New coffee house coming to Columbia amid plans to improve Business Loop

A new coffee house is coming to Providence Road across the street from Hickman High School as plans to improve the Business Loop move forward.

ABC 17 News has been reporting for years about efforts to improve the Business Loop. A half-cent sales tax passed in 2015 to help fund the initiative.

Officials with the Business Loop Community Improvement District said the addition of a coffee shop will help bring people to the Business Loop and spur economic growth. A pedestrian walkway is also being built next to the coffee shop. It’s part of the new bike boulevard that will connect Business Loop 70 at Parkade Boulevard to the MKT trail.

“We cannot be a very strong city if there’s a commercial corridor that’s underperforming and right now, we’re a street that’s been neglected,” Carrie Gartner, executive director for The Loop, told ABC 17 News. “We are not performing at the level we could if our street was improved and beautified and people felt free to walk and bike along the length of it.”

A city employee said construction on the coffee shop started a few weeks ago. The employee did not know when it is scheduled to be completed.