Move over Capitol Center, there’s a taller building coming to SC soon. Here’s where

Construction of what will be South Carolina’s tallest building will get underway in September on an overgrown tract at the entrance to Greenville that’s been vacant since 1997.

Miami-based NR Gateway Greenville is developing the 29 story, $130 building at 250 N. Church St., once the site of Memorial Auditorium.

The 60-year-old auditorium was torn down when the Bon Secours Wellness Center, then the Bi-Lo Center, was built.

The Capitol Center in Columbia with 26 stories has been the tallest building in the state since it was completed in 1987. Margate Tower in Myrtle Beach has the same number of floors as Greenville’s Gateway building will have but is not as tall.

The Gateway building will include 327 apartments, about 8,500 square feet of commercial and rental space and a parking structure. It is expected to be completed in early 2028.

The city of Greenville will invest $7.256 million for sidewalks, crosswalks, landscaping, a public plaza and a public art gallery.

The now somewhat isolated Wellness Arena will be linked more directly to downtown Greenville with the publicly funded improvements that will now be the official entrance to downtown for drivers arriving on Interstate 385.

“By transforming a site that has sat vacant for nearly three decades into a lively, connected space, we are honoring Greenville’s history, while creating new opportunities for residents, businesses and visitors alike,” Greenville Mayor Knox White said in a news release.

The city’s improvements will also include areas along Church Street, North Street and Beattie Place.

The development is expected to create 100 jobs.

Various developments have been proposed for the site over the years, but never came to fruition — so many that White has called the site the Bermuda Triangle of downtown development — where projects go to die.

NR founder Nir Shoshani and his business partner Ron Gottesman have projects in various Florida locations, Ohio and Peru. In Miami, they took the shell of a building in a distressed area just north of downtown and created 81 units called Filling Station Lofts.

That led to the blighted surrounding Omni district becoming The Arts and Entertainment District, a residential neighborhood of historic buildings, residential towers that also includes a performing arts center.