OPINION

Editorial: Downtown success drives new projects

GRE

Looking for signs that downtown Greenville is thriving? They are abundant all the time of course, but just in the past two weeks there has been ample proof that one of the nation’s best downtowns is a hot commodity. In that time span there have been no fewer than four major development projects unveiled, along with an update to one of the attractions that help make this a cool city.

There is a lot of be excited about. The residential market continues to grow with new condominiums and apartments on the docket; another potential hotel is in the offing as part of a significant redevelopment opportunity on one of the best real-estate corners in the state; and a major downtown employer will be expanding its offices with a brand new building a block off downtown.

Here’s a brief run-down of the projects that have been announced recently:

• An agreement was reached to sell the nearly four-acre site that’s now home to The Greenville News. Texas-based Trammell Crow Co., the developer, plans a “major” mixed-used development featuring a hotel, residential units, offices and retail space, according to a report in The News. No site plans were released but it easy to assume that whatever is built on the corner of Broad and Main where the “new” Greenville News building was completed in 1968 is going to be a signature development.

• Erwin Penland has unveiled plans for a new eight-story office building at Falls and Broad streets next to its existing buildings on the perimeter of the Main Street corridor. The company has filed an application with the city that calls for a five stories of commercial office space and a rooftop terrace atop a three-story parking garage with nearly 700 spaces.

• A co-founder of ScanSource, a Greenville-based distributor of high-tech business equipment, announced that he plans to build a luxury condominium tower on Main Street directly across the street from the Westin Poinsett Hotel. The six-story development will have about 30,000 square feet of space divided among seven or eight luxury condos — including a top-story penthouse — along with retail or office space on the ground level.

• A Charlotte-based company is planning a 217-unit apartment complex on the corner of River and Rhett streets in the West End. The development, called Link, is being designed to appeal to Millennials who want to be able to walk to work and entertainment districts. The development company has similar buildings in Winston-Salem, Raleigh and Richmond, Va.

• Perhaps not as noticeable, but nonetheless significant, the city has made some changes to its popular weekend trolley service. It has added two new trolley cars to the system, has tweaked the route a bit to make it more of a loop through the Central Business District and changed the way that riders get on and off — at designated stops rather than simply flagging down the trolley. In addition, it is adding technology that will let riders use their smart phones to track the trolleys in real time. This continues to be a great example of a public-private partnership — this one between the city and the Greenville Drive — that helps raise the profile of downtown Greenville.

These latest projects join a growing list of developments that have come to downtown Greenville in recent years because developers are becoming increasingly willing to invest in large-scale projects as the economy continues to recover.

Particularly of note is the proposed development by the national developer Trammell Crow.

The company’s senior managing director Larry Pantlin told The News that Greenville is “perfectly positioned” between Atlanta and Charlotte and said “a number of major corporations are looking at locations in the city for the future.”

Mayor Knox White said drawing another national developer here is significant because it “sends a message really across the country that downtown Greenville is a great place to invest.”

Indeed. The city is consistently among the list of the best places in America to visit and live, and is almost universally praised by visitors.

The Erwin Penland project also is intriguing because it is an existing employer making a major investment in downtown, and it is yet another project that takes the downtown’s growth off of Main Street and pushes it in a lateral direction.

Up until recently downtown has been a long, narrow corridor. If it continues to expand outward it could be a significant sign that a critical mass of sorts has been reached.

City leaders continue to take the right steps to guide steady but measured growth in Greenville. As this growth continues, Greenville needs to ensure it is not overbuilding for any of the key downtown markets — residential, commercial and retail/dining. This is a difficult tightrope to walk, but the latest announcements demonstrate a good deal of success up to now.