Everything Greenville SC BLOG

Greenville Happenings Week of Nov 28th

Mostly cloudy with this week with a chance of drizzle and lower temperatures. It should clear up for Thanksgiving Day though. Happy Holiday with safe traveling everyone!

A.J. Whittenberg, a civil rights advocate that helped to desegregate Greenville County schools in the 60's, will have a new downtown elementary named after him. The long standing conundrum of how and where to put a school downtown has finally been solved with a plan to locate it on the land designated for the upcoming Kroc Center. The Kroc Center is a community facility run by the Salvation Army with funds in part from the Joan Kroc foundation; Joan is the widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc. The center will provide an Olympic size swimming pool, 16 tennis courts, golf training center, classroom space, and a home for the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club. The center is expected to be finished by late 2008 with the school ready to go in 2010.

If you approach the downtown area from the northwest arterials of Cedar Lane or Rutherford Road, get ready for a dressed up gateway to the city. A new fountain and landscaping project will be started this year at the triangle of Buncombe and College streets, near the BB&T building. Red concrete pavers will create a pedestrian friendly, 10-foot wide cross walk connecting the Greenville County Library and Museum of Art at Heritage Green to the far side of Buncombe. Completion is scheduled for April of 2007.

Vacancy rates for office, industrial, and retail space are at a two year low according to research released by Grubb & Ellis / The Furman Company this week. The absolute rates are 15.1%, 12.3%, 11.4% respectively. Each category is down a full percentage point from the same quarter last year and indicates that there may be a general lack of office space throughout the county.

Source: The Greenville News, The Greenville Journal

Nov 1 Greenville SC Real Estate Update

Fall colors continued to amaze us this week with cool clear weather the last few days.  The current rain should diminish with clear weather the rest of this week.  Highs around 70 and lows in the high 40's.

You may see a lot of balloons above Simpsonville come Memorial Day in 2007. The Pontiac GMC Freedom Weekend Aloft balloon festival has been held in Anderson since 1999, but due to declining attendance, is under consideration for relocation. Heritage Park is a new 90-acre park is just of I-385 and may provide the venue to create a successful event.  According to the Heritage Park website, the main park consists of 6 baseball/softball fields, 6 cages, 15 soft toss tunnels, practice infield, replica mini train, full service concession, 100 person corporate shelter, individual picnic shelters, two playground areas, miles of paved hike/bike trails, with much more planned for the future.

The smoking ban mentioned last week got unanimous approval by the Greenville City Council.  Starting January 1, 2007, smoking will be prohibited in almost all of the city's public buildings, including restaurants and bars.  Fines start at $50 for a first offense.  The proposal met with strong public approval, although businesses that cater to smokers fear a drop in revenue is headed their way.  The ban does not include Greenville County outside of the city, so there still are some options for smokers.  The City of Clemson has subsequently announced a proposal to ban public smoking as well.

Caterpillar Inc. is planning on putting a new boat engine center at its plant in Fountain Inn.  Their yachts and commercial boat diesel engines are made in Peoria, IL, but will undergo a conversion process in Fountain Inn to prepare them for marine use.  No additional jobs are planned, but about 40 engineers will be transferred here.  Caterpillar also plans to expand their warehouse space into a vacant 170,000 square foot building next door.