"downtown" Tagged Stories

Developers of a major retailer to appear before design board

Plans for a drug store at Main and McBee will be considered

NOVEMBER 23, 2009 4:02 a.m. Comments (0)

Developers will go before a city commission next week to pitch plans for a CVS pharmacy downtown.

KDS Properties has filed an application with the City Design Review Board to build a two-story, 36,000-square-foot office/retail structure at the corner of Main Street and McBee Avenue.

According to the application, a nationally known pharmacy will anchor the ground floor and include a drive through area in the rear of the site, which has been vacant since the early part of the decade. Continue reading...

Please, keep it green

New bins installed downtown are being used for some not-so-recyclable goods

JANUARY 11, 2010 11:01 a.m. Comments (0)

Area artists competed to put their work on the sides of eight new recycling bins in downtown Greenville.

Now, they want to people to let people know what to put in them. Continue reading...

Donaldson lands new taxiway

More room on tarmac should encourage growth officials say

JANUARY 11, 2010 12:03 p.m. Comments (0)

A $750,000 federal appropriation will pay for an 8,000-foot-long extension to the Donaldson Airstrip that was originally started in 1999.

South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center officials said Monday morning the taxiway is critical for the industrial park’s continued development because it will allow planes to move more freely onto the main runway.

That additional taxi space could lead to development of several parcels in the 2,600-acre complex that could mean jobs in the future, said Jody Bryson, the center’s executive director. Continue reading...

Roads, more traveled

Since the 1970s the city has spent millions on streetscaping downtown

FEBRUARY 23, 2010 7:05 p.m. Comments (0)

The city of Greenville has spent more than $12 million since the late 1970s on street beautification along Main Street, an investment city leaders say has paid off handsomely in new businesses and developments such as River Place.

The original work on Main in 1979 cost $2.5 million and was paid for through revenue sharing funds, said Nancy Whitworth director of economic development for the city. Those improvements included narrowing the street, widening the sidewalk and planting hundreds of trees and bushes.

Since 1987 the city has funded streetscape programs in the downtown area with Tax Increment Fund (TIF) bonds that use increases in property tax values to repay bonds issued for public improvements, said Mayor Knox White. Continue reading...

Feds choose courthouse site

Downtown decision ends years long process

MARCH 25, 2010 7:55 p.m. Comments (0)

Work should begin by 2013 on a new federal courthouse to be located on East North Street across from the Greenville County Courthouse.

Greenville City Manager Jim Bourey announced the General Services Administration’s (GSA) decision on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Downtown gears up for growth

JULY 22, 2010 7:06 a.m. Comments (0)

After months of little construction downtown, there are signs that Greenville is pulling ahead of a tough economy.

“Construction actually started last week,” said Leigh Cooper, spokeswoman for Sullivan Management, a Columbia restaurant firm that plans to open Carolina Ale House in the former Kimbrell’s building later this year. “We love Greenville’s downtown, and are looking forward to being a part of it.” Continue reading...

AIR PLANS

Spartanburg’s largest property prepares for its next phase

AUGUST 18, 2010 8:00 a.m. Comments (0)

A $2.5 million renovation and upgrade project at the Spartanburg Downtown Memorial Airport is the first phase of a project that would see the facility increase its economic impact on the area from $10 million to more than $30 million.

“It’s the kind of thing that is going to require long-term commitment from the city,” said Dick Lewis, director of aviation for the Concord (N.C.) Regional Airport, a city-run facility located on the outskirts of Charlotte. Continue reading...

Sport aircraft grow in popularity here

AUGUST 26, 2010 9:10 a.m. Comments (0)

The boom in light sport aircraft will help fuel growth at the Spartanburg Downtown Memorial Airport, said Darwin Simpson, airport manager.

Light sport aircraft are a Federal Aviation Administration approved class of planes that require less training (a FAA Sport Pilot certificate and a driver’s license is all that’s needed to fly) and medical certification than general aviation aircraft, yet have adequate speed and range to be useful beyond simply being fun to fly. Continue reading...

Space Case

Some say vacancies downtown are just another sign of the times. Now a group of business leaders has a plan to turn the trend around.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010 10:01 a.m. Comments (0)

The signs in the windows of Greenville’s downtown office buildings say it all.

“For Lease.” Continue reading...

Piazza Bergamo: Makeover

SEPTEMBER 28, 2010 12:42 p.m. Comments (0)

Development of the former Woolworth site could start early next year and a makeover of Piazza Bergamo designed to make that section of Main Street a vibrant part of Greenville’s downtown could include more space, a lawn or vertical plantings and a focal point such as a water feature or sculpture.

Urban designers from Denver-based Civitas told business owners and downtown residents who attended a public meeting Monday the piazza renovation should be inspired by public squares in Greenville’s Italian sister city, Greenville’s textile roots and geographical characteristics and the yet unannounced private Woolworth development.

Developers hope to begin construction on the Woolworth project by spring 2011 and have construction of its first phase completed by July 2012, said Michael Kerski, city economic development manager. Continue reading...

FHAngst

New regulations from the Federal Housing Administration causing financing woes for some condo buyers

SEPTEMBER 24, 2010 1:24 p.m. Comments (0)

Failure of condominiums and their associations to comply with new Federal Housing Administration regulations and lender reluctance to finance purchases without equal compliance is hurting an already difficult condo market.

Only 14 of Greenville’s condominium developments have met the new strictures to qualify for FHA mortgages or, for that matter, financing from conventional lenders who are insisting on equally restrictive or higher lending standards.

Unapproved are some of downtown Greenville’s most exclusive – and pricey – addresses and upscale condominiums fresh on the market. Nor are most of Greenville County’s long-established modest and low-end condo developments, making re-sales difficult. Continue reading...

City Council notes

From the Sept. 27 meeting

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010 10:57 a.m. Comments (0)

It’s going to get harder to open a nightclub or bar in some areas of Greenville.

Greenville City Council members on Monday gave initial approval to a measure that will require bars and nightclubs wanting to locate in commercially zoned areas of the city to get a special exemption. Continue reading...

The week in pictures

Look who's in the Journal Oct. 1-7, 2010

OCTOBER 3, 2010 2:16 p.m. Comments (0)

Th Continue reading...

Brown Street gets a makeover

Business owners, city hope it will bring new life to upper end of downtown

OCTOBER 11, 2010 2:52 p.m. Comments (0)

Brown Street has an identity crisis.

Most Greenville residents don’t know where it is, even though it is just off Main Street in the upper end of Greenville’s downtown, said Gary Selvaggio, one of the co-owners of Brown Street Jazz Club.

An improvement project started last week is designed to give the Brown Street district its own signature look, increase pedestrian traffic and make the area more attractive to new restaurants and retail businesses. Continue reading...

The week in pictures

Look who's in the Greenville Journal this week

OCTOBER 24, 2010 8:47 a.m. Comments (0)

Th Continue reading...

The George

It's already paying off

NOVEMBER 19, 2010 12:45 p.m. Comments (0)

George Dean Johnson Jr. College of Business and Economics at USC Upstate is winding up its first fall semester and the impact of the school on the City of Spartanburg is already evident.

“I can’t provide numbers this early on,” says Patty Bock, the economic development director of the City of Spartanburg, “but the USC Upstate Business School has definitely made a positive economic impact on the city, and it goes beyond our downtown.”

She says between faculty, staff and students, the school known as “The George” brings in nearly 1,000 people into downtown every day. Continue reading...

The Peace Family

Seven generations now. Quietly helping grow a community.

DECEMBER 3, 2010 2:21 p.m. Comments (0)

Greenville’s downtown was dying.

And without a $10 million pledge from three branches of the Peace family the idea to build a performing arts center beside the Reedy River likely would have died before it got started.

That was more than 20 years ago. Continue reading...

Legacy on Main Street

Sedran Furs celebrates more than five decades

DECEMBER 9, 2010 12:22 p.m. Comments (1)

Stan and May Sedran set up shop selling furs on North Main in Greenville going on 58 years ago. They still are there, and they are not going anywhere, not just yet anyway.

Along with the Ayers family’s leather store, Sedran Furs is the last surviving retail store of what once was the city’s lively shopping district anchored by the 200 block. Not a bad record of longevity for a couple of New Yorkers who were the first of their families to leave Manhattan for an unknown place and uncertain prospects.

“Fortunately for us, we came at the right time because the city grew and we grew with it,” says Stan. “We’ve always run a very honest business, and everybody knows that. We are now selling to the fourth generation.” Continue reading...

The week in pictures: 1/7/11

Look who's in the Journal this week

JANUARY 6, 2011 2:46 p.m. Comments (0)

Centre Stage

Set for a comeback

JANUARY 21, 2011 10:34 a.m. Comments (0)

About three weeks into her new job as executive and artistic director at Centre Stage, Glenda ManWaring started receiving phone calls from creditors.

Then auditors told her they were considering issuing a going-concern opinion, a warning they are required to give when they have substantial doubt about whether a company or entity can survive for another 12 months.

ManWaring said she was not aware of the full extent of the theater’s financial troubles when she took the job. Continue reading...

Oh so sweet

She’s bringing her baking biz to Main Street

JANUARY 21, 2011 11:34 a.m. Comments (0)

When Kristin Kuhlke Cobb was looking for a place to open her fourth bakery in South Carolina, a business consultant suggested she visit Greenville.

Cobb saw lots of people walking. Cars and bikes traveling the streets. Businesses open along and beyond Main Street. Continue reading...

Preserved?

Hampton Heights residents have serious questions

JANUARY 27, 2011 3:55 p.m. Comments (0)

A house in the historic Hampton Heights neighborhood restored by the now-defunct Preservation Trust was found to have black mold, crumbling framework and deteriorating floor joists and roof rafters.

Earl and Sharon Troglin, owners of 144 W. Hampton Ave., sued the trust and the city of Spartanburg and reached a mediated settlement with the trust, the contractor and the home inspector.

The city settled with the Troglins before the settlement was negotiated, City Manager Ed Memmott and Councilwoman Linda Dougan said. Continue reading...

The Heritage Green space

County looks for ways to improve public awareness of arts area.

FEBRUARY 3, 2011 3:39 p.m. Comments (1)

Heritage Green is having an identity crisis.

The home of four museums, a community theater and the county’s main library is just three blocks from Main Street, yet is not widely thought of as a part of Greenville’s burgeoning downtown.

Some say that’s because of Academy Street, one of Greenville’s main central city thoroughfares that dissects Heritage Green from the rest of downtown and a more pedestrian-friendly Main Street. Continue reading...

The Stone Avenue plan

Proposal has some business owners worried about traffic, economic development

FEBRUARY 28, 2011 8:23 a.m. Comments (0)

Some say Stone Avenue could be a lot like the West End – a place where families live and hang out, a place filled with shoppers and unique businesses and a place where people intend to go, not just go through.

“Stone Avenue right now is not an attractive place,” said Mike Cubelo, vice president of the North Main Community Association. “It’s a sad-looking strip of road.”

Some neighborhood residents say a Stone Avenue master plan approved on principle by the city council Monday night will help transform the Stone Avenue area into a dramatically different north end of Greenville. Continue reading...

Dream on, and on, and on

Warehouse has a unique take on Shakespeare classic ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’

MARCH 7, 2011 8:08 a.m. Comments (0)

It will be “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” like Greenville – or anywhere else – has never seen before.

In the early planning stages for the Warehouse Theatre’s production of the Shakespeare classic, somebody threw out the idea of having the mechanicals – the acting troupe that performs the play “Pyramus and Thisbe” during “Midsummer Night’s Dream” – not just do the play within a play, but the entire play.

Everybody laughed – and then agreed the unique spin was a great idea. Continue reading...

More green, coming soon

GE and others begin work on energy efficiency program

FEBRUARY 28, 2011 9:46 p.m. Comments (0)

Commercial buildings in the heart of Greenville’s downtown could get energy efficient makeovers paid for through the money saved in heating, cooling and power costs.

A block of Main Street could get LED lights that are as much as 90 percent more efficient and create uniform lighting with no shadows.

City residents could get incentives to replace their power-hogging electric water heaters with new hybrid models. Continue reading...

Better parks, trails

Nearly $10 million in capital improvements proposed for 2012

MARCH 22, 2011 2:03 p.m. Comments (0)

Property could be acquired for another park on the Reedy River, plans could be drawn to extend the Swamp Rabbit Trail to Interstate 85 and Greenville’s commercial corridors could be revitalized under a plan unveiled this week.

City Manager John Castile presented the city’s capital improvement program for 2012 through 2016 at a city council work session.

Nearly $10 million would be spent during 2012 on parks and recreation, sewer, economic development, public safety, roads and storm water projects. Continue reading...

Google on Main, but better

Company still hasn’t decided if Greenville will get fiber network

MARCH 14, 2011 2:13 p.m. Comments (1)

Last year, more than 2,000 people gathered in downtown Greenville to spell out “Google” in glowsticks.

The effort, designed to woo Google into picking the city as one of the company’s ultra-high speed Internet initiative, put the Greenville in the pages of “Newsweek” magazine.

The organizer of the event is planning something bigger and better for this year. Continue reading...

Where (tax) credit is due

Census data will change just who qualifies for a federal program that’s helped grow Greenville and Spartanburg

MARCH 23, 2011 3:07 p.m. Comments (0)

Greenville and Spartanburg aggressively are taking advantage of a federal tax credit program to support several high profile developments that would not be possible or would be limited without it.

In its 10th year, the New Markets Tax Credit program was enacted by Congress to stimulate lending for commercial and industrial development in areas designated by census data as having poverty rates of at least 20 percent or populations earning 20 percent less than surrounding median family income.

Large chunks of Greenville and Spartanburg, notably their downtowns, qualified under the 2000 census. Continue reading...

Downtown, meet baseball

New event aims to bring Main Street to the diamond

MARCH 29, 2011 10:47 a.m. Comments (0)

Boosters of downtown and baseball in Greenville want to emulate, minus a 26-mile-foot race, a Boston event that has brought together the Boston Marathon, the Red Sox and Fenway Park in a celebration of the city since 1903.

That’s the nub of the idea for Drive Business Downtown, a promotion uniting downtown, Fluor Field and the Greenville Drive, a Red Sox affiliate, for baseball and business centered around a specially scheduled day game on Tuesday, May 3.

Wanting to give thanks for the “high level of excitement and enthusiasm about downtown business,” Rick Davis, managing shareholder of Elliott Davis, and Craig D. Brown, co-owner and president of the Drive, came together to plan the event. Continue reading...

Lion King coming to Greenville

Multi-week Broadway shows have huge impact on area’s economy

MARCH 17, 2011 9:18 a.m. Comments (0)

Disney’s blockbuster Broadway musical “The Lion King” is coming to Greenville in 2012.

And with it will come an infusion of millions of dollars into the local economy during the show’s four-week run beginning June 12, 2012, at the Peace Center for the Performing Arts.

Tickets will go on sale on Monday for Broadway series subscribers. Individual tickets will go on sale to the general public in February 2012. Continue reading...

Wyche firm celebrates 90 years

Greenville law office branches out

APRIL 4, 2011 10:18 a.m. Comments (0)

Greenville’s venerable Wyche law firm is taking new directions and expanding into areas undreamed of when Granville Wyche joined the firm in 1923.

Granville is the late father of Tommy Wyche, a managing partner at the firm, who has maintained office hours at 44 E. Camperdown Way since shortly after graduating from the University of Virginia Law School in 1949.

The Wyche firm has become a Greenville institution in the 90 years that the various partners have been practicing law. They did it the old fashioned way with good client service and by hiring the best minds they could find coming out of law school. Continue reading...

Update desk: The Peacock site

MAY 23, 2011 11:45 a.m. Comments (0)

When the construction of a downtown luxury hotel and spa came to a halt in 2008, the city found itself in unfamiliar territory.

It was the first time a project had gotten out of the ground – concrete pillars and rebar still stand at the corner of McBee Avenue and Spring Street – and stopped, said Nancy Whitworth, the city’s economic development director.

“We’ve had sites cleared and projects stopped, but nothing where this kind of investment has been made,” Whitworth said. “There’s a lot of money in the ground. It doesn’t look like much, but there are millions of dollars invested.” Continue reading...

Young at their art

Edwin McCain, Taylor Moore start new concert series for up and comers

MAY 16, 2011 8:43 a.m. Comments (1)

Taylor Moore already had a career.

He was living in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, working as a journalist during the day, playing music at night.

On his 24th birthday, he decided if he could make a living doing anything, he wanted that anything to be music. Continue reading...

Main Street Rising

$100 million, two-tower complex planned

MAY 26, 2011 8:35 a.m. Comments (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. Continue reading...

The Washington Square Project

'Two years ago, (Greenville) asked me to make it happen.'

MAY 26, 2011 8:59 a.m. Comments (0)

For three years, the city sought advice from developer Bob Hughes on ways to pull off a tough but critically important development at the site of the demolished Woolworth, a Main Street Greenville focal point rich in history.

Nothing had higher priority than to create a destination with retail, office and public space that would serve as a catalyst for a resurgent North Main from Piazza Bergamo to the Hyatt Hotel, itself undergoing improvements.

No envisioned project held more promise. None posed more financial challenge. Continue reading...

City: There's more to come

Bookstore, entertainment venues among want list items for downtown

JUNE 2, 2011 10:29 a.m. Comments (0)

With the announcement that Anthropologie will be an anchor tenant in One, the $100 million mixed-used development on a key block of North Main Street, another of downtown Greenville’s needs can be checked off city officials’ want list.

In the past few years, apartments have been built in downtown.

A grocery store within walking distance of the downtown hotels and condominiums has been built. And a pharmacy, something guests at downtown hotels have requested for years, is now under construction on one of Main Street’s long vacant corners. Continue reading...

This market's for artists

SLAM to open June 11

JUNE 2, 2011 10:39 a.m. Comments (0)

There’s going to be a new Saturday market in downtown Greenville.

The Saturday Local Art Market will give local artists a venue at which to sell their art on Saturday afternoons from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.

The market will run June 11 through Oct. 29 and will be held at 702 S. Main St. in the vacant lot across the street from the Army-Navy store. Continue reading...

Chow town

When it comes to dining out, more folks are going downtown

JULY 7, 2011 1:00 p.m. Comments (0)

Cribb’s Kitchen wrapped its last dinner service on Saturday.

The restaurant will open in a new location at 226 W. Main St. July 14.

For three years William Cribb ran a catering company from 121 N. Spring St. After expanding to offer lunch and dinner service a year ago he quickly outgrew the 34-four seat space. Continue reading...

Hyatt plaza plans cause pause

Architects told to bring back plans with a ‘softer human scale’

AUGUST 1, 2011 10:14 a.m. Comments (0)

Architects for the Hyatt’s multi-million dollar renovation were told by members of the city’s Design and Review Board’s Urban Panel to come back with a revised plan for the Main Street plaza that’s “less harsh.”

Architects with McMillan Pazden Smith presented a plan that would remove the fountain and replace it with a smaller water feature that would separate the outdoor dining area for a restaurant fronting the plaza and the plaza itself.

The removal of the existing fountain would allow for better use of the plaza space during events, architects said. Continue reading...

Travelers Rest keeps on growing

Swamp Rabbit Trail, Main Street revitalization leads to new developments

AUGUST 18, 2011 11:03 a.m. Comments (1)

When the economy tanked in 2008, Kem Theisen decided to close her multi-merchant mall in Travelers Rest because it was costing her money to keep the doors open.

The building sat empty for a year as she tried to sell it.

Then work began to convert an old railroad bed than ran behind the Shops at 27 Main into a walking and biking trail and a downtown revitalization project that reduced the four-lane Highway 276 that serves as the town’s Main Street to three lanes and created a mini-park got underway. Continue reading...

An era's end

The Esso Station, Greenville's last full-service gas station, is closed and for sale

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011 12:56 p.m. Comments (0)

The little gas station at the corner of McBee and South Irvine streets is a dinosaur hiding in plain sight; a footnote in history made of concrete and steel.

In Greenville’s bustling downtown, the full service gas station operated for more than half a century and was the last one left until it closed in April.

Now the site is for sale. Continue reading...

Skate on downtown

Greenville will have an outdoor ice skating rink this year

SEPTEMBER 1, 2011 1:22 p.m. Comments (0)

Jimmy Durham has built ice skating rinks all over the world.

His family’s company, Ice Rink Engineering and Manufacturing, has built rinks for the Regis and Kelly Show’s Christmas show, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and a Lifetime Movie Channel movie shot in Nova Scotia.

For eight years, he’s wanted to bring a Rockefeller Center type outdoor rink to Greenville’s Main Street. Continue reading...

Ruling expected soon on One development appeal

Results could come as early as Friday

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011 11:47 a.m. Comments (0)

A judge could rule as early as Friday on the appeal filed by the opponents of One, a $100 million downtown development city officials say will help revitalize North Main Street.

Downtown residents Heidi Aiken and Anthony Conway and commercial property owner Mary Dana Lowie filed in circuit court an appeal of the city’s Design Review Board’s decision to approve the project planned for Main and Washington streets.

In their appeal, they claimed the board should not have granted the project a certificate of appropriateness because it did not meet the city’s design guidelines for downtown projects and that the board member who cast the deciding vote should have recused himself because of a conflict of interest. Continue reading...

Spartanburg snuffs out smokers

SEPTEMBER 11, 2011 8:47 a.m. Comments (0)

The day was warm and sunny, perfect September weather to enjoy a cigarette outdoors.

But this time it wasn’t by choice. Those who normally would have been smoking in restaurants and bars, were taking a quick smoke on the way back to work, sitting in groups in the square, or slowly wandering the downtown area trying to stay within the constraints of the city’s new ban on smoking.

Beginning last Thursday, patrons can no longer smoke in public buildings. Continue reading...

One will move on

Opponents' appeal against Washington St. development is unsuccessful

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011 11:46 a.m. Comments (0)

A judge has upheld the city’s Design Review Board’s decision to approve plans for the $100 million downtown development One.

Downtown residents Heidi Aiken and Anthony Conway and commercial property owner Mary Dana Lowie appealed the issuance of a certificate of appropriateness for the project, saying it did not meet the city’s design guidelines for downtown projects and that a board member who cast the deciding vote had a conflict of interest. Continue reading...

Here's proof

New distillery downtown proves moonshine’s alive and well

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011 1:06 p.m. Comments (0)

Dark Corner Distillery opens Saturday in downtown Greenville as South Carolina’s first legal distiller and seller of 100 proof moonshine of the kind that made northern Greenville’s Dark Corner notorious as the moonshine capital of America.

It is a remembrance, if not a homage, of the fierce warfare in the late 1800s and early 1900s between government revenuers and the Scots and Irish settlers who viewed making whiskey as a God-given right.

Joe Fenton and Richard Wenger, partners in Dark Corner and engineers in day jobs, created not only an authentic copper still, they transformed the interior of a 125-year-old building with a copper patina façade to showcase the working distillery, tasting bar, museum pieces and crafts of local artisans. Continue reading...

What do you want in a zoo?

Greenville Zoo consultants will hold meeting public meeting regarding plans for renovation

JANUARY 12, 2012 11:27 a.m. Comments (0)

Lions, tigers and bears.

Or maybe it’s snakes, salamanders and scorpions.

Greenville residents will get their chance to tell consultants hired to work on a master plan for the Greenville Zoo what animals they’d like to see at the zoo, what they like about the facility in Cleveland Park and what they want changed. Continue reading...

Films, with extras

Revamped independent series, cultural cinema offers talks, contests

JANUARY 27, 2012 9:55 a.m. Comments (0)

Going to the Peace Center’s Downtown Film Series won’t be like going to any other movie in Greenville.

And that’s the way Eric Kerchner, the Peace Center’s new programming associate in charge of the series, wants it. Continue reading...

Work on Greenville’s newest park will begin in May

Fundraising to continue as grading begins on Downtown Airport park

APRIL 26, 2012 11:27 a.m. Comments (0)

Kids and airplanes are a natural combination, and a new park planned for the Greenville Downtown Airport will have both.

Grading for the approximately 1.5 acre park next to the Runway Café will begin in May, said Lara Kaufman, marketing director for the airport. Continue reading...

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