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RAINES REDEVELOPS A COLUMBIA, S. C., FIRE STATION INTO A BOUTIQUE HOTEL.
By DAVID EISEN
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About an hour-and-a-half west of Florence, S. C., the headquarters of Raines, which manages, develops and invests in hotels, is the state capital of Columbia, home to the state’ s university and renown for synchronous fireflies, or fireflies that light up all at the same time. They are found in only six places in the entire world; one of them is in Congaree National Park, right outside Columbia. The fireflies put on their show in late May and early June. In January, Raines lit its own light, opening The Lantern
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Columbia, a 59-key upscale boutique hotel in Columbia’ s Vista neighborhood that is an adaptive reuse of the historic Columbia Central Fire Station. Built between 1949 and 1951, it served as the city’ s fire department headquarters for 45 years. The lobby of the hotel pays respect to its location and predecessors: It is filled with historic photos of the heroes who served in the firehouse, while a moss wall outlines the city and the convergence of its three rivers, the Saluda River, the Broad River and the Congaree River. |
For Raines, the redevelopment project was somewhat of an anomaly: Of Raines’ more than 50 hotels under management, only one other can be defined as a true independent. The Lantern is number two, with the company’ s other properties branded under the likes of flags from Marriott International, Hilton, Hyatt Hotels Corp., Choice Hotels and IHG. As David Tart, managing partner at Raines, explained, the choice to develop an independent hotel was not a difficult one.
“ We’ ve spent many years
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12 hotelsmag. com September 2026 |