Main Street/CBD Developments

[Spartan]

Cool. beige bricks I can live with.

[gamecoxfan1]

What else is coming or you may come to Main St. next year or so?

[growingup15]

What else is coming or you may come to Main St. next year or so?

I Hope 2-3 New towers. with Mixed use Retail Living and Commercial

[Spartan]

That would be nice, but the market isn't there for that kind of thing. Vsion/The Dakota wasn't even mixed use and it flopped- and it was being done by local developers.

[goodbye]

Cool. beige bricks I can live with.

You'd like the BJU campus in Greenville then.

[Spartan]

Lol. Bricks > stucco. This equation almost always works for me.

[krazeeboi]

Construction starts Monday on The Nickelodeon Theatre. Also, the building across the street from Mast and The Nick – which formerly housed the Main and Taylor shoe store – is being renovated for retail and restaurant use, although specific plans have not been announced. A new parking garage at Taylor and Sumter streets should soon be assigned to a contractor by the city. It will feature up to 8,000 square feet of retail space and will have a walkway onto Main Street sidewalks. And the building that had been slated for a Dunkin’ Donuts is under construction. A new Mexican restaurant called Taqueria Heat is planned.

[CorgiMatt]

Interior construction is going on inside a building next to the building they tore the 70's facade off of to make it a landmark. There's a zoning sign on the window for a change from one type of commercial use to another. Also, the ground floor of the Kress building had the lights back on yesterday afternoon and a ladder was just inside the window. Maybe that means another restaurant venture is not far behind the closing of Gotham. The two upper floors of the Mast General building now have all the bricks knocked out of the windows. And they are working day and night inside the building that was going to be Dunkin' Donuts and is now going to be a Mexican restaurant called Taqueria something or something Taqueria.

[krazeeboi]

Slowly but surely, the pieces are starting to come together on Main.

First Thursday on Main is today from 5-9pm.

[Spartan]

Interesting. Most places do that kind of event during the summer months. I hope this one works out for them.

[CorgiMatt]

It's a year-round monthly event that started a a few months ago. It's growing.

[krazeeboi]

Interior construction is going on inside a building next to the building they tore the 70's facade off of to make it a landmark. There's a zoning sign on the window for a change from one type of commercial use to another.

Must be the Schulte-United building. There's a DDR proposal to give the building Group III Landmark status. There are also renovation plans for the back and south side of the building, and the owner has agreed to the demolition of the rear 80 ft of this approximately 250’ long building to accommodate the new city parking garage at Taylor and Sumter. Check pages 7 and 8 in the application for the portions of the building to be removed and renovated, along with renderings.

It's great to see this snowball effect of sorts happening within the 1600 block of Main. No doubt Mast and the Nick are the primary reasons. I hope the next round of development includes facade improvements for existing buildings and maybe even getting a few new uses in the mix there also (i.e., getting rid of one or two of the wig shops!).

[CorgiMatt]

The landmark status building is a different building than the one I was talking about. They are adjacent or very close - can't remember.

[krazeeboi]

The landmark status building is a different building than the one I was talking about. They are adjacent or very close - can't remember.

OK, because you said that interior construction is going on inside a building next to the building they tore the 70's facade off of to make it a landmark. The building they are removing the facade from to make a landmark is the one to the right. The one to the left is the Schulte-United building.

[CorgiMatt]

I just signed on to make a correction to my last posting and saw the convenient photo. It turns out that the one on the right already got its landmark status and was the one with the zoning sign in the window. Apparently the zoning was approved because this morning on the way back from IHOP I rode by there and the zoning sign is now gone. The building on the left now has a blue sign in the window requesting landmark status.

[krazeeboi]

Thanks for the clarification. Have they started restoring the original facade for the building on the right?

[CorgiMatt]

Yes. The fake facade is gone. It exposed some art deco decor.

[krazeeboi]

Good to know.

[krazeeboi]

Some update photos, taken 11/27.

The original facade of the W.T. Grant building has been restored. It's a vast improvement over that tacky fake facade. I just hope the sign for the business that occupied it last (Main & Taylor Shoes) is next to go. I believe the new owners decided to keep the canopy portion, but I hope something is done for the next business that goes into the building so that the canopy will aesthetically blend in better with the building. I also hope that this inspires the owners of the other buildings along Main to restore their original facades as well:

Work progresses on Mast General and the Nick:

Trinity Greek Orthodox church construction:

[krazeeboi]

Nice article about FOM Series on Main. It's definitely great to see the arts playing such a vital role in Main Street's resurgence.

[growingup15]

Nice somethign for Main st thats coming soon that i might try to go to myself. http://free-times.com/index.php?cat=11001804073474158&ShowArticle_ID=11013011104251035

[BrasilnSC]

Some update photos, taken 11/27.

The original facade of the W.T. Grant building has been restored. It's a vast improvement over that tacky fake facade. I just hope the sign for the business that occupied it last (Main & Taylor Shoes) is next to go. I believe the new owners decided to keep the canopy portion, but I hope something is done for the next business that goes into the building so that the canopy will aesthetically blend in better with the building. I also hope that this inspires the owners of the other buildings along Main to restore their original facades as well:

Work progresses on Mast General and the Nick:

Trinity Greek Orthodox church construction:

Thanks for the photo updates. The W.T. Grant building is looking great, that old facade was just awful.

[gamecoxfan1]

Any news on businesses coming or developing on Main?

[krazeeboi]

^The latest information is in my post from Nov. 1.

[krazeeboi]

The city is finally implementing a facade improvement program which provides an incentive to improve the façades of buildings within targeted redevelopment areas, which includes the CBD with emphasis on 1200-1700 blocks of Main Street. Buildings within the program areas can receive a maximum of $20,000 per building, based on total project cost. Applicants must provide a match equal to or greater than 20% of the amount awarded through this program.

I do hope that business owners, particularly within the 1500 and 1600 blocks of Main, take advantage of this. Hopefully the facade restorations that have recently occurred will give them an added impetus to do so.