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Pleasantburg Drive Corridor


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The McAlister Square complex could certainly be redeveloped into a mixed-use or largely retail center again.  The Publix and the movie theater could be junior anchors, and substantial new buildings could be built in the current parking lots.   I don't see it going back to being a traditional 500,000 sf mall again (or even having 500,000 sf of retail space again).

I thought that a Pleasantburg Drive task force had a plan for this about 10-15 years ago.  I think that the disposable income to support more retail on the site is there.  The Parkins Mill Road  and Augusta Road areas were big supporters of McAlister Square when it was a mall, and those people didn't move away--they're still there, and probably wealthier than back then.

I'd gladly shop there again.  I always liked McAlister Square.  I think that the mall just hit a rough spot in the late 90s and maybe the owner figured that it was cheaper to sell it to Greenville Tech instead of trying to redevelop it to stay competitive.

Edited by PuppiesandKittens
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Imagination running wild here:

The window of opportunity for this may have already passed (assuming such window ever existed), but it'd be great if a developer were to, say, attach an appropriate office building and a Hampton Inn-level hotel, and push it upscale (kind of like what they did with GM). Puppies&Kittens is right: Parkins Mill and Augusta Road did & would definitely support a well-done concept.

I haven't paid any attention to McAlister in a long time, though. If Tech were to relocate student services, there's still the University Center, right? And if so, what real mall potential is there if non-retail tenants are still using a lot of space?

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I don't see the mall becoming fully retail ever again.  For one, the University Center space will stay, right?  For two, the other anchor spaces would need to be redone (probably demolished and rebuilt) to house new tenants, which wouldn't be department stores.  And would any tenants these days want to be in an enclosed mall?

I figured that some new mixed-use buildings could be built in the parking lot (which is far too big anyway), part of the existing mall could be returned to retail use and the whole complex could be landscaped and made into a lifestyle center or something, with grass, sidewalks, etc.  Given the huge and underused space on the site, surely there are more and better uses of it than a 500,000 sf semi-vacant building in the middle of a sea of asphalt.

The whole Pleasantburg Drive corridor needs to be spruced up, though.  Even in the '80s and '90s, it was ugly, and it's gotten worse.

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Agreed.  It won't go back to being 500,000 sf of retail space.

However, the entire complex is underutilized space and surely something better could be developed there.  Plus with Pleasantburg Shopping Center being derelict, perhaps both could be transformed into nicer mixed-use and denser developments.

I would prefer that this site be redeveloped instead of new big projects being built at the edge of town (yes, that means you, the big office park being built in Mauldin).

Edited by PuppiesandKittens
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Most likely  Apartments and retail/ restaurants for Mc Square eventually. I hope it never includes a Walmart. I would take a Target there as anchor however.

Speaking of- what has happened to the Enclave apartment complex that was supposed to be built on the old highway dept. property at Laurens and Pleasantburg? The initial announcement for that is having birthdays. 

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27 minutes ago, vistatiger said:

Most likely  Apartments and retail/ restaurants for Mc Square eventually. I hope it never includes a Walmart. I would take a Target there as anchor however.

Speaking of- what has happened to the Enclave apartment complex that was supposed to be built on the old highway dept. property at Laurens and Pleasantburg? The initial announcement for that is having birthdays. 

They have been waiting for a sewer upgrade to be completed. Expect to see action there and all around Laurens Road soon. 

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Incidentally, growing up in the 60's-70's, we never called it "Pleasantburg Drive," and that was at least largely true of, e.g., radio and television stations. It was, in fact named "Pleasantburg Dr.," but colloquially it was always "291" or "291 Bypass." Has that usage fallen by the wayside?

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I don't hear "291" or "Pleasantburg" since the area has fallen off a lot of people's radar screens although growing up in the '70s, it was indeed "291".

Come to think of it, most all of 291 should be razed and redeveloped.  It's a street lined with numerous derelict buildings, other dated buildings and other structures that probably attract a fraction of the traffic that they did 30 years ago.  Maybe totally redoing McAlister Square and Pleasantburg Shopping Center could be the start of a renaissance for the area.

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On 9/1/2018 at 10:59 AM, PuppiesandKittens said:

I don't hear "291" or "Pleasantburg" since the area has fallen off a lot of people's radar screens although growing up in the '70s, it was indeed "291".

Come to think of it, most all of 291 should be razed and redeveloped.  It's a street lined with numerous derelict buildings, other dated buildings and other structures that probably attract a fraction of the traffic that they did 30 years ago.  Maybe totally redoing McAlister Square and Pleasantburg Shopping Center could be the start of a renaissance for the area.

No doubt. Laurens could use the boost, too.

South of McAlister, on the east side of 291, the commercial parcels are all really narrow. Sherwood Forest backs up really close to the road. A big challenge not to just build more little standalone  retail buildings. On the other side, though, plenty of room. As long as Tanners survives unscathed...

I suppose, in addition to McAlister's demise, the departures of both Dan River Mills (early '80's; from the building directly across from BB&T and the nearby ugly white 4-story box) and J. E. Sirrine (from what is now the Buck Mickel Center; some time later) deprived that area of a decent daytime population of engineers and other moneyed professionals. I don't know who inhabits the larger building in between--the "252 Building," as we called it. Walt Brashier used to own it and had his office there; maybe still does. I mention all that partially out of nostalgia, partially to observe that whatever Renaissance that part of 291 experiences will likely depend on some significant office component. Otherwise it'll be "flyover country." But pulling that off would require cobbling together parcels, which is way easier said than done. So I'm not holding my breath.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 9/25/2018 at 3:55 PM, vistatiger said:

The old Belk anchor building at McAlister Square has been fenced off and it looks like it is being gutted. Glass has been  removed from the facades over the entrances. Is it being demolished?

According to GVLToday it's being demolished. 

https://gvltoday.6amcity.com/asked-and-answered-september-2018/

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20 minutes ago, PuppiesandKittens said:

Oh, no- I spent so much of my childhood in that store! 

What's going to replace it (does anyone know, as the article doesn't state what)?

Here is why it is coming down. http://www.che.sc.gov/CHE_Docs/commission calendar&materials/2016/May/CHEMail-outMaterialAgenda Item 9.05.A.2.pdf

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Under the circumstances, it seemed inevitable that it would come down.

Going all nostalgic: the Belk wing had Record Bar, Red Baron, and, I think, Chick-fil-A, among others. That was the part of the Mall I most visited, including Belk. Well, Baskin-Robbins, Eckerd, and Heyward Mahon, too. Eckerd at Christmas when I was really young to buy those cheap Ronco gimmicks that I thought my mother would like--and never worked.

Edited by Exile
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