The Lantern is a new boutique hotel opening in the Vista this December. 

The Raines Co. is the Florence-based hospitality management group behind the project, which will feature 59 rooms and a restaurant. The address is 1001 Senate St., across from the Monterrey Mexican Restaurant, one block from the State House. The Lantern will be built at the previous Columbia Fire Department Headquarters that closed in 1995, and its six-story fire training tower, that shoots above the Vista skyline.

The building has a limestone facade with a single door and transom, according to City of Columbia’ Design/Development Review Commission documents. The fire tower is concrete.

When hiring, the Raines Co. will be working with Carolina LIFE, a program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and the University of South Carolina’s College of Hospitality, Retail and Sports Management.  

The goal is to train and give career paths to the students, who historically have trouble finding jobs. The collaboration will give the students hands-on experience in the hospitality industry. 

Grey Raines, Raines’ managing partner, said everyone involved in the project should feel the benefits. 

“We saw an opportunity to expand Carolina LIFE’s mission of giving employment opportunities to an underrepresented community,” Raines said. “… The students will gain hands-on experience and build independence in a professional setting while our guests will receive best-in-class hospitality.” 

The hotel’s hospitality experts will mentor and guide the students. Raines said the hotel will develop a curriculum that will align with the students’ abilities and the needs of the hotel.  

“This project stands out because it brings together so many meaningful elements, Raines said. “The Lantern Columbia gives us the ability to work with amazing talent and to showcase Raines’ ability to deliver the best hotel in Columbia with a food and beverage option.”

The Lantern will be more than just a hotel, director of communications for the College of Education, Anna Francis, said on the department’s website. It will serve as a “beacon of inclusion and pride,” Francis said.

“We are excited to honor the history of this building,” Raines said. “This will be a complete historic restoration with a new hospitality use. We are preserving as much of the original character of the building, while adapting it for modern hospitality use. … This is something we are incredibly proud of.”