CONSTRUCTION THREAD: Magnolia Park Town Center

[hauntedheadnc]

I stopped by Magnolia Park yesterday to use a Bed, Bath, and Beyond gift card before they go under.  That whole shopping center is just dreary, and it wouldn't hurt anybody if they tore down half of it and redeveloped it with housing and mixed-use.  Shopping centers are dinosaurs.

[gman]

1 hour ago, hauntedheadnc said:

I stopped by Magnolia Park yesterday to use a Bed, Bath, and Beyond gift card before they go under.  That whole shopping center is just dreary, and it wouldn't hurt anybody if they tore down half of it and redeveloped it with housing and mixed-use.  Shopping centers are dinosaurs.

I agree. Magnolia Park was a mess to begin with. The whole center was terribly designed. The car traffic and parking areas are not good for pedestrians. I hope those developers never do another project in Greenville. 

[PuppiesandKittens]

31 minutes ago, gman said:

I agree. Magnolia Park was a mess to begin with. The whole center was terribly designed. The car traffic and parking areas are not good for pedestrians. I hope those developers never do another project in Greenville. 

Agreed.  I basically lived at the second version of Greenville Mall (when it was upscale) but the one time when I did try to go to Magnolia Park, it took over an hour to get from I-85/Woodruff to and through the Magnolia Park parking lot and to the Woodruff/Verdae Blvd. intersection.  Never again.  

Nothing on the Magnolia Park directory is alluring enough to deal with that hassle.  

Edited May 9, 2023 by PuppiesandKittens

[cabelagent]

28 minutes ago, PuppiesandKittens said:

Agreed.  I basically lived at the second version of Greenville Mall (when it was upscale) but the one time when I did try to go to Magnolia Park, it took over an hour to get from I-85/Woodruff to and through the Magnolia Park parking lot and to the Woodruff/Verdae Blvd. intersection.  Never again.  

Nothing on the Magnolia Park directory is alluring enough to deal with that hassle.  

LOL…wait till you you visit Bridgeway Station (completed)…there’ll be a tie with the worse traffic & access issues. 

[NewlyUpstate]

1 hour ago, cabelagent said:

LOL…wait till you you visit Bridgeway Station (completed)…there’ll be a tie with the worse traffic & access issues. 

At least Bridgeway should be walkable. I have literally no idea why Magnolia Park was not designed as an outdoor shopping mall with mixed use elements. These are incredibly popular elsewhere in the country and are very nice destination shopping areas.

[GvilleSC]

43 minutes ago, NewlyUpstate said:

At least Bridgeway should be walkable. I have literally no idea why Magnolia Park was not designed as an outdoor shopping mall with mixed use elements. These are incredibly popular elsewhere in the country and are very nice destination shopping areas.

One of the original concepts was to have a true mixed use development that included residential over the retail spaces, and two 10 story buildings (one for county government and one of a residential use, I believe). Traffic was a concern and clearly it was never advanced as an idea beyond that point. 

[NewlyUpstate]

44 minutes ago, GvilleSC said:

One of the original concepts was to have a true mixed use development that included residential over the retail spaces, and two 10 story buildings (one for county government and one of a residential use, I believe). Traffic was a concern and clearly it was never advanced as an idea beyond that point. 

Yeah I guess one way to reduce traffic is make somewhere a place nobody wants to go... and even with that being the case, traffic is still awful.

Mixed Use REDUCES traffic because it makes people park to central areas and WALK instead of jamming up all the streets driving from store to store.  Hopefully whoever made that decision to go away from that concept no longer works in city planning/development.

[GvilleSC]

21 minutes ago, NewlyUpstate said:

Yeah I guess one way to reduce traffic is make somewhere a place nobody wants to go... and even with that being the case, traffic is still awful.

LOL -- you nailed it there. 

Well, this was all during the great recession. I believe the economic conditions played a large role. Without the County moving out there (or another large office presence for that matter) to take up space and help shore up their proforma, I'm not sure it was going to work out to begin with. Ultimately, I think the County made the right decision in keeping their administration and services in the city center. 

[PuppiesandKittens]

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Edited May 10, 2023 by PuppiesandKittens

[GvilleSC]

People sure seem to walk downtown.  

As @NewlyUpstate notes, you've got to create the right environment. Greenville has many of these environments, but Magnolia Park's design prevents it from being included in that list. 

[PuppiesandKittens]

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Edited May 10, 2023 by PuppiesandKittens

[GvilleSC]

6 minutes ago, PuppiesandKittens said:

They do, but not more than a few blocks.  Otherwise, car or golf cart (or, for a major event, they will get all dressed up and walk around the block in Alta Vista).

Perhaps that is true for the person who needs only to get their Lululemon fix. I'm really not sure where you're coming from on this topic. For those of us that actually live and work downtown (or for those who actually spend time enjoying our beautiful urban core), I can attest to one's willingness to walk to Publix, Heritage Green, Unity Park, Cleveland Park, Fluor Field, Downtown Alive/Main Street Fridays from all varieties of points of origin. I witness this and take part in this daily. 

[PuppiesandKittens]

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Edited May 10, 2023 by PuppiesandKittens

[NewlyUpstate]

15 minutes ago, PuppiesandKittens said:

I regularly walk from Alta Vista to downtown and Augusta Road to run errands (I absolutely hate driving).  I’m literally the only one who does, and people make comments, even though the walk from Alta Vista through Cleveland Park to downtown is stunningly beautiful.  

Sorry for the digression: my point is that people in Greenville just don’t walk even short distances, so Magnolia Park and Greenridge are built with the local population’s needs in mind, regardless of the traffic mess each has made.

So people in Atlanta and Charlotte will walk around outdoor malls but they won't in Greenville? I entirely disagree with this point.. Greenvillians will absolutely walk around outdoor spaces if it's nice and walkable.

[PuppiesandKittens]

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Edited May 10, 2023 by PuppiesandKittens

[NewlyUpstate]

7 minutes ago, PuppiesandKittens said:

As a Greenville native who has the most beautiful short walk from Alta Vista to downtown,  and who is the only one who does it: people in Greenville just love their cars and will not move from an interior space with air conditioning unless they absolutely have to.

Witness all of the people sitting at GSP, idling their car engines last week, with the windows rolled up: despite absolutely beautiful weather, they want their AC and do not want to exert themselves.

In Charlotte, they do go to Birkdale Village and wouldn’t anyone, given the issues at Northlake Mall?

I mean walking a mile downtown is much different than parking and walking outside <200ft at a time from store to store.

I've lived in some of the hottest cities in this country and even there had outdoor malls that people enjoyed.

[PuppiesandKittens]

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Edited May 10, 2023 by PuppiesandKittens

[SVL]

3 minutes ago, PuppiesandKittens said:

Maybe Magnolia Park and Greenridge were built as they are to save costs.  Stony Point Fashion Park in Richmond was a beautiful outdoor mall but clearly it cost more per square foot than Magnolia Park.

In any event, hopefully we can agree that people in Greenville love their cars and love their AC.  Seeing all of the people idling their car engines even on a beautiful day is beyond comprehension to me, but I’m clearly in the minority.

I don't think it's just a Greenville thing, it's a U.S. thing.  We don't have great pedestrian infrastructure and mass transit like they do in other countries. But when it is available here, people will use it. 

[PuppiesandKittens]

deleted 

Edited May 10, 2023 by PuppiesandKittens

[gman430]

On 5/8/2023 at 6:49 PM, GVLover said:

Cabela's is now branded as Bass Pro Shops.

I noticed this today. Looks like they’re going to be expanding west bound and border the old Sketcher’s space also going off the leasing plan. My guess is a boat center will be added. 

Edited May 13, 2023 by gman430

[distortedlogic]

16 minutes ago, gman430 said:

I noticed this today. Looks like they’re going to be expanding west bound and border the old Sketcher’s space also going off the leasing plan. My guess is a boat center will be added. 

The Cabela in Greenville is now a Bass Pro? Didn't see that coming.  And I much prefer the Cabela model. 

[gman430]

10 minutes ago, distortedlogic said:

The Cabela in Greenville is now a Bass Pro? Didn't see that coming.  And I much prefer the Cabela model. 

Yeah. The signage on the building along I-385 has already been changed out to say Bass Pro Shops. Not sure why the brand name change when BPS and Cabela’s are both under the same ownership. Odd.

Edited May 13, 2023 by gman430

[vistatiger]

I think they rebranded the Augusta Cabela's also to BPS. Not sure about Fort Mill.

They are probably slowly phasing out the Cabela's nameplate on the stores the same way Macy's did with all the Federated Dept. Store chains across the country like Rich's here in the south.

Magnolia is a strange collection of shops. Nordstrom Rack between a trampoline park and Bass Pro . What a mess of a shopping center.

Edited May 13, 2023 by vistatiger

[gman430]

It’s going to be both a BPS and Cabela’s: 

Edited May 13, 2023 by gman430

[vistatiger]

That looks like what they did in Augusta with the signage.  I guess they are using Cabela's as their private label brand for hunting within  Bass Pro  Shops.   It's all the same company now anyways like Marshalls/TJMaxx / HomeGoods are the same company.