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The State of Downtown Retail

GvilleSC

By GvilleSC
in Greenville

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gman430
gman430

1. IMO…this forum needs some negativity once in a while. All of the positivity all of the time with making Greenville look like the perfect Utopia is honestly boring and makes me feel like I need to b

vicupstate
vicupstate

The Teal clad building at N. Main and E. North will soon get a new façade. It will go before DRB next month.  They informally reviewed it today.  Top two floors will have windows for a change.   

GVLer
GVLer

Seriously?? First of all, what is the City supposed to do to ensure a business succeeds? Some are thriving and some do not make it....that is called capitalism. If downtown was dirty, crime ridden, or

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gs3 Metropolitan Area

gs3

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I'm guessing this place will have an even shorter life than "West End Chicken and Waffles" did. I called that one correct. The fact that the owners of the G Spot are opening an "upscale" (their words) steakhouse. Really, really scared of what this will be. The interior sketch shows an "off the shelf" light fixture from Home Depot. It is almost laughable. When will area wannabe business owners learn, if you intend to open in downtown Greenville, you need to open ready to PLAY. This might fly on some Main Streets in the state, not here. Downtown Greenville retail is littered with places that didn't make it because of sub-par execution......West End Chicken & Waffles, Qwikees, Kozani, etc, etc.

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vicupstate Metropolitan Area

vicupstate

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More on the Steakhouse going into The Gathering Spot location, from the Gville News:

The owner of a longtime downtown bar and restaurant, The Gathering Spot, says he’s transforming the business into an upscale steakhouse now that major improvements are coming to the public plaza on which it opens.

Mike Arendt owned and operated The Gathering Spot for seven years along Piazza Bergamo at the intersection of Main and Coffee streets.

Arendt said he figures an upscale restaurant is a better fit for the space since the city of Greenville is spending $4 million to improve the plaza, adding shade trees, outdoor seating, a water feature, brickwork and woven metal structures on poles to create shade.

The work is being done in conjunction with One, the twin-tower, office-and-retail development under construction right next the plaza.

“At the end of the day, I just think it’s a better fit for the piazza,” said Arendt, a former chef who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in New York City and formerly owned a steakhouse in Rutherford, NJ.

Arendt has begun renovating the space where The Gathering Spot was and said he hopes to open the new restaurant by Christmas.

It will be called Rare Steakhouse in the Piazza and have 120 seats in the bar and dining areas, he said.

Arendt said the restaurant will have hardwood floors, a tin ceiling and windows all along the plaza frontage. He also plans outdoor dining but won’t launch that until the city finishes the plaza work.

Mike Murphy, the city’s public works director, said the city is hoping to have part of the plaza work near Main Street complete by the end of January in order to accommodate Anthropologie, a women’s fashion chain, and other tenants going to One.

The city is already making sewer improvements and modifying an elevator in the Richardson Street parking garage to open onto the plaza, Murphy said.

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gs3 Metropolitan Area

gs3

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Palmetto Shades on Main is closed. That location isn't working so well for retail for some reason.

It isn't the location that is the problem, it is the half*ss attempts at retail that have gone in the space. Palmetto Shades was pathetic.....the store looked horrible and their merchandise was last year. I went in and asked about the tort rays....not only did they not have them, they didn't know what they were. Again, people opening on Main really need to do some research and understand the taste level of shoppers in DT GV. Any old store isn't going to make it.

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Lib Whistle-Stop

Lib

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It isn't the location that is the problem, it is the half*ss attempts at retail that have gone in the space.

I could not agree more! I'm not sure if it's Greenville's size that makes people think they can get away with careless attempts at businesses, but I'm really tired of seeing it over and over. As an entrepreneur with lots of ideas and little capital to make them reality, it blows my mind that someone would take the risk and invest in a new business without being prepared to make it amazing from day one.

On the other hand, it's very obvious when a business takes time to do things right — aka hire a professional to design a good logo and sign, think through your retail space and make it look like you actually care — on top of having a good product (a la Trappe Door, Luna Rosa, We Took to the Woods, Velo Fellow, Natural Baby etc.)

These are the stores and restaurants that make Greenville both unique and proud. I would love to see more of them.

And I would love to see some of the mediocre businesses (that could be great) step it up. Like Spill the Beans, iStore, etc.

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gs3 Metropolitan Area

gs3

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I could not agree more! I'm not sure if it's Greenville's size that makes people think they can get away with careless attempts at businesses, but I'm really tired of seeing it over and over. As an entrepreneur with lots of ideas and little capital to make them reality, it blows my mind that someone would take the risk and invest in a new business without being prepared to make it amazing from day one.

On the other hand, it's very obvious when a business takes time to do things right — aka hire a professional to design a good logo and sign, think through your retail space and make it look like you actually care — on top of having a good product (a la Trappe Door, Luna Rosa, We Took to the Woods, Velo Fellow, Natural Baby etc.)

These are the stores and restaurants that make Greenville both unique and proud. I would love to see more of them.

And I would love to see some of the mediocre businesses (that could be great) step it up. Like Spill the Beans, iStore, etc.

YES, YES and more YES! Let's meet for drinks and open a business together!

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RiverWalker Whistle-Stop

RiverWalker

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I have no clue what tort rays are.

Tort Rays are cray-cray. If U had some I'd be totes jel. (Translation: "Tortoise-shell Ray-Bans are crazy. If you had some I'd be totally jealous." Britain has its rhyming slang, America has abbreviating slang.)Personally, I thought Palmetto Shades sold window treatments, and perhaps that's why it failed to thrive. The name of a business should unambiguously identify what goods or services it provides. Palmetto Shades does okay in Clemson because of traffic from the campus, aided by an on-line presence supported by graphics. The name also might work at an airport kiosk, where the product is right there and obvious. However, I don't think it is well suited for a storefront in a location that doesn't have a nearby urban campus, seaside boardwalk or beachfront strip mall. This is downtown Greenville, not Myrtle or Destin or Key West. People don't just walk down the street and think, "Oh, I need sunglasses and flip-flops."

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gman430 Megalopolis

gman430

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Something is going inside the last available tenant space at Bookends phase 1. Don't know what though.

Sully's Bagel for tenant space next to Sticky Fingers along East Washington Street.

GrapeLeaf Mediterranean restaurant for old Mojitos space.

Renovations have started on the tenant space next to Sweet Dreams. Don't know what if anything is planned.

Construction has started on the steakhouse for old Gathering Spot space at Piazza Bergamo.

Edited by gman430
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ausrutherford Burg

ausrutherford

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Something is going inside the last available tenant space at Bookends phase 1. Don't know what though.

Sully's Bagel for tenant space next to Sticky Fingers along East Washington Street.

GrapeLeaf Mediterranean restaurant for old Mojitos space.

Renovations have started on the tenant space next to Sweet Dreams. Don't know what if anything is planned.

Construction has started on the steakhouse for old Gathering Spot space at Piazza Bergamo.

Is anything stated to go in the retail space next to the CVS drive threw?

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