‘Awful’ road leading into Greenville may soon get major facelift. What the SC city plans to do

Greenville’s downtown draws praise from around the nation for its attention to beauty, from new parks and the Reedy River waterfall, to Main Street landscaping and miles and miles of walk and bike paths.

The entrances into the city, not so much.

Now, the city can do something about at least one. Known as Poinsett Corridor, the road comes down out of the mountains from Asheville, runs beside scenic Furman University (often on lists of prettiest colleges in the United States) before hitting miles of warehouses and other not-so-attractive places like car repair shops and chain groceries and restaurants.

There’s an attractive large sign faced with river rock that for years welcomes travelers to Greenville.

Not quite, it wasn’t in the city limits until Monday when the city annexed almost 100 acres of a large and lucrative strip mall known as Cherrydale as well as additional properties across Pleasantburg Drive. Two industries are included as well.

Greenville City Councilman John DeWorken, who represents the area, said it will bring tens of thousands of tax dollars to the city each year, but the most important thing to him is the opportunity to make it an entrance fit for Greenville.

“It just looks awful, and it has looked awful for decades,” he said.

DeWorken called the annexation “the most important in the last half century.”

Improvements would include landscaping, consolidation of power lines and building sidewalks (Mayor Knox White joked recently that Greenville sure knows how to build sidewalks).

The site was once the home of Furman University’s first president, James Clement Furman, built in 1857, whose 1,200-acre plantation grew corn, cotton, peaches, apples and cherries, worked by 40 slaves.

The mansion and 55 acres was sold by the Furman family to Eugene Stone III, who built a textile manufacturing company nearby in 1939, according to Judith Bainbridge, a retired Furman history professor.

When Stone sold it in 1998 for the shopping center, the huge white house was trucked about 4 miles to the Furman campus for its alumni house.

Now included in the mall are national chains such as Ross, TJ Maxx, Burlington and Old Navy.

There’s a Chick-fil-a, Atlanta Bread Company, and across the street Olive Garden and perennial Greenville favorite Stax Original.

The city promises property tax savings, quick emergency response, and reduced water rates.

One property owner told City Council members at a public hearing earlier this month that based on its track record the city has a lot to offer. He also hopes the city can do something about homeless people who have set fires behind some of the businesses.

The only detractors at the hearing were leaders of the Parker Fire District who said they will lose $500,000 in property taxes. Chief Rick Jones said his closest station is a mile closer than Greenville’s — half a mile compared to 1.5 miles.

He laid out a scenario where family members of council people were in an accident on busy Pleasantburg Drive and they were “laid out in the parking lot.”

“Parker can get there faster,” he said.

White said the city and Parker would work on an agreement amenable to all. He said there are likely other annexations to come and the 80-year-old fire district has a role to play.