Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I noticed this fairly large complex not too far from down the Charleston Highway from Piggie Park last weekend.

As it turns out, it is the former home of the Midlands campus for Southern Wesleyan University, a college based in Central. In 2008 the school moved to Pinnacle Point Business Park off of Farrow Road (I'm unclear if it is still there, it seems unusualy difficult to call up an exact address or current status). At the time of the move the motivation was given as

The new location is in Pinnacle Point Business Park. Southern Wesleyan University will occupy more than 16,000 square feet of space in the building.

“Offices will be on the first floor and classroom space will occupy the third floor,” Iddings said.

For the past 18 years, the university has been located in the Granby Building on Charleston Highway in Cayce.

“Although our current space in the Granby Building has served well for many years, an aging facility and shifts in student demographics have convinced us to set out for new territory,” Iddings said. “A great many of our students and faculty have mentioned this need and we have listened.”

Given the (empty) building directory board, I think the owners tried to bring in a number of businesses to replace the University, but apparently in the end it did not work out. To me it appears that the building was in reasonable shape when SWU left, but that years of neglect and vandalism have made it unusable without some major work.

There is a real-estate sign on the property, toppled over, but probably still in force, and likely associated with this 8 year old pitch for the building in better times.

Finally, here is the LoopNet summary on the property.

According to WLTX Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary merged with Hickory North Carolina's Lenoir-Rhyne University back in 2012, in a move which locals expected to strengthen the Columbia campus, but which in the end has resulted in it merging with the new parent and moving to Hickory itself. One local pastor quoted by WLTX expects the move to exacerbate an ongoing local pastor shortage especially as graduates will now tend to end up in the North Carolina synod.

According to The State, the move was to be made by 1 January of 2025. When I drove through on 9 February there didn't seem to be anybody around though clearly the buildings had not been emptied and there was still a quirky vehicle on the grounds.

Also according to The State as of mid-December the property had not yet been listed, though Lenoir-Rhyne does expect to sell it.

(Hat tip to commenter george011210)