Spartanburg Off-Topic

[Spartanburg Dude]

Market on Main an artisan home decor shop is holding its Grand Opening tomorrow 4/19! Really cool store with products from local artisans! 

156 E. Main.

[westsider28]

In case you haven't heard, well-known and highly-respected urban planner Jeff Speck will be coming to Spartanburg.  He will speak at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church on Thursday, November 7 at 5:30 pm.  He'll be talking about how to make Spartanburg a more walkable place, both within downtown and outside of downtown.  You can register for the event (for free) here: Towards a More Walkable Spartanburg

I highly recommend attending, if you can.  I also encourage you to read his books "Walkable City" and "Walkable City Rules" which are both fantastic resources on urbanism and city planning.  Hopefully city leaders will listen closely, and we can get some of his recommendations implemented here in the future.

[Greenville Paladin]

As Hub City Co-op closed last year, what recommendations can be made for solving a grocery desert downtown?

[Spartan]

Lidl or Aldi need to open up somewhere. I think their business model would work well downtown.

[Greenville Paladin]

Limited assortment/discount grocer Save-A-Lot #24601, 550 South Church Street, Spartanburg, South Carolina 29306-3306, closed in August.  Aldi and Lidl are similar and open stores in better locations.

How about a supermarket like Harris Teeter, Ingle's, or Publix?  BI-LO is not going to open additional stores.  Walmart Neighborhood Market could be a possibility, but Walmart has reduced or cancelled plans for opening new stores.

[westsider28]

2 hours ago, Greenville Paladin said:

How about a supermarket like Harris Teeter, Ingle's, or Publix?  BI-LO is not going to open additional stores.  Walmart Neighborhood Market could be a possibility, but Walmart has reduced or cancelled plans for opening new stores.

I'd love to see an urban/semi-urban format Harris-Teeter downtown (similar the Publix at McBee Station in Greenville), perhaps behind Chapman Cultural Center.  But I don't think we have enough people living downtown or good enough demographics in the immediate vicinity for a national chain to consider it, at least not yet.  Maybe 5-10 years from now.

[Greenville Paladin]

Harris Teeter returning to Spartanburg would be a nice idea.

Publix is overdue to open additional stores in Spartanburg and Spartanburg County.  Boiling Springs and John B. White Sr. Boulevard have been warm in speculation.

[Sparkleman]

14 hours ago, Greenville Paladin said:

Limited assortment/discount grocer Save-A-Lot #24601, 550 South Church Street, Spartanburg, South Carolina 29306-3306, closed in August.  Aldi and Lidl are similar and open stores in better locations.

How about a supermarket like Harris Teeter, Ingle's, or Publix?  BI-LO is not going to open additional stores.  Walmart Neighborhood Market could be a possibility, but Walmart has reduced or cancelled plans for opening new stores.

I would think an Aldi or Lidl would be a slam dunk to replace that Sav-A-Lot and do really good business. Not exactly sure why they haven't already done so by now. There are a ton of folks on the south side where the closest grocery is 3-4 miles away or more.

Edited October 30, 2019 by Sparkleman

[roads-scholar]

2 hours ago, Sparkleman said:

I would think an Aldi or Lidl would be a slam dunk to replace that Sav-A-Lot and do really good business. Not exactly sure why they haven't already done so by now. There are a ton of folks on the south side where the closest grocery is 3-4 miles away or more.

The big supermarket chains (Aldi and Lidl included) won't consider "inner city" locations.  At least that's what it seems.    

I know the profit margins of grocers are extremely thin and perhaps their rationale is that stores in these locations can be risky.  

[Greenville Paladin]

3 hours ago, Sparkleman said:

I would think an Aldi or Lidl would be a slam dunk to replace that Sav-A-Lot and do really good business. Not exactly sure why they haven't already done so by now. There are a ton of folks on the south side where the closest grocery is 3-4 miles away or more.

South Church Street does not need a limited assortment/discount grocer to replace a failed limited assortment/discount grocer.

[Spartanburg Dude]

51 minutes ago, roads-scholar said:

The big supermarket chains (Aldi and Lidl included) won't consider "inner city" locations.  At least that's what it seems.    

I know the profit margins of grocers are extremely thin and perhaps their rationale is that stores in these locations can be risky.  

I've seen inner city Trader Joe's. That would be a good fit potentially. 

 

[Greenville Paladin]

51 minutes ago, roads-scholar said:

The big supermarket chains (Aldi and Lidl included) won't consider "inner city" locations.  At least that's what it seems.    

I know the profit margins of grocers are extremely thin and perhaps their rationale is that stores in these locations can be risky.  

Inner city stores that have issues with crime and theft usually close.  I have read about a Publix supermarket in Jacksonville, Florida, that will close in December because of similar issues.

Aldi and Lidl are not supermarkets.  They do not have bakery, deli, meat/seafood, pharmacy, and produce/floral departments.

[roads-scholar]

2 hours ago, Greenville Paladin said:

Inner city stores that have issues with crime and theft usually close.  I have read about a Publix supermarket in Jacksonville, Florida, that will close in December because of similar issues.

Aldi and Lidl are not supermarkets.  They do not have bakery, deli, meat/seafood, pharmacy, and produce/floral departments.

I see that Aldi has a location in Highland Park, Michigan.  Highland Park is an enclave city completely surrounded by Detroit and known for crime.  

[Greenville Paladin]

The former Carmike/AMC theater on John B. White Sr. Boulevard is being demolished. 

[westsider28]

10 minutes ago, Greenville Paladin said:

The former Carmike/AMC theater on John B. White Sr. Boulevard is being demolished. 

Yep.  A massive 3-story, 100k sq ft storage facility will take its place by fall 2020.  (thrilling...)

[Greenville Paladin]

Storage facilities are among several businesses the City of Spartanburg needs to be strict in approving or denying.  The site could be used for better purposes (i.e. supermarket).

[sptgguy]

Sadly this is what I see happening all the time in Spartanburg.  When something is developed no one likes it and people make statements like "they should do something different there" or "they shouldnt allow that". Spartanburg, for the time I have been here,  has always been lax in setting up planning guidelines and really enforcing any kind of chohesive plans. The way that I see it is that no one in Spartanburg City or County wants the government to tell them what to do with their property but like the oversite when something they don't like is being built on someone elses land. As I see it, there is a demand for storage...someone hit the nail on the head somewhere else when they pointed out the number of apartments, condos, townhomes etc that are being built and the number of people who are downsizing do need storage. I went through this personally six months ago and now have a storage unit.  Anyone who is renting one may be happy to see some more competition to drive down the cost of renting a storage unit...but all of this just an opinion. 

2 hours ago, Greenville Paladin said:

Storage facilities are among several businesses the City of Spartanburg needs to be strict in approving or denying.  The site could be used for better purposes (i.e. supermarket).

Within a short distance of this spot are...Walmart, Target, Aldi, Lidel, Ingles, Bi-Lo, Publix is a bit of a drive but not bad...all sell groceries. 

[Greenville Paladin]

Publix is hot in speculation to locate on John B. White Sr. Boulevard.

[Spartan]

On 10/29/2019 at 9:00 PM, westsider28 said:

I'd love to see an urban/semi-urban format Harris-Teeter downtown (similar the Publix at McBee Station in Greenville), perhaps behind Chapman Cultural Center.  But I don't think we have enough people living downtown or good enough demographics in the immediate vicinity for a national chain to consider it, at least not yet.  Maybe 5-10 years from now.

 

Demographics is the #1 issue. Put a store downtown and then do a 10 minute drive time from there and it's 3/4 low income neighborhoods. #2 issue is lack of population in general. #3 is lack of job density. #4 is proximity to other grocery stores relative to #1, 2 and 3.  HT/Publix are higher end stores, so they are going to where there's a larger concentration of people with higher incomes, hence their locations in Hillcrest and Reidville Rd, etc. 

 

Downtown needs thousands more people living and/or working there for a grocery store like that to work. Urban formats are a different ballgame altogether. IMO in a place like Spartanburg people would just drive 5-10 more minutes to go to a regular Ingles or Publix rather than deal with the lack of selection at an urban format store. 

 

Aldi/Lidl would make a lot more sense because they are designed to be small, and they compete well on price, but I feel like it would compete with their existing stores a bit.

[westsider28]

The grocery store issue is certainly a difficult one.

I did see that there is a meeting coming up soon about the matter.  Be sure to attend if it's important to you or affects you directly.

[Historyguy]

On 11/1/2019 at 12:31 PM, Greenville Paladin said:

Storage facilities are among several businesses the City of Spartanburg needs to be strict in approving or denying.  The site could be used for better purposes (i.e. supermarket).

I don't know what grounds the City has to deny something like this.  I may not be thrilled to see it, but if it is permitted by right in that zoning classification, and someone wants to build it, and they own the land, then that's it.  Now, whether "neighborhood shopping district" which I think is what that stretch of John B White is zoned (my zoning map got wet and the colors ran!) should allow self-storage facilities is another matter.  Although looking at the zoning ordinance, a "mini-warehouse-self storage facility" is only allowed in B-1 by special exception, so I don't know what might be going on there.  

[westsider28]

Carolina Panthers training camp will return to Spartanburg this summer!  With their Rock Hill practice facility not opening until 2022, the Panthers could either return to Wofford for training camp or hold it in Charlotte at their current practice facility, which doesn't allow for spectators to watch.  This is a good decision for fans, and good for Spartanburg.

[westsider28]

We seem to be in a relatively significant lull right now, both in development news and economic/jobs announcements.  It's making me nervous/antsy.  We haven't had a private development proposal for downtown in months, and the ones that have been announced have yet to start (Forge apts, Bon Haven apts, any office or hotel, etc).  Even jobs announcements in the county seem to have dried up.  Anyone else wondering what's going on?  Any insights?

[spartanburgh]

I think this was pretty well predicted and discussed on this forum about a year ago. We expected this would happen. The numbers don't work in Spartanburg without significant help from the City/County.

There will be a new project  presented at the next DRB, but it's relatively small and it  may not happen either. The numbers are not working for developers in Spartanburg.

[roads-scholar]

23 hours ago, westsider28 said:

We seem to be in a relatively significant lull right now, both in development news and economic/jobs announcements.  It's making me nervous/antsy.  We haven't had a private development proposal for downtown in months, and the ones that have been announced have yet to start (Forge apts, Bon Haven apts, any office or hotel, etc).  Even jobs announcements in the county seem to have dried up.  Anyone else wondering what's going on?  Any insights?

I’m concerned.  
 

All I’ve heard during the last year is “a lot of developers and investors are looking at Spartanburg”.  If that’s true WHEN will they begin developing and investing?

What’s happened to the Bon Haven development?

What’s happened to the Cambria project?

What’s happened to the Smith Drug project?

What’s happened to the senior living project on 29?

What's happening to the empty C&S Bank building on Morgan square?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by roads-scholar