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CITY’S DOWNTOWN STRONG MAGNET FOR SHOPPERS

Greenville, S.C., may not be the first place a retailer thinks about when hunting for a new location. But some are indeed considering the city, perhaps for good reason. To be sure, with a population at about 56,000, Greenville seems hardly worthy of the term “city.” But there is, in fact, more to the numbers.

First, in broader terms, the Greenville-Spartanburg metro area is home to about 1.2 million. Further, Greenville’s downtown retail draws people from all over the county, and when that population is added to Greenville’s, it creates a total market of about 417,000. To meet the expectations of these visitors, the city has revitalized its downtown, especially over the past five years. “ This city has been supercharged for the last several years,” said Knox White, Greenville’s mayor. “We can point to the downtown as the biggest thing happening here. There’s people in the street downtown all the time now, and there’s a lot of restaurant activity.”

In the 1970s Greenville began redesigning its downtown, and the process has kept rolling. In 2004 Greenville undertook the $13 million renovation of Falls Park, a downtown park, and the surrounding area on the banks of the Reedy River, which snakes through the middle of the city. Directly down the street from Falls Park, the $65 million RiverPlace mixed-use development is in the works. It will contain an 87,000-square-foot building for office and retail space, as well as some condominiums and a hotel. Nearby, the Atlanta-based Gipson Co. is building the $50 million McBee Station mixed-use development, one of the largest projects ever in the downtown business district. The 14-acre project will offer residential and commercial space as well as stores; it already boasts a 29,800-square-foot Publix grocery store and a nearly 14,000-square-foot Staples. The remaining retail and residential components are slated for completion in March.

Outside the downtown there are several projects in the pipeline, many of them just off Interstate 85. Greenville’s Verdae Development Co. is building a master-planned project over the next 30 years on a 1,100-acre tract that will contain retail, restaurants, hotels, a golf course and a retirement center. Charlotte, N.C.-based Crosland’s Shops at Greenridge, which is just outside Greenville, already boasts a wide array of retail, including a Whole Foods that is new to the area. The center is still adding tenants. “Greenville continues to be in a steady growth pattern,” said Ben Haskew, president of Greenville’s chamber of commerce. “There’s natural growth and economic growth, but it’s all driving retail because of the critical mass that’s being created.”

—Kerri Linden