The other side of town

By Charles Sowell  

MARCH 27, 2010 10:23 a.m. (0)

Haywood Road, the once booming retail corridor that 30 years ago helped gut Greenville’s downtown, is hurting today in ways that some business owners find anything but ironic as the downtown enjoys a major renaissance.

Some businessmen along the city’s prime retail corridor are upset at what they see as a disproportionate amount of funding going to downtown. It is a sentiment often repeated, even away from Haywood Road.

The city has spent more than $12 million since the late 1970s on downtown. In fiscal year 2009-10 the budget is almost $6.9 million.

According to city figures the capital improvement project (CIP) budget for commercial corridors totals $215,000 for this fiscal year. Of that $126,995 has been spent and $88,005 remains. The city also has spent slightly more than $263,000 in its commercial facade improvement budget. Almost $170,000 of that has been spent as of March 9.

City Manager Jim Bourey said, “It is very much a question of funding. We finance the downtown work through a TIF district. Work in other areas of the city depends on CIP funding, or money from the general fund.”

City Council talked about staff layoffs during this week’s CIP budget workshop. Bourey said revenues are down for the city again this year.

“The city just doesn’t have a lot of money to spend on the corridors,” Bourey said.

Through the years businesses have migrated from one area of the city to another seeking whatever competitive advantage they could find.

The constant work on downtown has turned it into an economic showcase. Other areas of the city most notably parts of Haywood Road, sections of Laurens Road and Pleasantburg Drive have not done as well long term and in the most recent recession.

Despite this, Haywood Mall is still the city’s main retail engine generating nearly 40 percent of retail sales. There are also sites along other corridors, most notably the old Sam’s Club on Laurens Road, that have stood vacant for years.

“Some of us are feeling very much alone out here on Haywood (Road),” said Michael Stathakis, of Stax Peppermill a high-end restaurant located just off Haywood on Orchard Park Road. “I’d hate to think we’d have to lose all we have out here in order to qualify as a TIF zone.”

TIF pays the bills for downtown and for the city’s other premiere redevelopment area – the West End. There is one other TIF zone, Viola Street, but that is largely a residential redevelopment.

The catch is that the designated area must qualify as “blighted” to get TIF status. Property owners are assessed at a set rate and the city uses the revenue to fund bonds and reconstruction work within the district.

Joe Pazdan of McMillan Pazdan Smith architects sees the city’s still-strong retail corridors as poised for a comeback after the economy finally turns around.

It is a sentiment shared by Paulette Murphy of Verdae Properties. Her company manages properties all over the state. She has a good working knowledge of the Laurens Road area.

“Once things really get going at the technology center (CUICAR) I think things will really take off,” she said. “I can foresee a tremendous volume of traffic using Laurens in the near future.”

Pazdan’s firm donated design services for signs designating Haywood Road as Uptown Greenville as part of the area’s redevelopment plan.

That signage was supposed to be installed already as one of the first parts of the master plan to be implemented. But signs have run into problems from the state Department of Transportation.

DOT has so far refused to allow the signs at exits onto Haywood from Interstate 385 because the area has not been designated as Uptown Greenville.

Nancy Whitworth, the city’s economic development director said city officials are confident they can overcome the problem and have the signs up soon.

City Council is to take up a resolution designating Haywood Road as Uptown Greenville soon, Bourey said.

“And we plan to take bids and have work starting on undergrounding of utilities along Haywood by summer (as part of the master plan),” he said.

Issues like burying power lines and the Uptown signage took some shots from a business audience at a recent Urban Land Institute session on the Haywood master plan.

Many businesses along Haywood have been deeply hurt by the lingering recession and city officials told them the plan for Haywood Road will take years to bring to fruition.

“But how long it will take is a matter of some speculation right now,” Pazdan said. “Right now the city spends about $250,000 a year on all of the commercial corridors outside of downtown and the West End. That won’t pay for keeping the grass cut along those highways.

“The businesses along Haywood are going to have to come with some (more) money of their own to really get things rolling,” he said. “No one wants to do that in this kind of economic climate. Some just can’t.”

Duff Bruce, longtime owner of The Open Book on Pleasantburg Drive, said his business succumbed to economic realities.

“I don’t blame the city because we had to shut down,” he said. “Overall, I think the city has done a good job with redevelopment in the area around where our store used to be (at the intersection of Laurens and Pleasantburg).

“But I also think they (the city) spent more than they had to downtown.”

Comments

Add New

Leave a Comment
Comments are moderated and may not be posted immediately.
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."