaboration between the University, city, and state.”

“Experience Columbia SC Sports is honored to be “The Official Destination Partner” of this once in a lifetime event. When approached with the opportunity to assist TEG Sports and the University of South Carolina with bringing this match to Columbia, it was an immediate yes for me. As a huge sports community, we have wrapped our arms around large events in the past, but the global reach and fanbase surrounding this sport and these teams generates the potential to make this the most impactful sporting event ever hosted in Columbia. We look forward to showcasing our destination to the fans of Man U and Liverpool and can’t wait to Paint the Town Red together come August 3rd.”

We are thrilled to be able to bring three of the top soccer teams in the world to the U.S. this summer to Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Columbia. We’ve had a lot of interest from fans wanting to know when tickets go on sale, so we encourage anyone interested in attending the matches live to make your arrangements to enjoy the action as soon as possible.

Expect to see the streets filled with people, football kits (that’s soccer speak for team jerseys) as far as the eye can see. Heavy traffic. New faces at your favorite restaurants. Menu specials and more.

Columbia will give the Manchester United and Liverpool soccer teams, and their fans, a very warm welcome when they come for the friendly match as part of their U.S. “Rivals in Red” tour at Williams-Brice Stadium Aug. 3.

“We’re going to dress the town in red,” said Scott Powers, executive director of Experience Columbia’s sports tourism arm.

When another major sporting event landed in the city, officials put up 128 street pole banners to celebrate hosting the opening rounds of the NCAA March Madness tournament in 2019, plus large welcome signs and balloon arches, while also enlisting dozens of businesses to host their own special events themed for the tournament — anything to make the teams and their fans feel at home in South Carolina’s capital city.

And Columbia will put its best foot forward again for the Premier League European football clubs’ special match here in August, meant to promote soccer fandom in the U.S. and to give existing fans something to get excited about.

Hosting two of the biggest names in international sports is a big deal to the athletics community in the Southeast, but Powers and other Midlands leaders say it’s so much more than that for Columbia and the region.

Fans waited in online queues by the thousands to buy tickets when they went on pre-sale at the start of this week, and within just a few hours of the general sale opening a day later, all 76,000-plus tickets to the match were sold out.

“This was their Taylor Swift,” said Tomasz Kluszczynski of the soccer fans who waited for tickets. Kluszczynski is the director of girls’ soccer for the South Carolina United Football Club, and he said he never imagined a match with two of the biggest teams in England would come to Columbia.

“Charlotte? Yes. Atlanta? Yes. But Columbia? Zero chance,” he said.

Columbia, in fact, is in the company of Los Angeles and Philadelphia as hosts for the three-game “Rivals in Red” tour, which also features the Premier League’s Arsenal club. Those two cities have populations roughly 27 times and 11 times the size of Columbia, respectively.

The University of South Carolina and Southeastern Conference’s “rabid fan base” and loyal alumni, plus the atmosphere of USC’s Williams-Brice football stadium are a few reasons Columbia was a contender to host the match, Hugh Nicholson, one of the event organizers, previously told The State. So far, that bet is paying off.

“Taking it somewhere where people are going to be proud of it,” Nicholson said. “To show off what they have. To show off their community. To show off their building… that’s what we look for.”

Indeed, Columbia will be glad to show off its goods for the nearly 80,000 fans who will come for the game.

“It puts us on the map for a whole different population,” said Aditi Bussells, an at-large Columbia City Council member.

Kluszczynski said he thinks locals will be surprised by how much of a soccer fanbase already exists in Columbia and the Southeast.

“I think it’s going to open quite a few eyes,” he said.

Columbia has successfully put on large-scale events in the past. Hosting games for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in 2019 was a historic victory for the city, which hadn’t hosted a March Madness tournament game in 49 years before that. Beyoncé and Jay-Z came to town the year prior for a blockbuster concert at Williams-Brice Stadium.

And at least seven times a year, Carolina football fans come to Williams-Brice by the tens of thousands.

The Premier League match “can certainly be a catalyst (for more exposure), but I would actually argue that the momentum has already started,” Bussells said. “This is just an example of what happens when we’re making a conscious effort to put Columbia’s story out there.”

Putting its story out there is something Columbia leaders agree the city has struggled with in the past. Some have called it a self-esteem issue. Columbia is always being compared to Greenville and Charleston. It lags those cities in new development, and locals could debate for hours about where this city ranks for entertainment, shopping, dining and more.

But Columbia leaders have worked hard to change that tune.

“We’ve had a little bit of a pride issue, where people would undersell their own hometown — maybe because we may take it for granted or maybe because it’s kind of that old mentality of ‘this is all we can be,’ and I think that’s changing,” Bussells said.

The city has revived its Main Street, more and more housing is being built downtown, the city hosts James Beard-nominated restaurateurs, and efforts are underway to further capitalize on the region’s three rivers.

“They’re talking about Columbia 10 years ago” when people make critical comparisons to other parts of the state, said Britt Poole, executive director of the Central Midlands Council of Governments.

In Columbia — but also nearby Lexington, Cayce, Forest Acres, West Columbia — “there’s all these great spaces for coming together as a group or having a night out,” Poole said. “I’ve seen over the last decade a significant investment by a lot of jurisdictions … and it’s really resulted in something special” in the Midlands.

Poole himself is a soccer fan and has traveled to Atlanta for matches. People expect major cities to have what it takes to host an event like this. But he said it will be fun to see people from Atlanta coming to the Midlands for a change to see what Columbia has to offer.

The 2019 NCAA tournament games brought in $11.3 million in direct economic impact between Richland and Lexington counties, Powers said.

Gamecocks athletics have an annual economic impact of at least $200 million in Columbia.

The annual Masters golf tournament in Augusta creates one of the best weeks of the year for hoteliers in the Midlands.

Leaders expect the upcoming soccer match to make a similar splash.

“This is a big deal,” said Carl Blackstone, president of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a huge bonus to bring this type of exposure to Columbia. … It’s an international sporting event being played in the Deep South in the middle summer when we don’t usually get international sporting events.”

A normal Gamecocks football game will draw fans mostly from within 100 miles, Blackstone said. But this match will draw spectators from across the Southeast and likely even beyond because it’s so rare for these internationally-known teams to play state-side.

“And let’s be honest, it’s not an inexpensive endeavor,” Blackstone said. “A lot of folks that can afford to come will come and spend more when they get here as well.”

The international appeal of the soccer match means a lot more people than Gamecock football fans will be paying attention to Columbia and the Midlands. It also means that a lot of the people coming for the match will almost certainly be out-of-towners who will need a place to stay overnight.

That creates a huge ripple effect for hotels, restaurants, retail shops, rental car providers and more.

On average, more than 15 million people visit Columbia every year, according to the tourism bureau. In 2022, that resulted in an extra $130 million in state and local tax dollars and an overall economic impact of $2.6 billion.

But the problem has been that most of those visitors don’t stay overnight.

Bussells said she hopes the soccer match will be an opportunity to market Columbia as a getaway destination and will entice fans to stay a day or two before or after the match.

Powers is counting on it.

Organizers for the 2019 March Madness games had special activities lined up for fans to keep them occupied and to show off Columbia before and after games. He anticipates doing something similar in August.

“We want (fans) to be able to have an opportunity to see what Columbia has to offer, on Thursday, Friday, Sunday — however long they stay” before or after the match, Powers said.

Beyond the immediate economic impact, leaders think the more people that get their feet on the ground in Columbia, the better the changes for other big-ticket events, or even future developments.

Could Taylor Swift make a tour stop in Columbia one day? Could a professional organization with a conference of 100,000+ attendees find room in Columbia?

Bussells thinks yes, and believes more and bigger events like this soccer match will help make the case, and not only to organizers but to developers and other city leaders.

If someone has a good experience in Columbia or in Lexington, Cayce or beyond, they’ll probably want to come back. And then maybe they’ll want to move here, or they’ll want to move their business here.

“It just is a domino effect,” Blackstone said.

COLUMBIA — With faux greenery draped over hanging lights, an artificial tree overshadowing the bar and a glass-enclosed kitchen, it's easy to forget that the now-renovated restaurant space on Gervais Street once held a chain sandwich shop.

But after a speedy rebuild of the space, The Hollow, a wild game restaurant coming to the Vista, is set to open March 4. The restaurant and cocktail bar, from a former bartender of State Street Pub in West Columbia, was first reported back in October 2023.

On the menu are Southern food classics recreated with unique selections of wild game. Where diners might be used to a soul food classic like fried chicken and collards, Executive Chef Danté Serra will instead plate sweet-tea brined fried pheasant alongside sautéed greens.

"You can dip your toe into that pool of wild game and the forest concept, but then really come back to comfort that you're more used to," Owner Chris Fitz said. "Instead of getting an 8-ounce steak filet, it's the exact same but with elk."

But all the menu standouts aren't solely geared towards meat-eaters. As a vegetarian option, the menu features a Doppio ravioli. Essentially, the two-sided ravioli will have two sides for filling — one is a butternut squash and the other is a walnut sage ricotta.

Fitz said having menu items that included those who weren't interested in wild game meat — and finding ways to incorporate vegetables — was a key part of his mission for the place.

Aside from the distinctive food menu, the eatery's drink program will feature botanical cocktails, draft beers and wine. The cocktail program, spearheaded by Fitz, will feature unique sips like the house cocktail named The Hollow and The Bee Sting. The former is crafted with a bone-marrow infused bourbon. The Bee Sting is a play on the Bee's Knees, a classic cocktail with gin, honey and lemon juice. The sting comes from the bar's use of a hot honey from The General's Hot Sauce in Lexington.

LEXINGTON — Voodoo Brewing Co., a Pennsylvania-based brewpub chain, will open its first location in the Midlands, and its third in South Carolina, on Main Street in Lexington.

The national brewing chain with a handful of locations across the country is set to take up nearly 5,000 square feet at 102 W. Main St., according to a press release from real estate group Trinity Partners.

In the same building, Asian fusion chain TakoSushi and Molto Vino, a wine bar with another location in Forest Acres, are also set to open.

The building, which is set to be completely occupied by the three businesses by the end of 2024, is in the heart of Lexington's downtown. The area has grown immensely in recent years, with a bustling food and drink scene that includes local spots like O'Hara's Public House and unique night-out opportunities like Craft Axe Throwing.

The brewery is set to open by the end of the year, according to the release. It joins two other South Carolina locations — one in Murrells Inlet, which opened in October of last year, and one in Fountain Inn. Another location is planned for this year in Myrtle Beach.

Voodoo, which is known for new age IPAs and eccentrically designed cans, joins other chain breweries to locate in the state as smaller brewpubs struggle with rising costs of business. Iron Hill Brewing, a Delaware-based brewery and restaurant, opened in the growing BullStreet District in the summer of last year.

More than 460,000 people (and thousands of businesses) contribute to the Columbia metro area’s $54 million economy. But have you ever wondered about the Capital City’s heaviest hitters?

Consider this Columbia Business 101 — your guide to our region’s five key industries and major employers.

Note: When we say Columbia metro area, that refers to the Central SC Region that includes Calhoun, Clarendon, Fairfield, Kershaw, Lexington, Newberry, Orangeburg, and Richland counties.

The key industries

Five key industries represent ~55% of the Columbia metro area’s economy, based on data from Central SC. We’ve listed them in order of employment numbers.

Fun fact: Blue Cross Blue Shield of SC offering insurance services, contact center, claims processing... etc. employs over 10,000 people alone and is the top private employer in the region.

Prisma Health Midlands + Lexington Medical Center together employ over 21,000 individuals. The services in these industries are delivered by trained professionals and include establishments providing medical care, health care, and social assistance.

Under that retail bracket of employers, Wal-mart came out on top, employing almost 6,000 people. Amazon followed, employing over 2,600, and Samsung + UPS, both employing 1200-1350 people.

Manufacturing in the Midlands comes in many different forms, but at the top of the list are Nephron Pharmaceuticals, Michelin, Trane, which makes metal products + machinery, and Samsung. Local players such as Kraft Heinz, and Westinghouse Electric Company, also carry a significant employment presence.

Fun fact: According to the latest tourism data from Experience Columbia, visitation increased from 15.1 million in 2021 to 15.8 million in 2022, and visitor spending increased 12% over the previous year to $1.7 billion.

Of the $1.7 billion spent in Columbia, food + beverage spending accounted for $487 million — that’s 29% of each visitor’s budget.

The economic impact of tourism on our region is substantial and the total economic impact in 2022 sustained over 22,300 jobs and generated $130 million in state and local tax revenues.

The top food and beverage employers in the Midlands region are Dak Americans LLC, a company that creates plastic materials and resins, Mark Anthony Brewing, a brewer and producer of hard seltzers, and Devro Inc., a company that creates edible casings for meat packaging.

The Public Administration sector consists of establishments of federal, state, and local government agencies that oversee and manage public programs. In total, the state of SC employs over 30,000 in the Midlands, the top two being the SC Department of Corrections and the SC Department of Social Services.

Now that we’ve established the major industries, we bet you’re curious about some specific names. Whether you’re job hunting (or just “casually prospecting”), here are five major employers — all that employ more than 5,000 workers on average.

32,085 employees | Public sector | Search jobs

With Cola being the capital of South Carolina, the city’s largest employer is the state — which helps drive tourism, the economy, business, and local government agencies.

15,000 employees | Healthcare | Search jobs

In 2017, Greenville Health + Palmetto Health merged to become Prisma — and became the second-largest employer in Richland County and one of the largest healthcare providers in the region.

10,998 employees | Insurance services | Search jobs

BCBSSC is the only SC-owned + operated health insurance carrier in the state and has a family of companies and affiliates also offering services to South Carolinians.

6,557 employees | Healthcare | Search jobs

The hospital in West Columbia delivers more than 4,000 babies each year and performs more than 25,000 surgeries. It was also named the No. 2 hospital in SC and is recognized as the No. 1 hospital in the Midlands, according to U.S. News and World Report.

6,456 employees | Educational services | Search jobs

The over 200-year-old university is the largest in South Carolina and has been ranked as the nation’s number one first-year student experience. The university also boasts the country’s number-one ranking for international business via the Darla Moore School of Business. With its campus spread throughout the city, USC is the heartbeat of Columbia.

2023 was a year of record achievements for economic growth in Richland County. The Richland County Economic Development Office (RCEDO) announced capital investments have surged to $2.35 billion, and with them, 4,532 new job opportunities have become available.

Scout Motors | Automotive |~4,000 jobs | Volkswagon is entering the electric off-road vehicle arena under the Scout Motors nameplate and building those cars at a new facility coming to Blythewood.

Cirba Solutions | Energy | ~300 jobs | Cirba Solutions — an electric vehicle battery materials facility — is investing $323 million to establish operations in Richland County. The new state-of-the-art, world-class lithium-ion battery recycling + materials facility will be ~400,000 sqft and located at Pineview Industrial Park, which is less than 1.5 miles from I-77 via Shop Road and home to Mark Anthony Brewing.

FN America, LLC | Manufacturing | ~100 jobs | The United States subsidiary of global firearms manufacturer, FN Herstal plans to expand its Richland County operations. The company’s $18 million investment will create approximately 102 new jobs.

Blanchard Machinery Company | Construction | ~30 jobs | The construction equipment supplier is opening new operations in Calhoun County. The company’s $46 million investment will create 30 new jobs and transfer 150 existing jobs from its Lexington County operations to the new facility.

Cooperative Electric Energy Utility Supply, Inc. | Utility, Energy | ~100 jobs | A consumer-owned electric materials supplier plans to expand operations in Lexington County, making a $52 Million investment.

Xerxes | Manufacturing | ~80 jobs | Xerxes is planning to establish its first SC Operations in Richland County by leasing a new production facility that will expand the company’s capability to deliver market-leading underground fuel and water storage tanks.

Mark Anthony Brewing | Fourth largest brewer in the US |~300 jobs | The Mark Anthony Brewing is a supply chain management company that invested $400 million in a new facility that created 300 new jobs to increase production of White Claw and Mike’s Hard Lemonade on Shop Road in Columbia.

This information is derived from the most recent data published by Central SC.

It’s been more than two months since the new internet company Lumos was made to halt all of its work laying cable in Columbia after contractors hired by the company caused half a dozen gas leaks, numerous water line breaks and the evacuations of homes in the city. The company has still not been permitted to resume its work laying promised fiber optic cable in Columbia.

In the meantime, though, the company is moving ahead with work in Lexington County.

Lumos, a North Carolina-based fiber optic internet company, was digging to lay fiber in various Columbia neighborhoods this fall.

But the Columbia-Richland Fire Department issued a stop work order Nov. 14 halting Lumos from continuing work in Columbia after numerous gas line breaks caused the evacuation of homes in the Elmwood Park neighborhood and led to a closure of the busy Elmwood Avenue the day prior.

Hazmat crews swept the neighborhood following the gas line breaks to ensure there were no lingering leaks.

The company also hit at least two 6-inch water mains in different locations in the city: one on Chevis Road in the South Kilbourne neighborhood and another behind the Veterans Affairs hospital off Garners Ferry Road, according to Columbia officials.

Columbia Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins said the fire department had never experienced a situation in which one company caused so many leaks in such a short time frame, Jenkins told The State after the November incidents.

Lumos is still not permitted to resume work in Columbia, the Columbia-Richland Fire Department has confirmed. The company was required to submit detailed plans to the fire department for how it would resume work without causing similar damage, but Columbia officials have not yet determined if or when the company can resume work in the city.

Lumos has been working in other Midlands jurisdictions, including in the Cayce and West Columbia area.

A spokesperson for the city of Cayce, Ashley Hunter, said Cayce has experienced a few minor water line breaks from Lumos’ work, but nothing to the degree that occurred in Columbia. Cayce has allowed the company to continue its work following those incidents.

Lumos announced in late September that it had received the proper franchise agreements with Columbia, West Columbia and Irmo to start laying 1,200 miles of fiber optic cable between Richland and Lexington counties. The company promised to invest $100 million between the two counties, while expanding “high-speed internet access to many unserved and underserved residents and (providing) an added boost to economic development in the area,” the company declared in a press release Sept. 27.

Lumos is active in North Carolina and Virginia, in addition to expanding into South Carolina. The company has also announced a $100 million investment in Greenville County.