Many have already seen preparations on East Carolina Avenue and Second Street for a Coker College project, one which will have its official groundbreaking ceremony today at 2 p.m. This new 48-bed student housing complex, a response to a growing enrollment at the college, comes on the heels of other welcome developments from Coker such as the opening of the Downtown Flats student apartments on College Avenue and the Betty C. and Joseph L. Wiggins School of Education last year.Of course, Coker College does not provide the only example of growth in Hartsville these days. On South Fifth Street, the retailer Tractor Supply will soon begin work to move into the former Food Lion building, filling in a major vacancy in that retail district.
Another excellent development seen in the news lately is happening on East Carolina Avenue and South Fourth Street, the proposed site of Hartsville’s own Hampton Inn. Our city government has long been working toward bringing this four-floor, 48,000-square-foot development here, a $6 million investment which can create jobs and another amenity for Hartsville’s visitors. We have been hard at work so that City Council could provide $450,000 worth of incentives to the developers, most of which comes in the land on which the hotel will be built. Council will give its final reading on the ordinance for this deal in February.
The area just off downtown known as The Vista, where this exciting development is planned for construction, has truly emerged as a showcase of the direction Hartsville is taking in the 21st century. It was once the home of railroad facilities and the old Byerly Hospital, and it neighbored the Hartsville Cotton Mill site where the S.C. Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics has now stood for the last decade. This important part of our city center could experience a dramatic transformation soon, both through the plans for Coker College’s expansion and the plans for the hotel.
Mayor Mel Pennington has often said that bringing the right kind of development to the heart of our city, something that serves as an attractive extension of everything built before, can provide one of the best arguments for why Hartsville deserves investment. We are a strong and vibrant city, and we are growing and improving in ways that prove it. What we build now, of course, can easily serve as the stepping stone to greater advancements in Hartsville’s future.
