Rosewood Church, 2901 Rosewood Drive: 2019 (Moved) 5 comments
Rosewood Church had been in this spot for 50 years, but the maintenance costs of an aging building were not helping them as they were trying to rebuild the congregation, and in 2019 they moved to 3707 Moss Avenue, putting this property on the market.
Now that the sale is concluded, a project is underway to turn the main church space, and the gym & parking lot across Sloan Street into apartments and retail space. My understanding is that the sanctuary (presumably deconsecrated) will remain (though internally rebuilt), the middle building will be demolished and rebuilt as apartments and the right building will also remain after an internal rebuild.
There will be a Starbucks constructed in the parking lot and the gym building will also be retail. There has been a restaurant space mentioned, but apparently nothing is firmed out on that front. To support all of this, Sloan Street will be partially closed.
Here are WLTX and ColaDaily talking about the project, and here is the planning document submitted to the City Planning Board.
In the meantime, as reported by commenter Sidney, demolition has started:
(Hat tips to commenters Sidney & Andrew)
UPDATE 21 January 2022 -- Construction is ongoing:
5 Responses to 'Rosewood Church, 2901 Rosewood Drive: 2019 (Moved)'
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Lone Wolf
28 Oct 21 at 11:24 am
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Churches are good for churches and not much more. Too many taking up too much room and paying too little taxes.
Dan R
28 Oct 21 at 3:17 pm
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I share many of the same feelings as Lone Wolf. I can't imagine my life without church as it has meant so much to me on so many levels. Churches definitely aren't built like they used to be and one of the comments during the discussion Lone Wolf referenced is that churches like this seem to have more character to them than their younger counterparts. I've also heard a theory (and I've mentioned this before as well) that every 500 years the church (as a whole) undergoes a major change and we're about due for one and this might be an example of what is in the works (though I have a feeling it won't have an official name until after we're gone).
I also have never been a fan of Starbucks as I've never been a coffee drinker.
Andrew
28 Oct 21 at 3:48 pm
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I know of two churches that are now charter schools: St. James UMC (3390 Pine Belt Road) closed in 2018 and is now home to Jubilee Academy...plus the original site of Gateway Baptist Church (7820 Broad River Road, Irmo) was where NewSpring's Columbia campus was before they moved into the former Dutch Square Kmart but it's now home to Green Charter School of the Midlands.
Andrew
28 Oct 21 at 4:46 pm
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Turning churches into schools (like Riverland Hills Baptist into Ben Lippen) and using schools for churches on the weekends seems to be a trend these days. The latter of which I especially dislike because I don't think organized religion has any place in a publicly funded school.
I agree with Dan R though. There are too many churches these days. There are also too many Starbucks, Dollar Generals, Walmarts, and most other chains. The big difference though being that the latter places actually pay taxes on the money they make.
My dislike of organized religion aside, an old "classic" looking church is often beautiful from the architecture standpoint and one can generally tell it's a church even if there are no signs stating such. Many of the modern day churches are just.. well, kind of ugly square buildings with a cross on site - heck many of them are old retail or restaurant spaces. No thanks.
Gypsie
28 Oct 21 at 9:41 pm
A short while back, someone in the "Have Your Say" section was opining Columbia has too many churches. Churches are good for neighborhoods and good for our country.
A beautiful church being replaced by #@$%ing Starbucks? If you needed a sign Cthulu is likely to make an appearance soon. Ugh and their coffee is wretched to boot.