Main Street Rising

By Cindy Landrum  

MAY 26, 2011 8:35 a.m. (0)

After years of starts, stops and stumbling blocks, the pieces needed to redevelop the old Woolworth’s site on Main and Washington streets finally started falling into place.

City officials had long identified the block as a key to developing downtown’s reputation as a shopping destination and as a vibrant business center.

“It was our last best chance for retail downtown,” said Greenville Mayor Knox White.

After plans to build a 200,000-square-foot office building and a full-service hotel were brought to a halt by the economy, developer Bob Hughes, who had been advising the city on development of the little more than one-acre tract, agreed to develop the site himself.

In the two years since, Haynsworth, Sinkler and Boyd, one of the state’s most prestigious law firms, decided it wanted to return to Greenville’s Main Street where it began nearly 125 years ago. White is an immigration lawyer for the firm.

Then, a visit to Greenville by one of the guests at the wedding of the daughter of Greenville Planning and Development Manager Jean Pool led to the decision by national fashion boutique Anthropologie to locate a store in downtown Greenville, the chain’s second in South Carolina.

And just two months ago, CertusBank vice chairman and Greenville native Walter Davis told White the bank wanted to establish its headquarters in his hometown, shunning the traditional Southern banking strongholds of Charlotte and Atlanta.

The three are the major tenants of the first phase of One, a $100 million two-tower complex on the old Woolworth site that was announced Wednesday afternoon.

“I can’t think of anybody else who could have pulled it off,” Ann Ellefson, managing director of Haynsworth Sinkler and Boyd, said of Hughes.

A 175,000-square-foot, nine-story building will be built in the project’s first phase. About 135,000-square-feet will be office space and the rest retail shops.

CertusBank will occupy 20,000 square feet of office space and have a 6,000 square foot bank branch. Anthropologie will have a 6,400-square-foot prototype store on the building’s ground floor. Haynsworth will relocate its 45-lawyer, 100-employee firm from Two Liberty Place to 40,000 square feet in One.

“This is our chance to make a significant statement and I think we’re doing that,” White said.

Construction is expected to begin this summer.

The tower’s office space should be open in late 2012. While Hughes said some of the retail space may be open by the end of next year, it is more likely the retailers won’t open until 2013.

A second tower is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.

Additional phases could include residential and possibly a hotel, Hughes said.

“There’s no time-table on the build out of this project, but we’re very encouraged by the early momentum we have in terms of tenant interest,” Hughes said.

Hughes said the project is using $18.5 in New Market Tax Credits through Greenville New Market Opportunities and another $7.5 million in tax credits earmarked for urban projects through TD Bank.

Hughes said he expects the retail portion of the development to fill up.

“We’ve gotten enough unsolicited expressions of interest to fill it up twice,” he said. “Anthropologie sets a great tone.”

White said he expects Anthropologie to attract other national retailers and authentic local shops.

“You don’t want the King Street affect where the national chains drive out the local shops,” White said, referring to one of Charleston’s main streets for shopping.

One will look nothing like anything else downtown.

Hughes said it would resemble the look of New York retail with high ceilings and lots of glass.

Designed by the architectural firm 4240, which designed Chicago’s Block 37 and Boulder, Colo.’s 900 West Pearl, the project has an angular form that opens up vistas across Piazza Bergamo.

“It will be a warm, activated place,” Hughes said. “The light will flow from the building at night and light the Piazza.”

The building will have at least a LEED silver designation from the U.S. Green Building Council, and will feature a rooftop green space where the building “steps back” after the fourth floor.

“Imagine a lawn you can sit out on five stories up and watch the Christmas parade,” Hughes said.

The development is expected to spur growth of retail along North Laurens Street, which runs along side the One site, and turn Coffee Street into a new pedestrian gateway to the Main Street corridor.

The city has budgeted $4 million for improvements to Piazza Bergamo, a public gathering spot at the intersection of Main and Coffee Streets.

The city will begin working on plans for the Piazza Bergamo renovation, White said. Public meetings had been held to get input from citizens, but work on the plans was put on hold as the city concentrated on getting the development to happen, he said.

White said One and the Piazza Bergamo renovation, along with the renovation of the Hyatt Regency Greenville, will ensure the vitality of North Main Street and create balance between that end of Greenville’s central business district and the West End.

It was important to have office space and a corporate headquarters in the development, Hughes said. People who work at corporate headquarters entertain and network more than typical office employees.

“Their presence is felt more in the community than the 9-to-5 people who punch a time clock,” he said.

CertusBank expects to employ 350 people at its corporate headquarters. The company runs its business out of the Atlanta and Charlotte offices of its parent company, Blue Ridge Holdings, and its operations center in Easley, where it acquired the six-branch bank Community South in January.

CertusBank has more than $1.8 billion in assets and is backed by half a billion dollars in investment capital.

“We’re very bullish on Greenville and the Upstate,” Davis said.

John Boyd, Ed Good, Matt Good and Paul Aiesi, local investors who own the site, are also partners in One.

Civitas, an urban design and landscape architecture firm, is involved in the project, and the general contractor is Brasfield & Gorrie.