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