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Columbia Housing wants diversity for construction on new project

The Oaks at St. Anna's is scheduled to break ground in April 2021; women- and minority-owned businesses and small business enterprises encouraged to participate

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Columbia Housing Authority is looking for people in the community to be a part of a new construction project.

RELATED: Columbia Housing seeks diversity inclusion for construction at former Gonzales Gardens site

Columbia Housing Authority  Executive Director Ivory Mathews said they will be breaking ground in April 2021 on a new project, The Oaks at St. Anna's, the former Gonzales Garden site. 

The Columbia Housing Authority wants 30% of the project bids to be awarded to women and minority-owned businesses and small business enterprises.

"It is so important all great communities have to have a plan around affordable housing," Mathews said.

Mathews said it is important for them to be diverse and inclusive.

"Gonzalez Gardens is a former public housing community where it was razed a couple of years ago and there was a plan in place to put back affordable units on that property," Mathews said. "The phases was actually a two phase process. There was a first phase that included some single family units so that phases is already completed. We're just carrying out the second phase of that plan."

The new project will have 285 affordably priced residential rental units. Mungo Construction will be a builder for the development, but the authority also wants to offer some community business opportunity and to meet a specific goal.

"That goal was to make sure that we let people in the community know that we have a 30% minority, women and small business enterprise goal," Mathews said. "Without that goal, quite frankly without a concerted effort and commitment to meet that goal, we all know that there are a lot of corporations and companies that would certainly be able to come in and do all the work right. But we just want to make sure, it's super important for us to have diversity and inclusion and be very strategic about that."

Mathews said she is confident they will meet that goal.

Bids for the project will open November 18 and are due by January 6. For more information on the bids and project, click here.

Credit: Columbia Housing Authority

    

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