The former South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. headquarters building in Lexington County that will soon house South Carolina’s health agencies. (provided by Department of Administration)
CAYCE – When employees of South Carolina’s various health agencies make the move from downtown Columbia to a former utility office complex in nearby Lexington County, they will be stepping into a building with a grand entry cased in marble hand-picked on a trip to Italy.
There’s an executive board room furnished with a massive, oval table, custom built to seat the executive team and 12-member board of directors of the former power company that called the building home.
The roof is designed to last 50 years and a water purification system in the heavily fortified basement kicks in any time a quality issue is detected.
It’s a campus that its new owner, Columbia developer Bill Stern, calls the best building in the Southeast. And one he says South Carolina’s health agencies can be proud to call home for at least the next 20 years.
Giving the SC Daily Gazette a tour through the more than 500,000-square-foot building, he pointed out break rooms equipped with commercial grade refrigerators, ice machines and coffee makers.
It marked the first time Stern provided a reporter an on-the-record glimpse of the space’s amenities and shared his viewpoint since legislators approved the move in November 2023.
The start of a new health campus
The plan to move 1,700 state employees followed a law passed in May 2023 to split the Department of Health and Environmental Control into two separate agencies.
Legislators also inserted a clause in the state budget directing the state Department of Administration to gather bids on relocating the state’s health agencies from state-owned buildings along Bull Street.
At the time, Stern told the SC Daily Gazette, he was already working on a deal to buy the nearly 100-acre Lexington County complex — originally constructed for the now-defunct S.C. Electric & Gas Company, and its parent company SCANA, which occupied it in early 2010 — to house a private tenant he declined to name.
Also in the works was his purchase of at least a half dozen surrounding parcels stretching south to the nearby county-owned industrial park. They too were owned by Virginia-based Dominion Energy after it bought bankrupt SCANA in the wake of a failed nuclear power expansion project.
Amid those negotiations, someone in state government approached him, he said, though he couldn’t recall the details of who or where.
A long-time proponent of re-settling state agencies into a higher caliber of office space, Stern agreed to submit a proposal.
By the end of 2023, the state and Stern had inked a 20-year, $380 million deal, contingent upon annual funding in the state budget. Legislators approved $30 million last year for the first year of the arrangement.
The agencies have yet to move into the complex. Roughly $5.5 million worth of state-paid modifications are set for completion in May.
Agencies will begin moving to their new space in late March. The move-in will be complete by late June, according to the S.C. Department of Administration.
In addition to the newly structured Department of Public Health, agencies moving into the space provide services for people with disabilities, mental health issues, and alcohol and drug addictions.
Contractors’ to-do list last month included hardwiring connections to the state IT systems and preparing a high-security, fire-proof room necessary to house the public health agency’s vital records.
A ‘modern business environment’
Sara Goldsby, director of the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, is animated by the promise the new building offers her small agency. (Directors with the other agencies moving into the space declined to comment on the potential benefits.)
“The whole campus is really going to help with morale,” Goldsby said. “I think the modern business environment will give people the sense that the work going on there, the work of South Carolina state government, is very important and is something to be taken seriously.”
The agency’s 25 employees currently share space with the state’s Medicaid agency, located on Columbia’s Main Street in the Jefferson Square building, a 12-story office tower built in the late 1960s.
“These are folks who dedicate their entire careers, their entire lives, to serving South Carolina,” Goldsby continued. “All of that essential work goes completely unseen. One of the most important parts of this is they’re going to get to work in a modern space that gives them some esteem, and they really deserve that.”
It’s already helped the agency with recruiting, Goldsby said, as the prospect of the space factored into the recent hiring of a new college graduate.
The Lexington County complex is made up of five interconnected buildings, with water features running through the gated property.
There’s a parking garage for employees. On a nearby parcel, a field of solar panels produce more than a megawatt of electricity to power the buildings, reducing the cost of electricity the state agencies will have to pay.
A high-tech security system automatically closes and locks doors in cases of emergency. And the building is wired with multiple electric system transformers, guarding against power outages. That was essential for its former tenant, which powered roughly two-thirds of the state.
What’s included?
Stern’s purchases went beyond the land and buildings.
In a separate deal with Dominion, he said, he bought all of the furnishings, technology, equipment and appliances, golf carts and forklifts, as well as replacement furnishings stored in the basement.
Some of what he bought was brand new.
After Dominion bought the property in 2019, the utility created new cubicles, with dual computer monitors mounted on adjustable swiveling arms. But then the pandemic hit, and employees were sent home to work remotely, so the desk space was never used.
Stern did not disclose the value of the added furniture, citing legal agreements.
But, he said, the extras are worth “millions.” He contends that unreported cost goes well beyond the purchase price for the land recorded on public documents. The state will be able to use all of this, he said, saving them the cost of buying new or moving older furniture from the current buildings.
A spokesman at Dominion Energy’s corporate office also declined to answer questions beyond references to the office property made in the company’s most recent quarterly financial filings.
Cost comparisons
The projected rate the state is paying Stern for the lease, including operating costs, is $25.80 per square foot in the first year, which could increase about 3% annually, according to estimates provided to legislators in November 2023. That includes utilities, property taxes, janitorial costs and the estimated cost of repairs, which are paid separately from the state’s rental contract with Stern.
As part of the deal, Stern is handling annual maintenance inspections and any repairs that exceed $100,000.
By comparison, the state Commerce Department pays $18.19 a square foot for its recently renewed lease in the Truist bank tower, across from the Statehouse. The Department of Administration pays the same rate. And the state Attorney General’s office leases a couple of suites there for $19.78 a square foot.
On the private market, space in Main Street office towers often goes for $25 to $30 per square foot, according to commercial real estate experts. Owners of newly constructed buildings, such as those in Columbia’s redeveloped BullStreet District, charge upwards of $40 per square foot after factoring in operating costs. But that doesn’t include furniture or parking spaces.
The amenities
Goldsby said the vast amount of meeting spaces in the Cayce complex are ideal for her agency. They include conference rooms, training rooms with video screens and white boards and a 430-seat auditorium, fully loaded with a projector screen and microphones at each seat.
“In the last several years, we’ve been in a rut with virtual meetings,” she said. “They’re certainly convenient but you really can’t beat face-to-face communication.
“People don’t engage as well in education and training,” she continued. “They’re off camera. They’re distracted. They’re multitasking. It’s difficult to have a real conversation in a virtual setting.”
Historically, any time there have been interagency team gatherings, Goldsby said, state employees have struggle to find a good space. And when it conducts training for clinics and treatment center operators around the state, the agency has often had to rent space.
“Right now, we have to drive to this location or that location — decide who has the best conference rooms, which agency has the best parking,” she said. “The logistics of all of that is a lot of work.”
Employees, she said, are excited about the 2 miles of outdoor walking paths and the on-site fitness center.
Stern purchased all the exercise weights, machines and equipment for the gym and yoga studio. Plus, there’s an on-site health clinic the state could operate for its employees.
Goldsby said the marketing team plans to make use of an on-site television studio. Its cameras, audio, lighting and editing equipment was part of Stern’s separate purchase deal.
In the past, Goldsby said the agency often had to hire outside contractors to produce various marketing campaigns and once even went to a studio in Atlanta to film public service announcements. She said having a studio on site and the ability for health agencies’ teams to work together could save in marketing costs.
Rounding out the amenities on campus is a full dining room and cafeteria, complete with a fully equipped commercial kitchen. That would allow the agencies to provide lunch options to employees in an area where dining out options are a drive. But hiring a firm to operate it would take additional dollars.
Stern said he had meals on the campus multiple times before he bought the building and hopes the state provides that service to employees.
And he hopes the state considers constructing more new office space near the site for other state agencies that could tap into and share the complex amenities.
“I hope they build on this,” Stern said. “I think the state needs to be looking at more spaces like this instead of always selecting old buildings with rock-bottom prices.”
