Columbia’s old Lutheran seminary campus is changing hands. Who’s the buyer?
The former Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary campus just outside downtown Columbia will soon be teeming with students again.
A Columbia charter school has agreed to buy the nearly 18-acre property, which has been vacant since January 2025, when its owner, Lenoir-Rhyne University, integrated the seminary’s operations into its main campus in Hickory, North Carolina.
Clear Dot Charter School, a K-12 school in downtown Columbia that serves mostly low-income, minority students, recently agreed to purchase the seminary property for an undisclosed sum.
The 196-year-old theological school’s holdings, which include 18 parcels in the Seminary Ridge neighborhood between Monticello Road and North Main Street, have a combined market value of more than $23 million, according to Richland County property data.
“This campus represents more than additional space,” Clear Dot CEO Lindsey Ott said in a statement announcing the purchase. “For generations, this property has served as a place of learning in our community. We are honored to continue that legacy while creating new opportunities for students and families.”
The sprawling seminary campus, which Clear Dot intends to use as a middle and high school, has more than 130,000 square feet of facilities, including a chapel, auditorium, library, student union, administrative facilities and student dorms capable of housing 116 students, according to its real estate listing.
In addition to its on-campus housing, the seminary’s holdings also include five single-family homes and two multifamily properties — Smith Family Village and Hillcrest Apartments — which each contain multiple apartment units, Lenoir-Rhyne spokeswoman Amanda Smith said.
An 8,000-square-foot building across North Main Street from the seminary that until May had housed Lenoir-Rhyne’s occupational therapy program will also be included in the sale, she said.
“As we continue to steward the university’s resources responsibly and align our physical footprint with current and future needs, we are encouraged that this historic campus will continue serving students through an educational mission,” Lenoir-Rhyne President Summer McGee said in a statement announcing the sale. “It is especially meaningful to see a place with such a rich history of learning and leadership continue to serve future generations.”
Ott said acquiring the seminary property, located about 2 ½ miles from Clear Dot’s Marion Street campus, will allow the charter school to expand and serve more students throughout the Midlands.
The campus was attractive to Clear Dot, she said, because many of its students live in the area and would benefit from early exposure to a college environment.
“It’s a really big step,” Ott said Tuesday in an interview with The State Media Co. “But it really was based on student enrollment, and a setting that’s going to be really positive for my older kids and conducive to learning and to growing as an organization.”
Clear Dot, which had 426 students last year, has been trying to find a larger property since even before it opened in 2019.
Officials originally intended the school’s home on Marion Street, next door to the historic Modjeska Monteith Simkins House, to be a temporary location.
But plans to relocate to larger properties — first, the former Jim Moore Cadillac dealership on the 2200 block of North Main Street, and later, a property in the 600 block of Elmwood Avenue — were stymied by neighborhood opposition.
Expanding to the seminary property should allow Clear Dot to eventually double its enrollment to about 850 students, hire more teachers and increase its elective offerings for high schoolers, Ott said.
There’s also enough space on the campus for athletics fields, which Clear Dot currently lacks.
“That’s kind of the last phase,” Ott said of constructing sports fields. “The dream down the road.”
The school’s immediate plan calls for moving its high school, which is housed in a portable trailer next to the Marion Street building, to the former occupational therapy facility across the street from the seminary.
Clear Dot’s roughly 150 high school students will occupy the occupational therapy building this fall, while renovations are made to Beam Hall, the oldest building on the seminary campus, Ott said.
Once the 115-year-old structure is up to code, Clear Dot plans to move its high school to Beam Hall and transition its middle school to the occupational therapy building.
Eventually, the school also plans to use the student union building adjacent to Beam Hall, which has a commercial kitchen, student activity area, weight room and dining area, and the campus quad that connects many of the seminary’s buildings.
“The quad area is what we’re really excited to get into so our kids have that nice courtyard to utilize,” Ott said.
She said Clear Dot would be keeping all the seminary’s academic buildings, but did not have plans to use the dormitory and apartments included in its purchase of the property. School officials are working with local institutions that may need additional student housing to make use of that space, Ott said.
Clear Dot’s elementary-age students will remain at the Marion Street campus, where a new First Steps 4K program will open this fall in an adjacent building.
This story was originally published July 1, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Columbia’s old Lutheran seminary campus is changing hands. Who’s the buyer?."