Downtown Projects & Developments

[Spartan]

That is excellent. Signal cabinet boxes are everywhere and ugly. I can't wait for someone to do the one at Main & Church

[westsider28]

@Spartan Here's an article about the utility box art, which includes a map of their locations and photos of each.

Here's an article on the FR8 Yard.  It should be open before the end of the year.

ICYMI, a good article about Magnolia Street.  The Children's Museum got a $150K grant from Duke Energy which completes the fundraising campaign.  It's supposed to open March 24, 2018. 

A group of local investors (Greg Atkins, Andrew Babb, John Bauknight, Scott Montgomery and Norman Pulliam Jr.) recently bought the old Social Security building.  They plan to renovate it over the next 6 months, then intend to lease the 20,000 sq ft to a mix of tenants. 

Signage is up at the new Miyako's, but it's not open yet.  Should be by the end of the year.  Rooftop bar will follow.

Also, renovations for Coldwell Banker Caine's new office on Daniel Morgan Ave are progressing.  They are indeed painting the building like in the renderings.  Kind of a Carolina blue color.

Edited November 19, 2017 by westsider28

[roads-scholar]

17 hours ago, westsider28 said:

@Spartan Here's an article about the utility box art, which includes a map of their locations and photos of each.

Here's an article on the FR8 Yard.  It should be open before the end of the year.

ICYMI, a good article about Magnolia Street.  The Children's Museum got a $150K grant from Duke Energy which completes the fundraising campaign.  It's supposed to open March 24, 2018. 

A group of local investors (Greg Atkins, Andrew Babb, John Bauknight, Scott Montgomery and Norman Pulliam Jr.) recently bought the old Social Security building.  They plan to renovate it over the next 6 months, then intend to lease the 20,000 sq ft to a mix of tenants. 

Signage is up at the new Miyako's, but it's not open yet.  Should be by the end of the year.  Rooftop bar will follow.

Also, renovations for Coldwell Banker Caine's new office on Daniel Morgan Ave are progressing.  They are indeed painting the building like in the renderings.  Kind of a Carolina blue color.

Strolled up and down Magnolia Street yesterday and observed a lot of activity inside Miyakos.  It won’t be long.  

[drexel]

Great vibe in downtown  tonight.  Nice weather helped, but still I was impressed.  Have not been to Rockers on Saturday, but great band and good crowd.  We are on a roll! 

[Historyguy]

From posts on Facebook, it appears that some of the first residents of the Aug Smith on Main apartments have moved in.  Nice views from some of the upper floor balconies!  

[westsider28]

An 8-lane boutique bowling alley / restaurant / event venue is planned for the former Leader building on Morgan Square.  The development team is led by Howard Dozier, co-owner of Greenville’s Stone Pin Company.  The restaurant would be 5,000 sq ft; the event center 9,000 sq ft; and the bowling alley 12,000 sq ft in the 26,000 sq ft building.  There would also be a 1,500 sq ft mezzanine for small, private events.

The building owners are asking for a development agreement with the City, whereby the City would give them a special tax assessment for the renovated historic building, do streetscaping on Broad, and provide a loan.  The loan is the only thing a bit questionable to me (other actions are routine).

But I love this concept and think it would be a great addition to downtown, while finally filling that prominent building.

[westsider28]

They've wasted no time starting renovations on The Leader building.  Paneling has been removed, exposing the original facade.  Here's a current photo compared to one from the '40s (you can still faintly see the painted signage):

Also, check out the tile mosaics on the floor inside:

[Spartanburg Dude]

It's absolutely awesome to see these historical renovations taking place!!!

There is so little left so it's heartwarming to see preservation and rehabilitation!

I'm curious to see what happens to the old Montgomery Ward and Kress buildings, hopefully someone gets their hands on those two as well and brings them back to glory!

[westsider28]

There are a couple of interesting informal review items on the DRB agenda for the May 1 meeting.  First is for 150 South Pine (old Economy Inn site), however after Googling the applicant--FFC Limited Partnership--it appears they represent Wendy's.    So if that's what they're proposing for the site (in DT-5 no less), I hope the DRB shoots them down swiftly.  The second is regarding "new construction of Smith's Drug Store" at 142 East Main.  I wonder if this is an addition to the current building or demo/replacement?  I'll try to make it to the meeting to find out.

[roads-scholar]

15 hours ago, westsider28 said:

They've wasted no time starting renovations on The Leader building.  Paneling has been removed, exposing the original facade.  Here's a current photo compared to one from the '40s (you can still faintly see the painted signage):

Also, check out the tile mosaics on the floor inside:

The photo from the 40's is one I haven't seen before.  I remember shopping at The Leader in the late 1960's but didn't realize the store had been around that long. 

[Spartan]

On 4/17/2018 at 12:48 PM, westsider28 said:

There are a couple of interesting informal review items on the DRB agenda for the May 1 meeting.  First is for 150 South Pine (old Economy Inn site), however after Googling the applicant--FFC Limited Partnership--it appears they represent Wendy's.    So if that's what they're proposing for the site (in DT-5 no less), I hope the DRB shoots them down swiftly.  The second is regarding "new construction of Smith's Drug Store" at 142 East Main.  I wonder if this is an addition to the current building or demo/replacement?  I'll try to make it to the meeting to find out.

I disagree with you on the Wendy's. I think that fast food restaurants can be designed well as long as the drive-thru doesn't go between the building and the street and it's built to the appropriate scale. I think the bigger question is how much of a priority will the DRB place on making Pine Street a truly walkable place. This is the first site to go through the DRB on Pine St that isn't a major building like the one at Main & Pine, so it will certainly set a precedent for that street.

[westsider28]

Well yes, a walkable Wendy's can be done (this one in Columbia is okay).  DT-5 requires it to be a minimum of 2-stories, though.  Also, access to the site is horrendous with the traffic on Pine Street there, so that has to be taken into consideration (i.e. right-in, right-out only, probably).  However, looking at the Urban Code, it looks like they can't have a drive-thru because section 3.2.2a says, "In the DT-5 or DT-6 district, a restaurant or business with drive-thru service may not be closer than 500 feet from another business with drive-thru service."  This site is less than 500 feet from Arby's and Firehouse Subs, both of which have drive-thrus.  So, we'll have to see what they're proposing.

[roads-scholar]

3 hours ago, Spartan said:

I disagree with you on the Wendy's. I think that fast food restaurants can be designed well as long as the drive-thru doesn't go between the building and the street and it's built to the appropriate scale. I think the bigger question is how much of a priority will the DRB place on making Pine Street a truly walkable place. This is the first site to go through the DRB on Pine St that isn't a major building like the one at Main & Pine, so it will certainly set a precedent for that street.

The Smith Drug store "new construction" is intriguing.  Anyone care to speculate on this?

[westsider28]

The Children's Museum on Magnolia Street will be opening on May 19.  This will be a great, educational destination for families with young children.  Just adding to the diversity of things-to-do in downtown!

[Upstate Guy]

The Children's Museum opening is going to bring a new level of life to downtown during the day. I am beyond impressed with what Spartanburg has done over the last 10 years with revitalizing downtown. 

[westsider28]

So I was checking the City's bid webpage, and found an RFP for redevelopment of the former TK Gregg site along Northview Street just off St John.  It's 11 acres, zoned DT-4 and the City is looking for primarily market-rate residential that complements the existing neighborhood.  The City also "encourages a mix of living environments, sizes, and price points and welcomes creative strategies for the inclusion of some home-ownership opportunities for those with below median incomes."

This is a somewhat challenging site, considering the significant grade changes and creek.  But this would help densify and add more residents to downtown.  It seems like it would mostly be single-family residential, but I could see there potentially being a small apartment component.  And I'm thinking attached townhomes are likely, as those seem to be quite popular right now.  I'm also hoping this would spur renovations and improvements in the surrounding neighborhood.  It will be interesting to see how this develops.

[westsider28]

This H-J article mentions it and got me looking into the County's capital improvement plan for info on it: there's a plan to expand the downtown Library.  The project description (page 41) says, "This expansion will address historical document storage and preservation, early childhood school readiness and science, technology, engineering and mathematics initiatives (STEM), and enhance collaborative learning and meeting spaces."  The expansion will be 20,000 sq ft at a projected cost of $6.9 million (depends somewhat on private donations).  The picture in the document suggests that the expansion would be at the rear, toward the parking lot, where the current pedestrian bridge entrance is.  I'll be interested to learn more about this.

[djh1963]

We have come a long way. 

http://www.goupstate.com/news/19930926/while-city39s-perimeter-grows-once-lively-downtown-withers-promises-to-keep

 

 

Edited May 27, 2018 by djh1963

[Spartanburg Guy]

Downtown is certainly a much more vibrant and attractive place than 20-25 years ago.  

[westsider28]

15 hours ago, djh1963 said:

We have come a long way. 

http://www.goupstate.com/news/19930926/while-city39s-perimeter-grows-once-lively-downtown-withers-promises-to-keep

 

 

That's amazing to read.  To me, that shows the importance of leadership and a shared vision/goal.  Clearly that was not present then.   We are fortunate to now have a perhaps unprecedented unity of purpose--from City government to businesses to the Chamber to non-profits to our colleges to ordinary citizens--in focusing on, investing in, and improving downtown.

Edited May 28, 2018 by westsider28

[roads-scholar]

When this story was written I was living away from Spartanburg (1983-1999) so don’t have any recollections from that time.   However, I believe that shortly thereafter the community banded together to get the new downtown library built which could have been the moment the turnaround really began.    

Thoughts?

[westsider28]

On 4/18/2018 at 1:55 PM, westsider28 said:

Well yes, a walkable Wendy's can be done (this one in Columbia is okay).  DT-5 requires it to be a minimum of 2-stories, though.  Also, access to the site is horrendous with the traffic on Pine Street there, so that has to be taken into consideration (i.e. right-in, right-out only, probably).  However, looking at the Urban Code, it looks like they can't have a drive-thru because section 3.2.2a says, "In the DT-5 or DT-6 district, a restaurant or business with drive-thru service may not be closer than 500 feet from another business with drive-thru service."  This site is less than 500 feet from Arby's and Firehouse Subs, both of which have drive-thrus.  So, we'll have to see what they're proposing.

So this Wendy's is asking for conceptual approval at next week's DRB meeting.  As I see it, they'll be asking for 2 variances (described above): drive-thru and single-story.  They've actually done an admirable job siting the building and keeping the drive-thru behind (see site plan).  I'm somewhat okay with that.  As I mentioned before though, I think they need to make the building look closer to 2-stories like that Columbia one (Event Rentals did that, too).

There's also the larger question of whether this fits the "spirit of the Code", which is to promote walkable urban development, and I would argue that this does not.  And with the relatively significant variances the applicant is asking for, I wouldn't mind the DRB rejecting this.  Anyway, here are some images from the last meeting.  What do you think?

[hub-city]

While I would object on purist terms, I hate the current location and would welcome any improvement....

[roads-scholar]

10 hours ago, hub-city said:

While I would object on purist terms, I hate the current location and would welcome any improvement....

Agree as the present building is seriously dated.  BTW, this Wendy's is amazingly busy all the time and especially during lunch hours. 

[Spartanburg Dude]

If this is approved and Wendy's makes the move, then this also frees up a very good corner for some legit development. I'd love to see that corner get a new building, with some Spartanburg character designed into it!