Don Tomlin and Councilman Ed McDowell have been appointed to City Center Partnership’s Board of Directors
January 13, 2016
City Center Partnership (CCP) announced Columbia City Council has appointed new members to the organization’s Board of Directors. New CCP board members include Donald R. Tomlin, Jr. and Honorable Reverend Edward McDowell, Jr. These two individuals will join the 33-member board in overseeing the organization’s mission — to focus on filling vacancies in commercial properties, retaining existing downtown businesses and recruiting new ones, and expanding the downtown residential base while providing security, maintenance, and marketing to create a safe, clean, and friendly downtown environment.
About Donald R. Tomlin, Jr.
Mr. Tomlin is CEO of Tomlin & Company, Inc. He has spent approximately a decade and a half in the real estate business and has developed more than 6,000 multifamily residences. Tomlin Interests has invested in print and electronic media (TV, radio, and small market newspapers) and acquired, managed, and sold a diversified media company that owned 22 radio stations, 9 television stations, and 104 daily newspapers in the US. Tomlin Interests is the lead investor in the start-up and growth of Portrait Innovations, Inc., a nationwide portrait studio company, which owns over 190 portrait studios in 40 states and has over 1,200 employees. Mr. Tomlin is a trustee of the University of South Carolina Moore School of Business, Business Partnership Foundation, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the University of South Carolina NROTC Alumni Association and the South Carolina Council on Economic Education, as well as the University of South Carolina College of Engineering and Computing Advisory Board. He is the Chairman of the Board of the South Carolina State Housing, Finance and Development Authority and has served as Chairman of the South Carolina Jobs Economic Development Authority. He is Chairman of Invest SC (the State of SC Venture Capital Program Administrator) and has served as a Board Member of Business Carolina Inc., an SBA accredited small business lender. He has also served on the boards of the Workshop Theatre and the Columbia Museum of Art.
About Edward H. McDowell, Jr.
The Hon. Rev. McDowell is City of Columbia Councilman for District II. He was born in Greenville, raised in Sumter, and received his Bachelors and Honorary Doctorate of Divinity degrees from Claflin University in Orangeburg. He was awarded a Master of Divinity from Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. A versatile and prominent theologian in the United Methodist Church, Rev. McDowell has been the pastor of churches in Charleston, Columbia, Greer, and Spartanburg. He was District Superintendent of both the Anderson and Hartsville Districts, where he oversaw some 200 churches and appointed and counseled over 70 ministers. For 14 years, Rev. McDowell was pastor at Francis Burns United Methodist Church in Columbia and lead the congregation at Trenholm Road UMC. He is currently Associate Pastor of Congregational Care at Mt. Horeb UMC in Lexington. He is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Previously, Rev. McDowell served as president of the Historic Waverly Neighborhood Association, was a member of the Board of Directors of the Benedict Allen Community Development Corporation, was a Board of Trustees member at Columbia College, and was president of Big Brothers and Big Sisters in Columbia. He was appointed to the Racial and Reconciliation Committee and the SC Conference Council on Finance and Administration.
About City Center Partnership
City Center Partnership, Inc. (CCP) is a non-profit organization that manages South Carolina’s only managed Business Improvement District in the 36-block area bounded by Gervais, Elmwood, Assembly, and Marion Streets in downtown Columbia. The organization is funded by the property owners within the district boundaries.
