The State of Downtown Retail

[gman430]

Southern Tide and Oakblue Kitchen are now open. Dark Corner Distillery has moved down the street. 

[johnpro318]

Breakwater Restaurant in the Westend is closing this Saturday July 23rd per an email I got from them.

[RiverWalker]

W.N. Watson Tire and Auto on West Broad is undergoing renovation and expansion. The business has temporarily relocated during construction to 311 East Washington St., corner of Church Street, which was formerly a second location.

[Galley]

21 hours ago, johnpro318 said:

Breakwater Restaurant in the Westend is closing this Saturday July 23rd per an email I got from them.

They lost several key members of their staff in just a few weeks.  Bummer.

[bikeoid]

It would be interesting to know the reason for Breakwater closing.

[Gville2012]

17 minutes ago, bikeoid said:

It would be interesting to know the reason for Breakwater closing.

I think it is related to what Galley mentioned. They lost several bartenders, managers, and servers when some of the new restaurants opened that helped make Breakwater great. I went back since they left and had a bad experience. People are everything in service oriented businesses. 

[ursa carolina]

Agree with the above. We work with a lot of restaurants and hear a common complaint. There just isn't enough service industry talent in Greenville for the demand. If a restaurant becomes slow and income drops, or they don't like a manager, employees will leave be employed elsewhere almost immediately.

[bikeoid]

Wow - that's good to know.   It's a shame when a restaurant does everything right like Breakwater did, but one mis-step starts a chain of events that ends it all.

[Gville2012]

Another restaurant coming DT.... Toast taking over old Two Chefs spot.

http://upstatebusinessjournal.com/news/north-carolina-based-toast-cafe-coming-greenville/

[Jet-set]

Not retail, but replacing retail:

http://gsabusiness.com/news/creative-industries/70186/

Honestly, retail was always going to be a hard sell in that location.

Has anyone heard anything about Husk? Have not seen any activity at that building since the announcement.

[gman430]

Had a chance to try C&B this morning. Nothing short of amazing. Reminds me a lot of Dean & Deluca. 

[RestedTraveler]

The Caviar & Bananas in Charleston were pretty cool, too.  Nice to see C&B, Husk, and Toast branching into Greenville.  All were favorites of mine in Chucktown.  Eggs Meeting Street from Toast is to die for.

[greenjoesc]

I don't think it's the Toast Charleston coming to Greenville.  It's the NC based one....Famous Toastery. 

[gman430]

West End Barber Shop coming soon next to Amanda Henry's on Main Street.

[gman430]

Terrace Cafe coming to 654 South Main Street: http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/06/24/owner-expansion-on-menu-for-terrace-caf-two-new.html

[NBNY2GRNVL]

The other locations are South Park and Ballantyne in Charlotte which my understanding is that they are the most high-end areas in that City. I used to run a store in The Ballantyne area and that is very well-to-do over there.

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[Gville2012]

http://upstatebusinessjournal.com/news/menkoi-ramen-house-open-north-main/

Great to see. I know there was some copncern about closures on this side of DT but I think its great to see more restaurants coming to this side. With the potential future plans to redo the plaza across from NOMA and the empty old Blue Ridge Brewery space the space between East North St. and Beatie/College could drastically change. T

This is osmewhat similar in offering to Sushi Go I believe with their bowls, however.

[vicupstate]

With the potential future plans to redo the plaza across from NOMA ...

This is news to me. Are you talking about the Max Heller Plaza?  

[Gville2012]

1 hour ago, vicupstate said:

With the potential future plans to redo the plaza across from NOMA ...

This is news to me. Are you talking about the Max Heller Plaza?  

Yes - I heard rumors the developer was showing concepts to neighboring owners for feedback. Dont know timing or if it was definite, but I know they were fairly far along with plans. They are looking for higher end retailers than what was in there... hence why they are no longer there.

[vicupstate]

The building was renovated not that long ago. Are they going to 'dress up' the building architecturally and seek higher end tenants, or actually change walls and stuff? 

[Gville2012]

From what I understand, dress up the building architecturally and seek higher end targets. They were planning to convert the storefronts on main and on the plaza into glass, redo the plaza, and I heard add some type of interactive digital display.

[gman430]

You must all be talking about this: http://upstatebusinessjournal.com/news/north-main-flats-renovations-near-completion/

[Gville2012]

Correct - Referring to the last line... " The company plans to upgrade the storefronts, but there is not a timeline for that yet, Mueller said. " The details ^ are referring to that.

[Jet-set]

Art Cellar moving to new location @ North Main Flats

http://www.greenvillebusinessmag.com/View-Article/ArticleID/10981/The-Art-Cellar-to-triple-in-size-as-Greenville’s-art-scene-grows.aspx

 

Edited August 27, 2016 by Jet-set

[Danmire]

Noticed the other day that the Pita Pit was closed.  It always seemed to do good business.