USC wants to buy more property downtown. Here’s how the land may be used

Alexa Jurado
·2 min read

The Greek Village is home to 20 fraternities and sororities and more than 700 students at the University of South Carolina. If the university can get its hands on several adjacent properties, it could be expanding.

The university is eyeing more than 3 acres of property located at the south end of campus. Sandwiched between the Greek Village and the Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center, four parcels of land between Assembly and Lincoln streets are owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway. Currently, they are being used as recreational fields or for parking.

USC already leases these properties, according to USC documents presented to the S.C. Commission on Higher Education, but the university is looking to do a land appraisal and an environmental study ahead of a potential purchase. USC has allocated $20,000 to do so, and plans to use a combination of institutional funds and Wellness Center reserve funds to further finance the project. The commission granted its recommendation for this plan last week.

While the owners may be interested in selling the property, according to USC documents, they have yet to agree on a price for the four parcels.

Concrete plans for an expansion of the Greek Village have yet to be seen — for the time being, USC is mostly concerned with the consolidation of university property in the area, according to USC documents. And university spokesman Jeff Stensland said the land will remain recreational fields for the “foreseeable future.”

But the university’s latest campus master plan update designated the area for future Greek Village development, and it would be an “optimal location” if the Greek Village were to expand, documents show. The plan proposes three mansion-style houses and three to four townhouse-style residences on the Norfolk Southern Railway property.

Greek Village’s 20 housing facilities accommodate less than half of USC’s 47 Greek life organizations. While these houses sit on university property, they are owned and managed by USC’s fraternities and sororities.

Two more fraternities, Sigma Chi and Sigma Phi Epsilon, will return to campus this fall following suspensions. The two fraternities’ Greek Village houses have been leased by two sororities, who are now in limbo, according to The Daily Gamecock, USC’s student-run newspaper. The sororities, Pi Beta Phi and Alpha Gamma Delta, had to move out for good at the end of the spring semester.