Innovista Implosion Accelerates

Last week’s decision by the U.S. Department of Energy to zero out hydrogen fuel cell research was a dagger in the heart of S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell’s vision of government-dominated economic development in the Palmetto State.

It may have also dealt the final, fatal blow to the University of South Carolina’s costly “Innovista” research campus – which was supposed to be ground zero for the “hydrogen economy” that Harrell, Columbia mayor Bob Coble and USC President Harris Pastides (above) promised would bring our state millions of dollars in new capital investment.

Oh, and thousands of new jobs.

In fact, Pastides was elevated to the USC Presidency by liberal philanthropist Darla Moore and disgraced Carolina First CEO Mack Whittle specifically to see Innovista through.

Yet even before DOE’s announcement, Innovista was already falling apart – having failed miserably to leverage the millions of taxpayer dollars being poured into it.

Specifically, the campus has been unable to close the loan on its “Horizon II” building, which is where the public-private partnerships were supposed to be housed.

Without that loan, the entire Research University Infrastructure Act state bonding for the project comes crashing down.

In spite of this, the City of Columbia and Richland County are both contributing more than $30 million to fund two new parking garages adjacent to each of Innovista’s “signature research blocks,” the “Horizon Center” and “Discovery Plaza.”

Should they be making such an investment? Particularly now?

The “Horizon II” facilities are obviously in danger of never being built, whereas the “Horizon I” facilities still need an additional $20 million before they are operational.

Where will the money come from?

Clearly the private sector isn’t coughing it up. The state doesn’t have it. And now, even Barack Obama’s Energy Department is refusing to pick up the tab.

Interestingly enough, a $12.5 million Energy Department grant that was secured earlier this year by USC is for research that’s supposed to be conducted in “Horizon I” building, which is currently just a shell.

In other words, USC lacks the facilities to conduct the research the feds are funding.

Did DOE bother to check that out before awarding the grant?

Other buildings on this $140 million campus are also not what they appear to be.

For example, the “Discovery I” campus houses two University groups on its first two floors, while the top three floors are empty and will require another $20 million in funding to complete.

So who, exactly, are Innovista’s tenants?

Well, other than USC’s own School of Public Health, the pickings are pretty slim.

There’s Collexis, a small local firm with extensive USC connections, and then there’s the Loccioni Group, an Italian firm specializing in precision measurement technology.

That’s it. Two firms. A handful of employees.

The other prospective tenants are tied up in “University partnerships” which depend on a mixture of federal funding, state funding and state bond issues to successfully pull off.

Needless to say, pulling anything off at this campus just got a lot harder, which brings us back to the fundamental danger of government trying to pick winners and losers in the private sector – with your money.

Stay tuned … we’re just getting warmed up on this massive waste of taxpayer dollars …

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