The State of Downtown Retail

[Tigers81]

12 minutes ago, gman430 said:

iStore is now open.

Work appears to have started on New Realm. 

Interior work has started on former Lynn Strong along with space between Savannah Bee and bluemercury.

Excited to see work begin at new realm, although I wonder if it is just for design as I don't recall them going through DRB yet??

[PuppiesandKittens]

I wonder why the Brooks Brothers space is still vacant.  It’s a prime location.

[gman430]

The Batistas will open Sofrito Latin Restaurant & Bar at 1021 S. Main St., in West Greenville in late June/early July. The location will be a second one for their Latin-infused concept, which marries flavors culled from across Latin America but is built on a foundation of their Dominican Republic roots: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/greenville/2022/04/18/greenville-sc-sofirto-latin-moves-crafty-cats-brewery-coffee-tea-space/7302450001/

Edited April 18, 2022 by gman430

[NewlyUpstate]

Yesss I love Sofrito, but hate driving out to Woodruff to have it.  Their Mofongo is incredible.  This is the old Crafty Cats spot in the West End

[SVL]

Urban Wren, Greenville Drive partner to bring ‘The Bellwether’ to former Liberty Tap Room site

[gman430]

Southern Tide has moved. I don’t expect their empty space to stay empty long due to the impending sale of the building. 

[vicupstate]

Bricktop's Restaurant taking Brooks Brother's space

Just now, vicupstate said:

Bricktop's Restaurant taking Brooks Brother's space

I hate to see a prime retail space become restaurant space, but its been vacant for awhile now.

[gman430]

I know Hughes was waiting on the right retailer to locate there which is why it has sat vacant for so long but I guess sometimes you just can’t wait any longer. Glad to see another empty space downtown getting filled though either way. 

[GVLover]

Well there goes my wish for an H&M there. I cannot stand for the life of me why H&M hasn’t considered a downtown location in Greenville. It’s pretty unreal how Florence has a location, and yet somehow we cannot have one. 

[apaladin]

On 4/20/2022 at 3:15 PM, gman430 said:

Southern Tide has moved. I don’t expect their empty space to stay empty long due to the impending sale of the building. 

Where did Southern Tide move? 

[GVLover]

20 minutes ago, apaladin said:

Where did Southern Tide move? 

Camperdown.

[GvilleSC]

16 hours ago, vicupstate said:

Bricktop's Restaurant taking Brooks Brother's space

I hate to see a prime retail space become restaurant space, but its been vacant for awhile now.

I hate that it's a chain, but at least it's regional. Brooks Brothers was not an especially engaging retailer, so this should be an upgrade. Their renovation plans should really activate things on both sidewalks. Ultimately, I'll take it. Hopefully their food, bar, and service are good. 

Will this be the end for Sticky Fingers? 

[gman]

17 hours ago, vicupstate said:

Bricktop's Restaurant taking Brooks Brother's space

I hate to see a prime retail space become restaurant space, but its been vacant for awhile now.

Wow, who can afford to eat there? I noticed the Grouper is $44.00. I’ve had fresh grilled grouper on the Florida Gulf Coast and it is expensive. It is still not better than the Silver Bay, and it only cost about $12.00. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56317f59e4b0ae2ad7919708/t/61f45115e5b8ed66029bdbff/1643401494033/Charlotte+Dinner+1.pdf

[GvilleSC]

12 minutes ago, gman said:

Wow, who can afford to eat there? I noticed the Grouper is $44.00. I’ve had fresh grilled grouper on the Florida Gulf Coast and it is expensive. It is still not better than the Silver Bay, and it only cost about $12.00. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56317f59e4b0ae2ad7919708/t/61f45115e5b8ed66029bdbff/1643401494033/Charlotte+Dinner+1.pdf

I had not yet looked at the menu. But, if that's the price point, then Sticky Fingers still has space in the market. I don't think Bricktop's branding looks that high end. 

They're certainly coming in at a great time with Canal's move to 101 North Main, and the biotech company coming to the former Windstream space. 

[olrob]

10 hours ago, gman said:

Wow, who can afford to eat there? I noticed the Grouper is $44.00. I’ve had fresh grilled grouper on the Florida Gulf Coast and it is expensive. It is still not better than the Silver Bay, and it only cost about $12.00. https://static1.squarespace.c grom/static/56317f59e4b0ae2ad7919708/t/61f45115e5b8ed66029bdbff/1643401494033/Charlotte+Dinner+1.pdf

These might be gentrified grouper...gentrifried?

[PuppiesandKittens]

On 4/21/2022 at 6:04 PM, GVLover said:

Well there goes my wish for an H&M there. I cannot stand for the life of me why H&M hasn’t considered a downtown location in Greenville. It’s pretty unreal how Florence has a location, and yet somehow we cannot have one. 

Isn’t H&M closing lots of stores these days?  

I would prefer more retail stores downtown, and downtown needs more high-traffic/destination retailers to attract more stores.  Hopefully the County Square site will get some, but that site has high-traffic retailers before and it failed.

[GVLover]

5 hours ago, PuppiesandKittens said:

Isn’t H&M closing lots of stores these days?  

I would prefer more retail stores downtown, and downtown needs more high-traffic/destination retailers to attract more stores.  Hopefully the County Square site will get some, but that site has high-traffic retailers before and it failed.

I haven’t heard anything about H&M closing stores, but it doesn’t negate that Florence has a location in the first place while we don’t. Nonetheless, I’m also in the camp of hoping County Square being a site for national retailers. We need to activate more streets off of Main Street, and so my hope is that there will be a significant commitment from national retailers to that site. 

[PuppiesandKittens]

H&M is closing 240 stores in established markets (but opening 95 stores in growing markets).  I don’t know if the US is considered established or growing, but Greenville may have missed the boat on H&M.

One other thought is that in walking down Main Street today, it’s a hodgepodge of uses.  It has some very desirable stores, but to (for example) get from Orvis to Lululemon, it’s necessary to walk by multiple bank branches, appointment-only service providers, art galleries and more.

 I would think that encouraging landlords to offer their street-level spaces for restaurant or retail use, instead of for other services, might help.

[gman430]

Brooks Brothers space is too small square footage wise for a H&M. The main reason they haven’t come to Greenville is due to not being able to find a spot with the required square footage needed for one of their stores. If you need your fix, there’s one a county over at Westgate Mall. 

Edited April 24, 2022 by gman430

[vistatiger]

On 4/24/2022 at 3:24 PM, gman430 said:

Brooks Brothers space is too small square footage wise for a H&M. The main reason they haven’t come to Greenville is due to not being able to find a spot with the required square footage needed for one of their stores. If you need your fix, there’s one a county over at Westgate Mall. 

Yes there is one at the Gaffney outlets as well and they would probably need at least 15,000 sq ft or at least 3 or 4 times the space of the former Brooks Brothers. 

Amazing that Cherokee County has bigger retail brand names represented than DT Greenville or Haywood- Ralph Lauren, Coach, Crate&Barrel, J Crew, Kate Spade, Michael Kors and Brooks Brothers all in Gaffney.  

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by vistatiger
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[NewlyUpstate]

26 minutes ago, vistatiger said:

Yes there is one at the Gaffney outlets as well and they would probably need at least 15,000 sq ft or at least 3 or 4 times the space of the former Brooks Brothers. 

Amazing that Cherokee County has bigger retail brand names represented than DT Greenville or Haywood- Ralph Lauren, Coach, Crate&Barrel, J Crew, Kate Spade, Michael Kors and Brooks Brothers all in Gaffney.  

 

To be fair, outlets are a completely different thing than main flagship stores.  I don't think Greenville is interested in an outlet mall.  Outlet malls also typically tend to put themselves in the middle of nowhere so that they become the destination for a multi-hour shopping trip.

[vicupstate]

Outlets do NOT sell the same clothes as main flagship stores either. Lower quality and materials. 

[PuppiesandKittens]

4 hours ago, vistatiger said:

Yes there is one at the Gaffney outlets as well and they would probably need at least 15,000 sq ft or at least 3 or 4 times the space of the former Brooks Brothers. 

Amazing that Cherokee County has bigger retail brand names represented than DT Greenville or Haywood- Ralph Lauren, Coach, Crate&Barrel, J Crew, Kate Spade, Michael Kors and Brooks Brothers all in Gaffney.  

 

The price points at J. McLaughlin and Lululemon downtown are far higher than at the Gaffney outlet mall.  And the Gaffney outlet mall is largely vacant.  Is it on deadmalls.com yet?

I’d rather have what we have than have a half-vacant outlet mall.

[vicupstate]

2 minutes ago, PuppiesandKittens said:

The price points at J. McLaughlin and Lululemon downtown are far higher than at the Gaffney outlet mall.  And the Gaffney outlet mall is largely vacant.  Is it on deadmalls.com yet?

I’d rather have what we have than have a half-vacant outlet mall.

I agree, but then again, Gaffney has a Peachoid and we don't. 

 

[vistatiger]

3 hours ago, vicupstate said:

Outlets do NOT sell the same clothes as main flagship stores either. Lower quality and materials. 

I disagree. Outlet's were that way back in the day when many clothes were made in sewing rooms here in the USA and you could go to  their outlets to buy seconds and rejects with minor flaws at a discount  but not so much anymore.  They are selling pretty much the same stuff that you find in their regular stores. It's all made cheaply overseas.