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John Murphy
Sorry but I can’t help but poke some fun at New Yorkers…I had no idea that those people were still under the illusion that “masks work” and that they were still required to wear them while on public transit – good grief. It’s September 2022. Apparently Governor Hochul, the replacement for the disgraced Governor Andrew Cuomo who stepped down earlier this year due to his scandals, made the decree today that masks would no longer be required. I’m sure this came after studying the science and all the studies about public health and Covid… yeah, right :).
People in the north have asked me many times…is it really that different in South Carolina from life in Minnesota, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania….name whatever blue state you want – and yes, it’s different. And it’s been different for a long time. The people here in South Carolina are generally free. Would I like to see further elimination of some of the nonsense? Sure. But it’s magnitudes better than what you’ll find in a state like Minnesota for example.
With New York dropping their mask mandate, can we officially say that the Covid crazy policies are dying on the vine? One could hope…but then again, there’s always California.
But on second thought…we are only 2 months away from the 2022 mid-term elections. Perhaps THAT’s the science behind dropping the mask mandate on mass transit in New York?
One of the real legends and heroes of the Upstate has passed away this weekend. The founder of the much beloved Happy Cow Creamery passed away on September 3rd according to this article in the Greenville Journal.
Happy Cow Creamery is a local dairy farm that many in the area rely on for their supply of milk. We happen to personally be big fans of the Happy Cow milk. It’s not cheap but it is the best tasting milk I have ever tasted! We prefer the whole milk 🙂 We get ours at the Mauldin Open Air Market which is another fabulous spot here in Greenville. It’s located kaddy corner from Mauldin High School and is run by some of the hardest working senior ladies I have ever met!
Here is the obituary for Thomas, “Farmer Tom” Trantham. No doubt his family will carry on the incredible work being done at the farm. Rest in Peace, Farmer Tom! You ran the good race!
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!
Here’s a great article on the incoming freshman class at Clemson this year.
A running joke on one of the Simpsonville Facebook Group’s that I’m part of is that when new construction starts on a particular parcels, people will jump in and try to guess what’s being built. Most of the time they are looking for new restaurants or a Trader Joes. I just published an article on this exact topic. The most common sarcastic comments tend to be…carwash, Waffle House, and dentists offices. Well I think we could now add a meme around banks being built because there have been a lot of new bank branches that have been built across Greenville County.
On Woodruff Road right now between I-385 and Five Forks, there are 3 brand new bank buildings currently being constructed. Fifth Third has made a big move into Greenville and they have two of the buildings going up. The other building is for First National Bank.
Building these bank buildings is not cheap…but again nothing is cheap today when it comes to commercial, or residential, construction. I suspect part of the differences in these prices might well be the size of the parking lots but also perhaps the site work that needed to be completed to build these buildings. For the Fifth Third buildings, they are both replacing old gas stations that were not exactly pleasing to the eye. It looks like in reading of the tax records and the building permits that each of these buildings are owned by different entities and these banks are leasing the space from them. According to the building permits filed with Greenville County, the Fifth Third Bank building at 1510 Woodruff Road will cost $1,950,000. The Fifth Third Bank building at 2608 Woodruff Road in Five Forks will cost $2,350,000. The First National Bank building at 1217 Woodruff Road will cost $1,500,000.
Here are the other two banks being built along with a list of other banks along Woodruff Road. It’s a popular location for banks I’m sure in part because the traffic counts are typically about 90,000 per day in the area.
Here’s a look at the other banks along Woodruff Road between I-385 and the Five Forks area.
