Downtown demolition causes sidewalk and parking closures

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Developers are building a six-story apartment building at Tenth St. and Broadway in downtown Columbia, replacing the old U.S. Bank building there. Construction will cause parking lane closures as well as sidewalk closures along the south end of East Broadway between Hitt Street and South Tenth Street.

According to City of Columbia records, the building will be six stories and will contain roughly 65 one-bedroom apartment units. These apartments will be used to appeal to the younger working professionals living in Columbia, according to a representative for the Odle family developers.

Along with the five floors of apartments, the first floor will be used for retail space. The small business opportunities will hopefully attract more people to the places to shop downtown. The executive director of The District, Nickie Davis, thinks that this will be a good thing.

"You can't only have one clothing shop down here to bring in mass amounts of people," said Davis. "You want a good selection of clothing same with anything else you're looking for. So yes, we love to keep our businesses diverse and interesting down here." 

Downtown Columbia has roughly 600 businesses and they all help each other succeed.

"We love bringing in new space for small businesses," Davis said. "We always can use more brick-and-mortar stores."

The contracting company, 1000 Broadway LLC, has permits for sidewalk and parking spot closure until Oct. 7. It will be reapplying for a longer extension during the upcoming city council meeting. The company will be asking for closure permits until August 15th, 2023. The developer will pay a public inconvenience fee to the city for every day it keeps sidewalks and parking spots closed.

Construction of the new storefront and apartment complex is set to be finished by late August of next year.