Last week I needed to be downtown to take some pictures of a building for a property owner who was looking to have a cost segregation study done on his building. As I was walking through the West End of Greenville, I heard the train way down the tracks. It sat there for a while and then seemed to get clearance to come through. I’ve been down to this part of Greenville dozens of times but have never seen an actual train. This was just a delight to see this train come through the West End of Greenville.
Another subdivision has been approved by Greenville County. Stanley Martin Homes will build 171 homes in a new neighborhood called Parker’s Summit adjacent to the CESA Soccer Complex in Greenville along Anderson Ridge Road. Stanley Martin builds beautiful homes and it’s a great location being just 5 minutes to Five Forks and right next to the soccer field. It’s also probably about a half mile or so from one of my favorite spots here in Greenville – the Enoree Transfer Station at 1311 Anderson Ridge Road. (If you know me, you’d know I’m not joking…you can throw just about anything away there at no charge…it’s super convenient!).
Just the other day I was driving down Anderson Ridge and it’s busy and it’s a narrow road. For those who are new to the Upstate, you’ve probably noticed the lack of any kind of shoulder on most South Carolina roads. Anderson Ridge is definitely one of those roads. Traffic can stack up pretty deep there at the light at S. Bennetts Bridge Road at Anderson Ridge.
So far with all the news of a housing market slowdown, we are not seeing a slowdown yet in new developments. Developments are certainly not a leading indicator because of the time and expense to see these through to approval but I suspect once we start seeing withdrawals of new developments, then we’ll know the housing market will likely soon bottom.
Lennar has a new development going in across from the soccer fields. That land has been cleared for a number of months. I haven’t heard when building is starting but it must be soon. That’s a gorgeous piece of land…more on that in a future post.
There’s no doubt South Carolina has become a leading state in the rise again of domestic U.S. manufacturing. The Port of Charleston has played a huge role in the growth of manufacturing, distribution and the overall supplychain. Their Inland Port of Greer essentially extendes the Port of Charleston all the way out to the Upstate. The location of the Upstate being 90 minutes to Charlotte and 2.5 hours to Atlanta makes it a terrific location for all kinds of manufacturers who need to ship product throughout the U.S. as well as the rest of the world. The Upstate Business Journal has an excellent update on the state of industrial real estate here in Greenville. Be sure to read it.
Greenville County boasts more than 600 manufactures have operations here. That’s impressive and it only continues to grow. Greenville County is the largest county in the state of South Carolina with a current population of 514,000. Greenville County is expected to grow by 222,000 people and 86,000 jobs by 2040 as the trend across the America is for people to leave blue states for red states. It’s no wonder companies continue to expand operations here in the Upstate and specifically Greenville County.
Recently I spoke with a business owner who had been operating out of Florida. He was looking for new space for a distribution center in the Southeast. Atlanta was too big, too crowded and very expensive. Charlotte was also very expensive. Someone had told him to check out Greenville, SC and he was pleasantly surprised. He had never heard of it before but it had the infrastructure, access, ease of distribution and transportation – trucking, rail and air cargo with GSP International – and the prices were much, much better here for buildings. So he built a $2.5 million office warehouse here in Greenville.
There are many knowledgeable industrial and commercial real estate brokers in Greenville that can help you with that decision. The Greenville Area Development Corp. is also a very helpful organization for companies evaluating the Upstate.
Just have to run a plug for my Catholic parish here in the Upstate of South Carolina. Prince of Peace was recently named the “Best Place of Worship in the Upstate for 2022.” On the Prince of Peace Facebook page, the church published the following…
“We are deeply moved and profoundly grateful to have learned that Prince of Peace Catholic Church was named the 🏆 2022 Best Place of Worship in the Upstate 🏆 in the annual contest hosted by the Greenville News and representing over 40,000 participants. Our parish was up against solid competition across a diverse group of denominations and non-denominational churches in the area! This award belongs to every member of our parish and school community for the way in which they live their faith pursuing sainthood, welcome and serve others, and spread goodwill as Catholics in the Upstate. Thank you to each one of you who voted!
“Hold your eyes on God and leave the doing to Him. That is all the doing you have to worry about.” – St. Jane Frances de Chantal”
We have found Peace of Peace to be a wonderful community and an event better place to worship!
