$180M in new development is coming to Greenville as downtown soars despite pandemic

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic tamped down business in Greenville’s downtown restaurants and hotels, new projects continued unabated, including a long-planned 4-acre development that contains a hotel, offices, retail and $1.6 million high-rise condominiums.

“We have more cranes in the sky now than we had two years ago,” Mayor Knox White said.

Including projects that have been under construction for years and finished in recent months, more than $300 million has been invested in the city in about three years, with another $180 million under construction or in the planning stage.

Much of the development centers around property once owned by historic Greenville businesses — The Greenville News and the Wyche law firm — and around Fluor Field, a replica of Boston’s Fenway Park and home to the Red Sox affiliate Greenville Drive.

White said he had expected some of the planned projects to be delayed by the pandemic, but that has not happened. Three hotels are under construction, despite fears among some in the hospitality business that Greenville has too many.

White said he’s heard concerns about occupancy rates but believes Greenville’s growth — and increasing renown nationally — will settle that debate. Case in point, he said, is the Kimpton Hotel to be built on property near the baseball stadium. The boutique hotel chain, based in San Francisco, has properties all over the world, the closest in North Carolina and Georgia.

Two high-rise apartment buildings are planned, White said. One is under construction.

And that’s not including complexes being built just outside downtown.

As new apartments come online, the amenities have grown to include dog parks, large gyms and cycling garages — for parking bicycles. The under-construction McClaren will offer “personal business stations, a spa with a sauna and steam room, movie theater, chef’s demonstration kitchen, salt water pool with outdoor lounging areas, BBQ stations and a nine-story high Rooftop observation deck,” according to its website.

In short: “There is a lot in the pipeline,” White said.

The signature development

The centerpiece of all downtown projects is a project six years in the making called Camperdown on the property where The Greenville News was located for more than 100 years. The News built a new building around the old in 1969, using the modern, boxy concrete-like design popular for newspapers at the time.

It was the workplace for more than 600 people in its heyday, but the constriction of the newspaper industry with numerous layoffs and early retirements left vast spaces unused. Gannett, which bought the News and other Multimedia Inc. papers in 1985, sold the property to Centennial American Properties for $13 million in late 2015 as part of Gannett’s plan to shed its valuable and underused newspaper sites in downtowns all over the country

The site is almost 4 acres and is directly across the street from the Peace Center, a performing arts venue made possible, in part, because the local Peace family sold the newspaper to Gannett and crafted the facility from empty warehouse-industrial buildings.

Camperdown, coming in at $300 million, includes a new office building for The News, an AC Hotel by Marriott, apartments that rent for $1,625 to $4,405 a month, and a 17-story tower, Greenville’s second-tallest building with office space and condominiums.

Some of the residences and offices overlook Falls Park and the Reedy River, others face downtown and, in the distance, the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The 192-room hotel is open and the condominiums have sold well, said Rebecca Gault, director of leasing at Centennial American Properties. Ten of the 18 million-dollar condominiums sold in 2019 before construction even began, garnering more than $16 million in a single day.

White said people are coming from all over the country, some moving permanently to Greenville and others using the space as a second home.

The penthouse recently sold for nearly $3 million.

Gault said six of the condo units remain.

The major office tenants in the tower are accounting firm Elliott Davis and Bank of America. Also, a coworking company, Spaces, has leased space.

Elliott-Davis will occupy three floors, and Bank of America two.

Another hotel to open this summer

Greenville has seen hotel construction rise dramatically in the past five years, and not just on high-profile Main Street locations. One notable hotel, the Grand Bohemian, will open this summer. It is a 187-room hotel beside the Reedy River at the end of the Liberty Bridge farthest away from Main Street.

The pedestrian bridge is the centerpiece of Falls Park, which is oft-noted in the many “best of” lists Greenville has been placed on in recent years, including one that just called Greenville the coolest city in the South.

The $4.5 million bridge was the work of Miguel Rosales, an internationally known bridge designer. It is curved and overlooks Reedy River Falls.

The Bohemian is built on the former site of the Wyche law firm headquarters. Wyche is one of Greenville’s oldest law firms, which for decades was headed by Tommy Wyche. He was instrumental in the resurgence of Greenville as well as in protecting important natural areas.

The law firm’s leaders knew the hotel would be a significant addition to downtown revitalization and, in the spirit of Tommy Wyche’s focus on downtown development, decided to sell its property, said Lauren Roach, chief marketing officer. The deed shows a sales price of $3,850,000.

The law firm found temporary space in a building next door that it already owned.

Recently, the firm announced it sold that building and will soon fill the space left vacant by Elliott Davis, a couple blocks away on East Broad Street.

Tally Casey, Wyche chief executive officer, said the move will coincide with Wyche’s 100-year-anniversary celebration.

The new office will allow a collaborative approach to practicing law, she said.

“We are looking to invest in new technology to continue to seamlessly connect with clients across the world virtually,” she said.

Of importance is a space that fosters well being, including finding a way to have sunlight in as many spaces as possible, “based on studies (and personal experience) showing how important natural light is to employee wellness,” Casey said.

A connection to the natural world is important to recognize the firm’s long-standing interest in conservation, she said.

The centennial celebration will begin this summer, said Casey, whose father was one of the original founders of the firm. The move will take place before the end of the year.

Banking on Greenville

Another recent announcement was United Community Bank’s decision to relocate its headquarters from Blairsville, Georgia, to Greenville. And where might it be going? To the current temporary home of the Wyche firm. Wyche sold the property to the bank for $5.75 million.

The bank intends to spend about $25 million building its new headquarters. The bank, founded in Blairsville in 1950, will add 227 employees in Greenville. Blairsville, population 700, is located in the Chattahoochee National Forest in northeast Georgia and is considered world famous for its sorghum.

The company’s chief executive officer, Lynn Harton, a longtime figure in South Carolina banking, lives in Greenville, as do other bank executives. The bank has three downtown properties, two of which will be shut down when the new building is completed in 2024, the company said in a news release

Mayor White said all the moving around will give the city’s economic development department work to do in finding new office tenants as well as filling retail space.

Camperdown, when finished, will have 70,000 square feet of newly built modern retail space, with about 12,000 square feet available now. Two local restaurant companies will open there, including Table 301 and Larkin’s. Table 301 will create a new concept in addition to its Soby’s, Passerelle, Nose Dive and others. White said Larkin’s will move from the Peace Center when its lease is up into the first floor of The News building.

The city will also work to lease other space on Main Street such as that of the bankrupt Brooks Brothers store and other long-time empty buildings, White said.

This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.