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. (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...

 

Oh so sweet

She’s bringing her baking biz to Main Street

JANUARY 21, 2011 11:34 a.m. (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...

 

More green, coming soon

GE and others begin work on energy efficiency program

FEBRUARY 28, 2011 9:46 p.m. (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...

 

Main Street Rising

$100 million, two-tower complex planned

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.  Continue reading...

 

The Washington Square Project

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

MAY 26, 2011 8:59 a.m. (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. (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...

 

Ruling expected soon on One development appeal

Results could come as early as Friday

SEPTEMBER 9, 2011 11:47 a.m. (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...

 

One will move on

Opponents' appeal against Washington St. development is unsuccessful

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011 11:46 a.m. (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...