South Ridge (Church St. and University Ridge)

[Greenville]

Well, looks like I will be moving here.  Leaving 400 Rhett due to parking issues and rental rate increase. Planning to sign my lease tomorrow. Several of the floor plans are sold out and the one I want is the last one available currently. Needless to say demand is still through the roof for apartments downtown. 

Glad to hear you can go somewhere else. Is 400 Rhett letting you out of your lease early, or is it up now?

[Gville29601]

Well, looks like I will be moving here.  Leaving 400 Rhett due to parking issues and rental rate increase. Planning to sign my lease tomorrow. Several of the floor plans are sold out and the one I want is the last one available currently. Needless to say demand is still through the roof for apartments downtown. 

If you end up on Parcel-B, let us know what the traffic noise is like. I wonder why they never built a wall dividing Church Street from the big parking area.

[ausrutherford]

If you end up on Parcel-B, let us know what the traffic noise is like. I wonder why they never built a wall dividing Church Street from the big parking area.

I doubt the city would allow a wall like that.

[gman430]

Glad to hear you can go somewhere else. Is 400 Rhett letting you out of your lease early, or is it up now?

Glad to hear you can go somewhere else. Is 400 Rhett letting you out of your lease early, or is it up now?

My lease ends this upcoming month. 

[SVL]

Once the Cancer Survivors Park opens you can cross the street and access the Swamp Rabbit trail, Cleveland Park and Falls Park. What a great location!

[vicupstate]

From Upstate Business Journal:

 

Greenville County officials are moving closer to a county government complex on the 30-acre tract where County Square is now located. County Council members set aside $20,000 in the 2015-16 budget and $40,000 in 2016-17 budget for the project. The county now needs to hire an architect, said council chairman Bob Taylor.

A multistory county government office building would use about 5 acres of the site, most likely located near Church Street where Cobb Tire is now located. The remainder of the site will be sold for development and fund construction of the county office building, he said.

Taylor said county officials wanted to leave the best views and properties for developers. Whether one developer or several will develop the site is not yet decided, he added. The county may solicit proposals from developers for the site, he said. No timeline is in place for the architectural work, said Taylor.

[MAJIKMAN]

From Upstate Business Journal:

 

looks like county square is getting a little bit closer to being redeveloped. From what has been written. 

 

[Jet-set]

What I got from that UBJ article:

"No timeline is in place"...

[vicupstate]

What I got from that UBJ article:

"No timeline is in place"...

That is to be expected considering an architect has not even been selected.  The point is, they are about to hire one, the consensus of the council is toward doing this. That wasn't the case a year or so ago.  

[Jet-set]

True. Hopefully it doesn't take long for the ball to get rolling. There is so much potential in that piece of property. 

[gman430]

Well, if everything goes through I will be moving in October 23rd.  Fourth floor in phase 1 opposite of the Church Street side thankfully. 

[vicupstate]

Since Greenville County is inching closer to doing something with County Square, I thought I would post an idea I got yesterday.  The Greenville School Board property is now surrounded by a dramatically gentrifying neighborhood (Camperdown/Hope St on the East of Church St). They own 5.68 acres and with abandoned ROW, it would easily be at least 6 acres total. Obviously the value is considerable. Small lots on Camperdown are selling for 300-400k as tear-downs. 

My idea would be the school Board would co-locate to the new County Administration building that would be built on the 5 acres that Greenville County will keep of County Square an sell it's current property.  That would probably add one or two floors to the building and some additional parking which will probably be mostly in a garage. 

Pros:

The School Board and County Council could share a joint meeting chamber.  Both  have 12 voting members and require a large auditorium for public seating. Despite it's size, it doesn't get much use currently, but would essentially get twice the utility it does now.     

The two bodies cover the exact same constituencies and no doubt there is some level of communications/ meetings between the two now, that would be easier with co-location.   

While 6 acres of valuable property would be added to the tax rolls, none would be required in replacement for the S.B. since the county site is already tax-exempt. 

While there is considerable public traffic to County Square for Property Taxes and such, that is not the case with the school board, except for Board Meetings which would be on the ground floor and thus just as accessible (and more publicly visible) as today.   

Views from the new building would obviously be excellent for both groups of employees and having even more workers on-site would increase the desirability of the 25 acres that the county will be selling to the private sector.  

There is already a precedent of sorts as the Charleston County School Board shares a building with the City of Charleston that serves as Adminstration building for the Schools and admin offices for the city.

Cons:

I can't think of any

 

Thoughts? 

 

 

 

[SVL]

[gman430]

As a person who lives at SouthRidge this is great to see: http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2015/11/17/pizza-pub-signature-south-ridge-restaurant/75917636/

[vicupstate]

The apartments are leasing up quickly too, which is good to see.  

[Gville29601]

I wonder how The Toss Pizza will compete with Sidewall Pizza Company that is set to open in the old Savory Corner spot. I think Toss will have the upper hand with more room, more parking, and a full bar area. Good luck to both! 

[btoy]

I think it will be down to who has the better pie.

[gman430]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vicupstate]

The 605 University Ridge condo property has been staked off.  There are only 10 units and two parties own a majority of them.  I wonder if it is being sold to someone? 

[vicupstate]

Any word on how this project is filling up?  

 

This is good news although it seems like it is less of an improvement than it could be.  

Church St. Law Building under new ownership, renovations to come.

 

[gman430]

Not sure. However, I do see new people moving in every week. 

[SVL]

https://www.facebook.com/TheBeachCompany/

This project is just about wrapped up. What a change it has made in this part of town.

 

[btoy]

I really dislike the two tiered sidewalk on the corner, makes everything look and feel cramped. 

[gman430]

 

[sc smitty]

On 3/31/2016 at 0:32 PM, btoy said:

I really dislike the two tiered sidewalk on the corner, makes everything look and feel cramped. 

It's interesting to look back at the original renderings of what was proposed versus what ended up being built.  The renderings show the buildings and sidewalks all level with Church Street, which looks much better than what's there now.  The building doesn't relate well to the streetscape being down in a hole.  At the least, it would have been better off to eliminate the sidewalk on Church St and have more space to bring it down at the building level, rather than having the two separated by the railing.  Also, the huge bare concrete retaining wall on University Ridge looks pretty bad at such a visible location.  I kept waiting on them to cover it in stone or brick or something, but it appears it's finished now just as painted concrete, with barely any landscaping to tone it down.  I wish the city paid more attention to making sure details like this were worked out better.  I thought the original design in the rendering looked pretty good.  Not so sure about how it ended up.