The diamond tip of the Golden Strip

By Cindy Landrum  

AUGUST 25, 2011 8:21 a.m. (0)

Just five years ago, Fountain Inn didn’t really give people a reason to visit.

“People came in to town, went to bed and got up to go to work the next morning,” said Eddie Case, the city administrator.

While the stately homes along Main Street were well kept with nicely landscaped front yards, the town’s downtown was filled with empty buildings that looked old and tired.

And city officials knew there wasn’t much of a chance to fill them if they didn’t increase foot traffic.

“Foot traffic is the biggest thing we lacked,” said Van Broad, the city’s economic development director. “It was important that we drive traffic downtown.”

The city started a farmer’s market, a Friday night music series by the fountain on Main Street, a Saturday bluegrass series and the Fountain Inn Cultural and Performing Arts Center in the old Fountain Inn High.

It built the Center at Commerce Park, a $2 million development one block off Main Street that includes the farmer’s market, a history center and the Chamber of Commerce.

A project to turn Depot Street, where the center is located, into a gathering space is under construction now. An amphitheater will be built and a small park constructed on land the city had unsuccessfully tried to sell a few years ago.

“That will be our small Falls Park,” Broad said, acknowledging that Greenville is the city’s model for downtown revitalization. “We don’t want to be Greenville. But if our downtown revitalization can be as successful as Greenville’s has been on a small-town scale, we’ll be happy.”

The effort is starting to pay off.

A handful of new businesses have located on Main Street, plans are in the works to re-do Main Street and turn the four-lane highway into something more pedestrian and business-friendly and the city is talking to a developer to turn the old Woodside Mill site into a development of new cottages and patio homes.

“Years and years ago, Fountain Inn was considered the diamond tip of the Golden Strip. Somewhere, the shine of the diamond dulled,” said John Hastings, president of the Fountain Inn Chamber of Commerce. “Well, that sucker’s been polished up now and the future is bright.”

City officials expect the opening of a new manufacturing plant in the first quarter of 2012 for XF Transmissions in Laurens County just a couple of miles outside of Fountain Inn to impact the city tremendously.

The company, which will be the first tenant in the Owings Industrial Park and manufacture fuel-efficient 8-cylinder automotive transmissions, said it will employ 900 people by 2015.

Hastings said the company could become Fountain Inn’s BMW and be a catalyst for growth just like the German automotive manufacturer sparked growth in Greer.

“Greer just a few years ago was probably where Fountain Inn is now,” he said.

Karren Barton owns I Declare, a gift shop and event venue on Main Street, with her mother.

Several years ago, Barton set up in an empty Main Street shop during the city’s Christmas events and sold her gift items. She did well, and Broad asked her to consider moving the business to downtown.

They started in a small space on a corner two years ago and last year bought the Main Street building in which they are now located. It’s four times as big.

“I think Fountain Inn has a good future,” she said. “I think it’s going to come full circle.”

Mayor Gary Long said the city maintained its commitment to economic development and downtown revitalization even after the downturn in the economy.

“We needed somebody who thought about economic development when he woke up in the morning and who was thinking about it when he went to bed at night,” Long said.

Broad has been the city’s economic development director for four years.

“We had the mentality that we had to go after it and, hopefully, when the economy turns around and they were ready to do something, they’d choose us,” he said.

A couple of new restaurants have opened during the past year and talks are under way with others, including a well-known Greenville restaurant owner.

Broad is also working to try to get an Irish pub to town.

“For the first time, people are calling me about wanting to look at Fountain Inn,” he said.

Broad said the city still has problems.

“It’s not all roses,” he said. “We’ve had our share of misfires.”

Some downtown buildings need repair, and the city’s codes department has sent letters to property owners outlining code violations.

The city also told those owners about grant programs that may help them pay for the work, Broad said.

City leaders would like to see the half mile stretch of Highway 418 from Main Street to Interstate 385 become a commercial corridor.

The city bought six acres at the corner of 418 and Main and officials are working with a developer to get a mixed-use development with restaurants, retail and office space built.

“We have not varied from our master plan,” Long said. “Everything is done on the list except the redevelopment of Main Street.”

The city had wanted angled parking on the slimmed-down Main Street but the state Department of Transportation won’t allow it, Case said.

Instead, the city has revamped the plan to include parallel parking.

City leaders want the project, which will remake two blocks of Main Street from Fairview Street to Jones Street, to be “shovel ready” by Sept. 15 so it can be considered for a state DOT matching grant.

City officials are also considering creating a tax increment financing district to help pay for the $4.5 million to $5 million project.

The prospect of a new high school being built and opening in the city in 2017 also has city officials and merchants feeling bright about Fountain Inn’s future.

“That’s the most important thing that has happened in Fountain Inn in 50 years,” Case said.

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