The Stone Avenue potential

By Cindy Landrum  

JANUARY 5, 2012 1:29 p.m. (0)

Stone Avenue and the West End have a lot of similarities.

Both are near some of Greenville’s historic residential neighborhoods.

Both lead into downtown.

And both are ideal places for homegrown boutique-type businesses to thrive, city officials say.

But while the West End is a place where families live and hang out, a place filled with shoppers and unique businesses and a place where people intend to go, East Stone Avenue is just the opposite.

It’s not a place where people hang out; it’s a place they go through and not to.

But that is slowly changing, Greenville officials say.

Two retail businesses have opened recently – We Took to the Woods, a gift shop across from the Waffle House restaurant, and Even a Sparrow, a lifestyle boutique.

“I think we’re seeing the early signs on Stone Avenue,” said Mayor Knox White. “I think people are starting to see the potential.”

The Stone Avenue and North Main Street area has always been a strong residential area.

But the corridor changed when Wade Hampton Boulevard was completed and Stone Avenue was designated as a state highway and widened.

On West Stone, old homes and automotive-related businesses that cropped up between World War II and the 1960s have been converted to small professional offices and retail locations.

“There is interest in that section of Stone,” said Tracy Ramseur, development coordinator for the city’s Economic Development department, said. “It shows what can be done.”

The city’s Stone Avenue master plan, approved on principle by the City Council last year, calls for a reduction in traffic lanes from four to three, street-front development with parking behind businesses, more green space and an emphasis on attracting unique businesses such as the two which have opened recently.

The plan, which took a year to develop, is controversial.

Some business owners, especially those located on West Stone, oppose a reduction in the lanes of travel because they believe it could create more traffic problems, not less.

Ramseur said that since Stone Avenue is a state highway, the South Carolina Department of Transportation would have to approve the “road diet.”

“The DOT needs to see how successful other road diets are,” she said.

The area around North Main and East Stone is key, White said.

The immediate focus will be on filling vacant spaces on East Stone, Ramseur said.

Small tracts of land and the depth of the parcels present challenges, she said. Because the corridor backs up to residential areas and development patterns, a large shopping center is unlikely.

“You’ve got the North Main neighborhood on one side and downtown on the other,” she said. “There are some physical challenges.”

She said the scale of development on Stone is similar to that of Augusta Street.

Stone Avenue is one of areas of emphasis for the city’s façade improvement program that helps property owners upgrade the fronts of their buildings.

Eventually, Ramseur said she thinks retail development on Stone will be similar to Augusta and the West End – unique boutiques and retail businesses and national and regional chains that fit in with those local businesses and don’t want to be on busy Woodruff Road.