Spartanburg's Retail Tier

[Spartan]

Not to be confused with the Teirs of SC cities thread, this is meeant to discuss Spartanburg's tier when it comes to retail developments. I bring this up because of a recent quote by the City Manager Mart Scott in the Herald Journal in reference to Burlington Coat factory's interest in Spartanburg:

"According to Scott, the west side has moved into a "new tier" of appeal as a destination for major retailers in recent months with key additions to the area such as the Olive Garden restaurant."

So does anyone think this is true? Do you think the same applies to the Eastside/Hillcrest area? Has Spartanburg really started to move up a level?

To aid your thought process, here are a list of stores that are new to, are coming to, or are looking for the Westside over the past few years (this list is not comprehensive, so please add what I've missed!):

Hot Topic

CostCo

Hooters

Olive Garden

Burlington Coat Factory

Sportsman's Warehouse

Golds Gym

Ross

What else?

New Stores to the Eastside/Hillcrest (this list is not comprehensive either, so please add what I've missed!)

PetCo

Office Max

Ross

Panera Bread

Starbucks

What esle?

Does all of this mean that Spartanburg has really moved up to a new retail tier?

[StevenRocks]

It's moved closer to Greenville's retail tier, that's for sure.

[hub-city]

Hollister opening at Westgate added another dimension to the clothing options in the mall.

[roads-scholar]

Not to be confused with the Teirs of SC cities thread, this is meeant to discuss Spartanburg's tier when it comes to retail developments. I bring this up because of a recent quote by the City Manager Mart Scott in the Herald Journal in reference to Burlington Coat factory's interest in Spartanburg:

"According to Scott, the west side has moved into a "new tier" of appeal as a destination for major retailers in recent months with key additions to the area such as the Olive Garden restaurant."

So does anyone think this is true? Do you think the same applies to the Eastside/Hillcrest area? Has Spartanburg really started to move up a level?

To aid your thought process, here are a list of stores that are new to, are coming to, or are looking for the Westside over the past few years (this list is not comprehensive, so please add what I've missed!):

Hot Topic

CostCo

Hooters

Olive Garden

Burlington Coat Factory

Sportsman's Warehouse

Golds Gym

Ross

What else?

New Stores to the Eastside/Hillcrest (this list is not comprehensive either, so please add what I've missed!)

PetCo

Office Max

Ross

Panera Bread

Starbucks

What esle?

Does all of this mean that Spartanburg has really moved up to a new retail tier?

[Spartan]

But are we moving closer to Greenville and the other large cities' tiers today, or are we catching up? There's a big difference.

Nearly equal is the key difference. Its seems like when national retailers are eyeing the Upstate, Spartanburg is being considered for a location too, rather than shops just setting up in Greenville. Obviously this is not true for the higher end stores, but that just comes with Gville being a larger market. CostCo is a prime example of this. Many of the retailers that we used to question not being here are coming to town. A look at this thread about retailsers we don't have but probably should covers a lot of the missing retail category.

[roads-scholar]

But are we moving closer to Greenville and the other large cities' tiers today, or are we catching up? There's a big difference.

[erm1981]

HHgreg is in Anderson Station in Anderson , SC. I think Spartanburg should have one if Anderson does.

[Spartan]

hhgregg is looking in Spartanburg. I sent them an email a while back and asked and they confirmed it. So, its just a matter of where. My money would be at Easton, since its a large development that has some mid-sized box tennants.