Drayton Mill Renovation

[westsider28]

A couple of random things. The Herald-Journal will be publishing weekly progress updates on the renovation, so look for that.  More windows have been installed in the spinning building and some of the bricked-up windows on the weaving building have been opened up.

 

Anyone know what's going on at the corner of the Drayton Road and Heywood/Skylyn intersection?  There's been heavy equipment moving dirt at the corner that used to be covered in kudzu.  Pacolet Milliken owns that land.

[westsider28]

As you may have seen, Drayton had a tour of their trails on Tuesday (H-J article).  The trail to Mary Black Hospital is really nice (wide and shaded).  Check out some pictures from GoUpstate.  They should be paving it next week.  It will be a really high-quality addition to our trail system.

 

The trail currently stops at Floyd St and Skyuka, as they are still looking for the best path to get to the mill site.  The trail on the other side of Drayton Road is just natural surface for now.  That section needs funding to be paved (Drayton's apparently only obligated to fund the trail to MB Hospital).

 

As for the mill itself, they've started framing units in the third floor of the weaving building now.  They've opened up a bunch of windows there.  The third floor of the spinning building is still the furthest along, with units there expected to be move-in ready by October.

 

Oh, and the dirt at the corner of Drayton and Heywood is nothing; just dirt from the construction site.  It's just a convenient place for them to put it.

Edited May 21, 2015 by westsider28

[westsider28]

They're now paving the trails at Drayton!  Can't wait for them to open and go for a run there!

[spartanburgh]

I'm interested to know if anyone at the City is monitoring this development? Drayton Mill

has installed 3 new water meters and an 8" service line to accommodate this development.

Will the City require annexation as the agreement with the water system requires?

I think this type development is critical to annex. I am also very upset that the developers

Pacolet Milliken are moving their corporate headquarters to Greenville. That's a real slap in

the face to Spartanburg. Another 30-40 corporate jobs leaving our City.

Also, there is a new apartment complex going up on the Westside. It is behind Academy and

way under the 1 mile that would require it to be annexed into the City.

[vicupstate]

 

 

Pacolet Milliken are moving their corporate headquarters to Greenville. That's a real slap in

the face to Spartanburg. 

 

Has this been announced or just a rumor at this point?

[gman430]

I haven't heard anything about Pacolet Milliken moving to Greenville. Where did that come from?

Edited June 9, 2015 by gman430

[Spartan]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that they were going to annex the mill at some point (though I could be wrong)

[westsider28]

I've heard talk that it will be annexed, too. But I don't know for sure.

 

There's a ton of work going on in the weaving building now.  Almost all the windows have been unbricked.  There's huge stacks of 2x4s outside for framing the units inside.  The 2nd & 3rd floors of the spinning building are almost completely full of windows.  And their FB page said they'd be digging the pool between the water towers soon.

Edited June 21, 2015 by westsider28

[Spartan]

So apparently in order to get a water tap within 1 miles of the city of Spartanburg you have to sign an agreement to be annexed at some point in the future. Seems logical, but I don't have a way to confirm. Assuming that's true then the Drayton parcels would be annexed.

[Sparkleman]

I believe that's the way it works although I think it's 1 mile from city limits. In my neighborhood (Hillbrook), if you are in the county and your septic tank fails, you have no choice other than to tap onto city sewer and be annexed which is ridiculous as across the street in Pierce Acres no such law exists.

[westsider28]

Drayton Lofts has revamped their website (http://www.draytonlofts.com/) as they prepare to start leasing.  36 units on the top floor of the spinning building will be available first, with move-in by Oct/Nov.  They're also having an open house / leasing event on July 23.  I'm really impressed with the website.  It's one of the nicer ones I've seen (floor plan displays, pay rent online, etc) for Spartanburg.  A top-tier regional management company is certainly a plus in that regard.

[westsider28]

Drayton Lofts are supposed to be having another open house sometime soon, but they haven't set a date yet.  They've been doing a lot of work on the weaving building.  They posted a few progress photos on their FB page yesterday, including one of the 60ft-long pool.  Nice!

[westsider28]

Drayton Lofts posted a few photos of a finished model unit in the weaving building.  It looks like this unit faces the atrium in the center of the building, rather than the outside.  Looks very nice.

[spartanburgh]

I was told by a very reliable source that this project will be annexed into the City, but not until right before the

2020 Census. The reason is, this project can be leveraged to bring other properties in and the City wants to

get all they can for the 2020 Census.

[westsider28]

Windows are being installed in the weaving building now.  Also, most of the curbing for the parking areas has been put in.  They've also gotten the trail a lot closer to the mill (to Calvert and Lake corner) via some acquired properties.  That part is paved, too.  The whole trail is supposed to open sometime in October.  Speaking of Lake Street, it's going to be abandoned as a public right-of-way so they can put in parking to serve future businesses in the warehouses.  They've also put up a ton of photos, interactive 3D tours, a video, floorplans, etc on Apartments.com.

[westsider28]

As you may have seen on Facebook, they're having a Weaving Building Preview event on November 7.  They also recently posted a sweet photo of a mill flywheel design imprinted on the concrete in the center of the mill's "Main Street".  Really cool.

[westsider28]

The Drayton Mills Trail that connects the mill to Mary Black Hospital is now open.  It's mostly paved, but a portion is still gravel, because they want to dredge an old mill pond in the woods to expand it to its original size (which would require heavy equipment along the trail).  Anyway, the trail is a nice add to our burgeoning system.

An interesting tidbit in that article is that John Montgomery has left Pacolet Milliken to form Montgomery Development, and PM has sold the warehouse and store at Drayton to him.  His new company will also manage PM's portfolio of Milliken legacy properties.  I think that's great news, since it maintains local ownership/management of these properties now that PM has decamped to Greenville.  Montgomery says there's been strong interest in the second phase at Drayton (retail/restaurant).

[westsider28]

I went to the Weaving Building preview today.  There's still a lot of work to do there; they have all the units framed and insulated, but some are still lacking drywall and windows.  All the rain has delayed progress a bit, but they still hope to finish it by Feb/March.  The model unit was very nice.  It opens into the skylit atrium (see photo below), which will be divided-up so each unit facing it has a personal "porch".  Definitely a creative way to deal with the width of the building.  The Spinning Building looks very close to being finished. The units have numbers on the doors and even doorbells.

Edit: They'll be putting in a traffic light in front of the company store (corner of Milliken & Drayton) to slow traffic.  Though, you could argue that Ansel at Drayton needs a light more.

I also heard that they now have a restaurant tenant lined up for the Company Store.  That will be an awesome space!

Edited November 8, 2015 by westsider28

[roads-scholar]

Any news on the restaurant?  The company store was lit up on the inside Friday night and I noticed extensive remodeling.. 

[westsider28]

Development of the retail spaces in the warehouses (50,000 sq ft) and company store (12,000 sq ft) is now underway!  Part of the warehouse roof is being removed for an open air corridor, the larger spaces will have mezzanines, and a boardwalk will wrap around the pond-side.  No leases have been signed, but they are in discussions with multiple companies, restaurants, retailers and a brewery.

Sounds awesome! Can't wait to see what kind of tenants they get.  A brewery would be fantastic!

[westsider28]

Here's another article about Drayton progress.  Not much new info.  They've had over 70 people sign a lease since December 1. 

On the commercial side of things, there will be 16 suites for office, retail and restaurant use.  Still no leases signed; but a brewery, hair salon, home accessories store, and art gallery were mentioned as possibilities.  I also heard a coffee shop as a possibility.  They're hoping to have the site work completed by the end of July and start moving tenants in by September.

[westsider28]

Went by Drayton today.  Substantial work is being done on the warehouses: windows are being opened up, the formerly enclosed corridor between buildings has been fully opened, Lake Street has been closed, and the lot across that street is being cleared (this will be parking for the businesses in the warehouses).  Also, the pond expansion/restoration back in the woods along the greenway trail is complete, so the unpaved section of the trail there has now been paved.

Finally, I saw two recently erected signs (below) along Floyd Street advertising SFHs starting at $149,900.  As I said in another thread, I think there's a huge market for these.  They should sell like hotcakes, and I assume/hope they'll be annexed into the City.  The website on the sign has no details, but I found that Quinn Satterfield has built houses in Greenville's Verdae development, so they should look pretty good.  And the Montgomery Development website mentions "nearly 300 acres of architecturally unique homes."  I think the D7 referendum may have set this in motion.

Edited April 10, 2016 by westsider28

[westsider28]

I little more info I found on this: Quinn Satterfield now has a working website showing this project.  If you look through their other projects, they all look pretty good.  Lots of TND-type houses.  Unfortunately, the Site Map for the Drayton development is unavailable.  However, I found a map of the full Drayton plan on the Montgomery Development Vision page that highlights the area near where the new D7 elementary school will be built (see below).  I like that the school looks relatively urban.

[Spartan]

Wow, that's potentially not bad at all. I'd love to see some more detailed information.

[Sparkleman]

Aren't there currently houses where the proposed elementary school is going to go? Has D7 bought them?