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Florence Developments


Spartan

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I've thought about the same thing too with respect to the new high way... Ive come to the following conclusion..

1) It wont effect the daily traffic to and from florence very much. This is because.. say you are coming from dillon.. You can go your normal route and be in florence in 30-45 minutes... or you take the new shiny highway and be at MB in an 1:15 to 1:30. Still going to be a longer drive. Florence MAY loose soem traffic from towns that are along the corridor that are closer to the beach, but ti will probably pick up some traffic from areas that are along th corridor but west of 95, so, ultimatly it will be a wash.

2) When people come blazing through florence to get to the beach, IF they stop, they will stop right there at i-95/i-20 merger or the 53/i-95 exit. Once you pass the mall area, most of the restraunts are smaller family owned in general and typically would be visited by locals only. Due to the fact that there is an enormous amount of traffic that comes down 95 and 20 on a regular basis anyway. this wont be effected. Also, keep in mind that people that woudl be coming from the west and north along the new highway heading to say Miami, before, they woudl have probaly join up with i-26 around columbia or soemthing and would have popped onto 95 much further south. Now, those wanting to travel south along 95 will alos be popping out between the bennetsville and dillion exits. which means more people will be passing by our exits. Again, we will lose some, but we will probably pick up soem as well. Ultimatly, again, it will probably be a wash.

3) That being said, I do worry about towns like Marion, Reins and Aynor. This highway could put a serious damper on their economies... but then again, i could also be very wrong on all of this.

Cheers

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By the way.... i know this isnt the best of sources, but someone i know emailed Chili's to see if they might be sowing up in florence any time soon. They responded with May-june. Dont knwo fi that means make an announcement in May june, consturction starts, or (less likly) opening, but according to the email, they should be here shortly. so.. YEHAW...

ALSO...

I never saw it on the web site, but i saw it in the paper. Aparantly, City council is begin the process of looking into better ways of Managing DT including types of tax breaks. They sound like they are in the initial stages and are looking for feed back. EVERYONE... IF YOU HAVE AN INTEREST IN FLORENCE, EMAIL RESPECTIVE COUNCIL MEMBERS AND LET THEM KNOW WHAT YOU THINK... trust me, our voices do get heard, but we have to speak up. If you want DT to be revitalized... ehre is your chance to take action...

Regards

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A girl i work with lives in chesterfield which is 45 mins away and they shop/movies/eat in florence on the weekends. that included w/ darlington, lee, williamsburg, marion, dillon and marlboro counties and maybe even sumter is a good pile of people i suppose.

Yeah Sumter itself is a major pile of people, Florence companies and what have you do not try and attract or even care about Sumter, VIA advertising and News yet Florence is viewed a major city to shop, conduct medical or other major types bussiness for Sumter residences. The Sumter Metro has cities like Manning in Clarendon and Bishopville in Lee in its MSA. People around the state and forumers on these types of forum fail to realize Sumter is its own MSA and the governments in these counties have already started creating regional bodys to build porjects for example the Sumter Clarendon Industral Site which is suppose to be one of largest on the east coast, and the Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center. Sumter has many of its high end shoppers from the Shaw AFB and more on the way from Atlanta due to the BRAC closings, they tend to travel to Florence since it is much closer than stores in Columbia (sumter natives hate traffic they have enough to deal with they clogged roadways that make up Sumters infustructure to deal with the "horrible Columbia traffic"), but ask most shoppers in Sumter where they are going they tell you either Columbia or Florence. Ask a Columbian they tell you Atlanta, ask a Florentine they says MB, Columbia or Concord, NC. Also shocking to know Sumter has had a chilis for close to a year now ahead of Florence, a Home Depot will be built in another 4 years after a shady deal with City Council and Lowe's, a second wal mart is u/c in South Sumter, a Target is planned and talk is for newer mall to replace the older Sumter Mall (former Jasmine Mall) by Whit Whitaker.

Edited by Firefox
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It states in the article that there is a 60 unit apt complex planned for Coit/Darlington St. intersection. anyone know what type of housing this is?

just thought about this but i always thought one of the things that hurt Florence was not running I-20 all the way through it, it would have opened up more Eastward expansion of the city.

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It states in the article that there is a 60 unit apt complex planned for Coit/Darlington St. intersection. anyone know what type of housing this is?

just thought about this but i always thought one of the things that hurt Florence was not running I-20 all the way through it, it would have opened up more Eastward expansion of the city.

While it should be affordable apartments, I don't think it should be subsidized housing; that's the last thing downtown needs. It would be perfect for medical workers at McLeod, but it would need to be safe, otherwise no one would want to live there. That said, anything that goes there will be an improvement.

I too wish I-20 went thru Florence, but I don't know if that was ever feasible. AROUND Florence, maybe, but citizens would have fought it going thru it. I used to live in Columbia and Charleston. In Charleston, I was able to get from North Charleston (Ashley Phosphate Dr) to downtown Charleston via 26 in less time than it takes to get from Magnolia mall to Super Wal-Mart or to the airport. Too many poorly timed traffic lights.

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One thing that South Carolina has done right, and done well, is not having interstates slicing through the cores of our cities. The way that they were meant to be built is to pass around the periphery of the cities with spurs into town, which is exactly what you see in SC. Charleston is the exception, but you can argue that 26 acts as a "spur" in its own right since there isn't anything beyond Charleston except the ocean.

This has benefited our cities because our core cities are still largely intact, and we can create better places to live in the long run because of it.

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i didnt mean run I-20 down the middle of Flo. I always ideally that a northerly curve around florence would be best. like say maybe coming in around sumter street and running between quinby and florence. coming out about FMU @ 76. i meant basically not stopping I-20 like the tweedle dees did back then.

the property at coit will probably resemble the ones @ McQueen & Darlington St. I'm assuming. The higher priced stuff if it is ever built will probably up on the southern and southwestern section of Downtown.

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well, hopefully it wont be a duplication of the ones up the street from it. It doesnt have to be highrise to be urban though. That is what i want to push for. I've seen high rise buldings with zero level of urban thought, and 3 stories building as urban as you can get. The trick is very simple

1) MUST have street interaction. Without it, DT will never properly grow

2) Its ok if there isnt anyone else immediatly near by with Street Interaction. Someone has to be first...

3) Dont bury the structure in a parking lot

4) Make it unique... It doesnt have to be the biggest building to be a signiture building...

Example

http://www.1661riverside.com/intro.html

its only 4 stories, but it has great street interaction, and good residential usage

Anyway.... am I a dreamer? absolutly.... do I plan on doing something about it though... You betcha...

Hopefully, If all goes the way i want it, I'l get one of my ideas that i am working on right now off the ground (no not a building, just something to increase traffic down town)

See...

Dreamers!!!

Edited by jjoshjl
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I heard that the mixed-use office building planned for the Old McLeod site is still in the works. Word on the street is it will be about 4 stories w/ retail & restaurants at the bottom. might tie in well w/ the new fine arts center going up across the street

This would be great if it were to happen, but I have to take a 'believe it when I see it attitude'. There have been designs on that site for decades, going back to even rehabbing the old McLeod.

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Commenting on the interstate comment, I live in Charleston and we are trying very hard to push I-26 eyesore to the edge of the "neck area" of the peninsula. After this is done, the awesome Magnolia (new urbanist( development will really kick into motion. An interstae cutting through the neck was one of the worst things to happen to the city, Be VERY glad Florence escaped that.

Oh and news about that bank not being built in downtown Florence REALLY sucks. Anybody have any details on that? Or has anybody sent e-mails to your city govt. officials or the bank as to why it can't be closer to the central business district? I mean a flood of letters for urban/infill tax breaks was sent to Charleston's officials and now our downtown is one of the coolest places ever. You guys should see this place.

Edited by pompusmaximus
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As a note of observation... If the bank is going to be (as it sounds) nothing more than a suburban mini-rise with zero interaction, i have no problems with them being not quite in the CBD. Personally, if the 4 story mixed use facility is true. Id take that over a 7 story suburban office complex any day. Saves valuable space for a better suited project that would have other wise been taken up by a 7 story eye sore.

remember.. if you want things to work right, street interaction is the key.

That being said, saying things like "florence really sucks" isnt going to fix the problem. Are there issues? absolutly. not denying that. What you are seeing in florence happening RIGHT NOW is the transition from a large town mentality, to a small city mentality. FLorence is not as destitute as you imply. but it does take a sea change by all parties involved. This inclues developers, not just council members. You have to show them how is it benificial. One of the things I've already done personally is draw up mock plans for the area behind the civic center and forwarded it to developers, and got a series of reponses on other people I could forward it to (ie one developer wanted me to contact the onwner of the property. I know it will never get built, but the point is, it was an effort to SHOW them how things can be done differantly.

Anyway, all cities have issues, and anyone can say city X sucks, about ANY city. My thought is if you really feel that way, do soemthing about it. If you cant do anything about it either because of location, or skill set, dont make blanket statements.

Cheers

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jjoshjl,

To be fair to pompusmaximus, what they appeared to be saying was the bank not going in downtown Florence really sucks, not that Florence itself sucks. Reread the quote, and I'm sure you'd agree.

As for the old McLeod property, I'll believe something is going up when I see it. McLeod moved to their new building in 1979, which means that property has not been occupied in 27 years. Once the building was finally torn down after 10 years, that giant lot has been an empty field for almost 17 years. Given that it is in the heart of the CBD, that is inexcusable, especially given the boom in the southern and western parts of town.

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