Greenville County Square redevelopment

[vicupstate]

I wonder what happened to the closed Bi-Lo at S. Pleasantburg at Augusta option. 

If they go with the McAlister site, they could put it behind Publix or at the old Upton site.  Still, those don't seem like the highest and best uses of those properties, especially Upton's. 

[gman430]

11 minutes ago, vicupstate said:

I wonder what happened to the closed Bi-Lo at S. Pleasantburg at Augusta option. 

If they go with the McAlister site, they could put it behind Publix or at the old Upton site.  Still, those don't seem like the highest and best uses of those properties, especially Upton's. 

They wanted more money than the county was willing to pay. 

[PuppiesandKittens]

Great article; thanks for posting.

When did the county buy McAlister Square?   I agree that EMS isn’t the best use of the site.  
 

Is anyone else sad to see the old Towers Four movie theater now a hole in the ground?  Didn’t anyone else spend a big part of the 1970s and 1980s at movies there?

[vicupstate]

I think it is actually Greenville Tech or its Foundation that owns it, but I assume there would be some sort of inter-government transfer or straight sale.  

[Exile]

2 hours ago, PuppiesandKittens said:

Great article; thanks for posting.

When did the county buy McAlister Square?   I agree that EMS isn’t the best use of the site.  
 

Is anyone else sad to see the old Towers Four movie theater now a hole in the ground?  Didn’t anyone else spend a big part of the 1970s and 1980s at movies there?

Even though the mall was never much, we frequently took in a movie at the Towers 4 + a visit to Baskin Robbins.

[PuppiesandKittens]

2 hours ago, Exile said:

Even though the mall was never much, we frequently took in a movie at the Towers 4 + a visit to Baskin Robbins.

Same.  
 

Is any part of the original mall still there inside County Square?  
 

If so, maybe I’ll go for one last stroll through all 100 feet of it, to see those beige brick walls again.o

 

Also, more substantively: the article says that a grocery store is targeted for the site.  The downtown Publix and Augusta Road Harris Teeter do well, but both could handle more customers; do we really need another grocery store there?

Edited July 18, 2022 by PuppiesandKittens

[GVLover]

2 hours ago, PuppiesandKittens said:

Same.  
 

Is any part of the original mall still there inside County Square?  
 

If so, maybe I’ll go for one last stroll through all 100 feet of it, to see those beige brick walls again.o

 

Also, more substantively: the article says that a grocery store is targeted for the site.  The downtown Publix and Augusta Road Harris Teeter do well, but both could handle more customers; do we really need another grocery store there?

Whole Foods would do exceptionally well in Downtown in my opinion. 
 

Also, here’s a video from a few years ago of McAlister Square:

https://youtu.be/OlqTU4f6uVw

[DirectorBob0209]

Whole Foods will definitely have a clientele downtown. However, they really don't build very close to each other. It's been 3 years since I've lived in Greenville, but I believe there was one on Woodruff Road? I was not a fan of them back in the day, but since moving to Tampa last month, I love going there for lunch during my break. Also, depends on the city too. I lived in Tallahassee for the last year and that Whole Foods is not doing well. It's about a 10 min drive from Florida State but still doesn't work out.  

Edited July 18, 2022 by DirectorBob0209
defining "there" as Greenville

[GVLover]

I wish the City and County had more of a vision as far building the new administrative offices. In hindsight, it would’ve been a great move to build a joint City HQ-County Administrative complex. In my view, it’s of the upmost importance to continue building a symbiotic relationship between the two governments for the benefit of all who live here and how we plan to grow lockstep (I’m for a Greenville City-County Consolidation, but that’s another story). I’d rather not have courts in such a beautiful building that could’ve easily housed our City Hall.

[distortedlogic]

I'm confused with all the McCalister Square stuff; is it being razed or something? What of the University Center?

[GVLover]

22 minutes ago, distortedlogic said:

I'm confused with all the McCalister Square stuff; is it being razed or something? What of the University Center?

I've watched several videos by the City that mention that prospect of redeveloping McCalister Square. I fully anticipate that it will be rezoned sometime early next year for mixed use development.

[apaladin]

McAlister not McCalister. 

[vicupstate]

4 hours ago, GVLover said:

I've watched several videos by the City that mention that prospect of redeveloping McCalister Square. I fully anticipate that it will be rezoned sometime early next year for mixed use development.

I haven't seen these. Are they located online?  

[vicupstate]

5 hours ago, GVLover said:

I wish the City and County had more of a vision as far building the new administrative offices. In hindsight, it would’ve been a great move to build a joint City HQ-County Administrative complex. In my view, it’s of the upmost importance to continue building a symbiotic relationship between the two governments for the benefit of all who live here and how we plan to grow lockstep (I’m for a Greenville City-County Consolidation, but that’s another story). I’d rather not have courts in such a beautiful building that could’ve easily housed our City Hall.

I agree this was a missing opportunity.  An even more obvious and probably a lot easier to do, would have been putting the School Board into the now under construction building.   It would have been a bigger building and saved the cost of replacement land, while opening up several acres of nearby very valuable land for development where the GCSB is now.

 

Of course, the city and SB could do a joint building for City Hall too at some point. Charleston did the same. 

[GvilleSC]

It appears as though the first element of the parking garage is almost topped out. 

[motonenterprises]

1 hour ago, GvilleSC said:

It appears as though the first element of the parking garage is almost topped out. 

The parking garage looks like it's going to be huge.

[vistatiger]

On 7/17/2022 at 6:54 PM, PuppiesandKittens said:

Same.  
 

Is any part of the original mall still there inside County Square?  
 

If so, maybe I’ll go for one last stroll through all 100 feet of it, to see those beige brick walls again.o

 

Also, more substantively: the article says that a grocery store is targeted for the site.  The downtown Publix and Augusta Road Harris Teeter do well, but both could handle more customers; do we really need another grocery store there?

Agreed Downtown doesn't need another grocery store. They need to let the twin Harris Teeter's (especially North Pointe)   and Publix on McBee  perform well.  Just what they need is another empty supermarket building Downtown.  Also not far away is a  Food Lion in the old Kmart Plaza on Church and Ingles on Poinsett @ Cherrydale.

Funny I forget that Upton's was in the old department store next to Publix at Mc Square briefly in the mid 90's.  I always think of that as Meyers/Arnold still when I ride by it. Uptons was a cheap replacement for Meyers/Arnold. 

 

[gman430]

Where are the tower cranes?  This is a problem. Almost as big of a problem as GSP not landing JetBlue...almost. 

Edited July 29, 2022 by gman430

[GvilleSC]

[Horatio Nelson]

15 hours ago, vistatiger said:

Agreed Downtown doesn't need another grocery store. They need to let the twin Harris Teeter's (especially North Pointe)   and Publix on McBee  perform well.  Just what they need is another empty supermarket building Downtown.  Also not far away is a  Food Lion in the old Kmart Plaza on Church and Ingles on Poinsett @ Cherrydale.

Funny I forget that Upton's was in the old department store next to Publix at Mc Square briefly in the mid 90's.  I always think of that as Meyers/Arnold still when I ride by it. Uptons was a cheap replacement for Meyers/Arnold. 

 

There absolutely needs to be more grocery options downtown. I used to walk to get my groceries from Publix and it was great.

 

The closer people are to a grocery store the more likely people are to walk to it (I've read within a 1/2 distance is ideal but a mile is the limit). We need to stop thinking and building things with the idea that everything needs to be driven to.

 

For that matter why aren't there more corner stores downtown? (CVS, or QT probably qualify) Places where you can get a couple quick staple foods. 

Edited July 29, 2022 by Horatio Nelson

[GvilleSC]

22 minutes ago, Horatio Nelson said:

Fot that matter why aren't there more corner stores downtown? (CVS, or QT probably qualify) Places where you can get a couple quick staple foods. 

I agree with this regarding staples --- not even limited to just food. I would love to see the City push for (or a developer just provide) small-footprint commercial fronts that are similar to Arts Crossing. I'm thinking 8-10 small retail fronts extending down a side street that would be just enough space for a small wine store, a flower shop (same concept as the flower cart we used to have), a local maker offering gifts, a retail outpost for a local butcher. I guess it would really be similar to permanent farmer's market booths. It'd be great to have the storefronts fully open up to display their colorful bouquets and produce at the sidewalk. You'd want it to be positioned well to attract the office crowd at lunch and after 5, but closer to the residential concentrations to appeal to downtown residents. 

[vicupstate]

Would love to have a Trader Joe's or something similar at County Square or elsewhere DT.  I hate having to drive all the way to Woodruff Rd for anything, especially a small box store.    

[gman430]

I personally would like to see Target instead of another grocery store. 

[vicupstate]

21 minutes ago, gman430 said:

I personally would like to see Target instead of another grocery store. 

The sell groceries too, so I would be totally okay with that. 

[SVL]

https://www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com/retailers/aldi-readies-distinct-urban-site-philly

This would be pretty cool to have somewhere downtown. The article also mentions an urban style Sprouts which would be great also.