Downtown Projects & Developments

[westsider28]

This is great news.  Former mayor Bill Barnet has purchased both the former Carolina Gallery and former Abby's buildings straddling Wall Street.  He's looking to get them leased or sold quickly.  These buildings are in a prime location.  I'm confident he can get them filled and active again.

[Spartan]

20 hours ago, westsider28 said:

This is great news.  Former mayor Bill Barnet has purchased both the former Carolina Gallery and former Abby's buildings straddling Wall Street.  He's looking to get them leased or sold quickly.  These buildings are in a prime location.  I'm confident he can get them filled and active again.

Or just make them his second and third homes...

[westsider28]

The City posted a picture on Facebook today showing significant progress on the steel frame for the new Miyako's building on Magnolia.  I saw the mobile crane on Spring Street working on it earlier this week.  I'm impressed with how quickly the structure is going up!

[westsider28]

Saw a notice in the paper this morning that the DRB will have a meeting on Wed, Jan. 18 at 5:30pm to review a "proposed restaurant concept" at 125 East Main Street.  This is the empty lot next to the Kress building with Sparkle City Mini Putt at the back.  DT-6 requires a minimum of 2 floors.  I'd like to see renderings, because this strikes me as a vast under-use of the parcel if it is just a restaurant and not a mixed-use building with apartments or office space in upper floors.  We need restaurants on East Main, but not so much as to waste the largest developable lot in the core of Main Street for only that.

[Spartan]

Agreed. I think that the market combined with finances and topography will probably force a 2-4 story building there. It's just an educated guess on my part... but that site is interesting because the slope would allow for parking on the lower level with an entry from Broad St - or a really nice basement level. If they go with parking then that will probably force 2-3 stories above that in order to make the pro forma work.

[krazeeboi]

On 8/14/2016 at 11:45 PM, westsider28 said:

Magnolia streetscaping is complete, and it looks great.  Hopefully this will spur some new businesses to open along here soon!

This letter is one of several placed periodically along the street spelling out M-A-G-N-O-L-I-A. Clever/fun idea. Nice touch.

I know I'm late, but this was very well done!

[GvilleSC]

^^ you're right- That does look great! The variety and composition of the facades along this stretch is excellent!

Edited January 6, 2017 by GvilleSC

[westsider28]

Update on the "restaurant concept" at 125 East Main going before the DRB next week.  I got some more info about it, and now that I fully understand the concept, I completely support it.  It is essentially a "pop-up" restaurant made of shipping containers.  It's outdoors and temporary.  You may have seen / heard of these in other cities.  They're very popular right now.  According to the plans, there will be tons of picnic tables, a TV screen projected on the neighboring building wall, a stage for live music, fire pit, etc.  It actually seems awesome.

A more intriguing additional item on the agenda is "Preliminary Discussion with Developers of potential redevelopment of southeast corner of East Main Street and Pine Street".  That could be huge.

Edited January 12, 2017 by westsider28
Added pic

[Historyguy]

Here's the Herald-Journal story about the "FR8 YARD"...

http://www.goupstate.com/news/20170112/company-plans-new-restaurant-concept-fr8-yard-for-downtown

It's a little out there... look forward to hearing more about it.  

[westsider28]

More info here (UBJ article) most interestingly mentioning that the guys behind Willy Taco are involved with this.  That is great to hear.

[Spartan]

This is awesome!

 

[mainonmain]

You want things that will encourage foot traffic, more young folks hanging out downtown, active street-level activity, etc? This will do it.

[hub-city]

I love this concept.  Naturally, I wonder about cold/rainy days as well as the upkeep and security for all the tvs and games.  That being said, if anyone can pull this off, the Cribbs/Willy Taco guys can do it.  They have a knack for putting their finger on the pulse of what works in restaurant concepts.

I also saw where it was described as a beer garden.  Like the idea but I hope it would also be family friendly.  

[cec0605]

On 1/12/2017 at 1:38 PM, westsider28 said:

Update on the "restaurant concept" at 125 East Main going before the DRB next week.  I got some more info about it, and now that I fully understand the concept, I completely support it.  It is essentially a "pop-up" restaurant made of shipping containers.  It's outdoors and temporary.  You may have seen / heard of these in other cities.  They're very popular right now.  According to the plans, there will be tons of picnic tables, a TV screen projected on the neighboring building wall, a stage for live music, fire pit, etc.  It actually seems awesome.

A more intriguing additional item on the agenda is "Preliminary Discussion with Developers of potential redevelopment of southeast corner of East Main Street and Pine Street".  That could be huge.

Looking forward to these developments!  Excuse my ignorance, but what does "temporary" mean for the FR8 Yard concept (other than I'm presuming the shipping containers would be replaced at some point)?

Edited January 16, 2017 by cec0605

[westsider28]

I'm just saying the restaurant is not a permanent structure, like an actual building.  I have no idea how long this concept will be there, but I'm sure that eventually there will be a multi-story mixed-use building constructed on this lot.  It was more of a comment referring to my initial concern about this plan before I knew what it was.  Hope that made a bit of sense.  Haha.

[Spartan]

On 1/13/2017 at 5:44 PM, hub-city said:

I love this concept.  Naturally, I wonder about cold/rainy days as well as the upkeep and security for all the tvs and games.  That being said, if anyone can pull this off, the Cribbs/Willy Taco guys can do it.  They have a knack for putting their finger on the pulse of what works in restaurant concepts.

I also saw where it was described as a beer garden.  Like the idea but I hope it would also be family friendly.  

Cold days can be offset by propane heaters. You'd be surprised how many people are willing to be outside when its cold as long as there's a heat source. Not much you can do about rain except have a covered area. I'm hoping they will also have umbrellas and mist fans for the hot summer days. 

[Historyguy]

The DRB packet for the FR8 YARD proposal is linked from this page.  Lower right, under "meeting agendas"

http://www.cityofspartanburg.org/planning-zoning/design-review-board

 

[roads-scholar]

1 hour ago, Historyguy said:

The DRB packet for the FR8 YARD proposal is linked from this page.  Lower right, under "meeting agendas"

http://www.cityofspartanburg.org/planning-zoning/design-review-board

 

Its the "Preliminary Discussion with Developers of potential  redevelopment of southeast corner of East Main Street and Pine Street – Chris Story" that interests me. 

[mainonmain]

Agenda packet has a screwed-up day/date on this. The meeting is Wednesday (not Tuesday), Jan. 18. Had the date (Jan. 18) right, but the day wrong. Usually DRB meetings are the first Tuesday of the month, but this one was moved to Wednesday because of holidays and some other calendar issues.

[Spartan]

Main & Pine had some rumored "gateway" type of development a few years back. I wonder if its the same. That would be a prime spot for some apartments over retail. Or office over retail.

[spartanburgh]

This says the South EAST corner. Which would be the other corner. Not the one that had the old motel torn down

a couple of years ago. This would be something new, unless they have identified the wrong corner.

[westsider28]

I'm pretty sure the SE corner is correct.  An assemblage of parcels there (1.7 acres) has been listed for sale by Spencer-Hines for some time now.  I'm excited to hear what may be planned.  This corner desperately needs a good urban project.

[Spartan]

Hmm. I hope they can find a way to save the Simple Simon row of buildings. Other than that a redevelopment there could be great. I just hope they can get something more urban and less suburban in character.

[Historyguy]

I was at the DRB meeting tonight - and first things first, this item got pulled from the agenda.  So no news on that.  

 

22 hours ago, westsider28 said:

I'm pretty sure the SE corner is correct.  An assemblage of parcels there (1.7 acres) has been listed for sale by Spencer-Hines for some time now.  I'm excited to hear what may be planned.  This corner desperately needs a good urban project.

 

[Historyguy]

So, the main focus of tonight's Design Review Board meeting - the FR8 Yard proposal.  After about an hour of questions and discussion, the DRB unanimously approved the concept, agreeing that the project met the spirit of the downtown code - even though there's really nothing in the code that exactly allows or prohibits it.  The goal of the downtown code - as mentioned by both staff and at least one DRB member - is to increase vibrancy and walkability of downtown.  Under the code, the facade - which is a design element that the DRB takes seriously - must not inhibit that walkability.  And this project more or less has an invisible facade!  

Anyway, the DRB gave its approval, with the condition that the members see final drawings and plans for signage before the project gets started.  A number of interesting questions were posed - some relating to the neighboring building walls, some related to the mini-putt course.  As the design stands, there's not a connection between the mini-putt park and the FR8 Yard.  But the DRB members suggested that the property owner include a connection.  The main part of the FR8 yard will be about 4.5 feet below the Main Street grade - and they intend to flatten out the surface of the pavillion/garden/whatever we want to call it.  Not a lot of hard surfaces, really... and the lower grade will help define the space.  

One downtown resident asked about noise and alcohol - that an outside facility like this might be loud so as to disturb those who live nearby - and also that patrons might be tempted to walk out of the place with their drinks.  Staff gave some assurances about this.  

This is a really unique project for South Carolina - the examples that the architects gave of similar projects were in Austin and Chicago.  All in all, it looks really interesting.