Greenville, South Carolina was the “textile capital of the world” back in the day before everything closed down and moved to China. In its wake has been left abandoned mills scattered throughout the Upstate. Many of these have been converted and renovated back to life and Judson Mill is no exception. But this redevelopment or reuse of the mill has delivered a spectacular adaptation of mixed-use.
If you want to read more about this amazing project, be sure to read the in-depth article published about Judson Mill by the Commercial Real Estate Development Association.
Be sure to check out the Judson Mill District website.
There isn’t a week that goes by it seems without Greenville, SC being named to some list of top places to live, work, vacation and invest. This past week, Greenville, SC was named a Top 10 Most Beautiful and Affordable Places to Live by Travel & Leisure Magazine. Those of us who live here have known this for quite some time but it’s still nice to see the recognition.
People all over the country are evaluating where there are living like never before. The Covid-19 Pandemic allowed people to work from home which means they could live anywhere. Why continue to live in an area that has winter for 4-6 months out of the year when you could live elsewhere? Why live in a over regulated blue state with the heavy hand of government when you could live in a state with better weather, access to beaches and mountains and where the government doesn’t try to control every aspect of your life? South Carolina is a great option and tens of thousands of people have discovered it.
If you’re thinking of moving from some cold, blue state in the north, Midwest or NE, feel free to give me a call and I’d be happy to tell you about Greenville and the Upstate. Call me at 864-276-1448. I’m a licensed real estate broker with eXp Realty in both SC and MN. SC License #113522.
Will Greenville County and the Upstate remain a bastion of conservative values? It’s hard to say. My experience tells me that the people here tend to be more conservative than the elected officials and certainly more conservative than those who drive the front facing economic development groups. It seems that Greenville / Upstate business and economic development leaders and have embraced ESG, Black Lives Matter, DEI and LGBTQ+ initiatives. These initiatives must be promoted until the population embraces the movement…especially in conservative Greenville…right?
Recently I attended the annual meeting for the Upstate SC Alliance at the Greenville Convention Center. There had to be between 500-750 people in attendance. The Upstate SC Alliance does a great job of promoting the Upstate and tries to recruit companies to establish themselves here. That’s great. But I was caught off guard a bit when one of the leaders said from the stage that the Alliance supports Black Lives Matter. They then went on to play a promotional video that also had some BLM messaging in it. I understand that if they are trying to recruit companies from around the world that they have to demonstrate that Greenville, SC and the Upstate are not home to Southern hicks…but I don’t see that that is necessary. Greenville has a phenomenally diverse employer and employee base already without having to try to overly promote how “progressive” the New South has become. The fact is, Greenville and the Upstate is not progressive nor do I think most of the people want to be progressive. And yet, our elected officials, company execs and economic development leaders and groups continue to promote this. Now of course there is the big push for LGBTQ+ initiatives. Really? Must the Upstate demonstrate it’s commitment to LGBTQ+ in order to have a company move to South Carolina? Is this the way our leaders think? Is this how the executives and growth and development teams at the target companies think? Is this just how BIG business thinks? Does the company that runs a $50 million manufacturing business require that the Upstate have progressive initiatives when it comes to these matters?
I had a chuckle a bit when I read that economic development groups state how important ESG is to proper growth and development. As a bystander out here looking from the outside in, it would seem to me that the tide is turning against ESG and yet we are making a bigger commitment to it. I suspect the ESG thing is driven from the very top of the economy and if you want the money, you have to commit to ESG. It will take time to expose the fraud and grift that is ESG investing.
If you want to keep the Upstate the delightful southern conservative place that it has been without the full embrace of big city, big corporation, big government progressive policies, then you’re going to have to get involved and speak up. It’s unlikely we’ll see these kinds of policies and initiatives come from our county councils. It will come from the City of Greenville, the economic development organizations the big companies themselves and the public schools. Here’s the Post and Courier story about the progress being made on LGBTQ matters.
Greenville Business Magazine is out with its annual 50 Most Influential Leaders this year. It offers a good mix of leadership from business, real estate, health care, banking, education, public activism etc.
GSP, otherwise known as Greenville-Spartanburg Airport will begin an $18 million road improvement project in front of the main terminal building to try to help deal with the increase in traffic. We’ve been reading for a numbrer of years now about the growing shipping and passenger traffic coming in and out of GSP. Well that’s finally catching up and there is a need to make some improvements.
The project is expected to last for about the next two years. GSP is one of those really pleasant surprises so many people have when they come down here. It’s a lovely small airport that packs a pretty big punch. Yes, we do often have to make connections, but more and more there are direct flights in and out of here. Often the short hops are just to Charlotte or Atlanta which take no more than about 20 minutes in the air. You can get to just about anywhere in the country from either of those airports if you can’t reach your destination directly form GSP.
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Downtown Greenville, SC just continues to boom! It’s not quite like Raleigh, NC or Nashville, TN but it is now holding its own when it comes to new development of commercial and multi-family property within the city itself.
United Community Bank announced last year that they were leaving Blairsville, Georgia and relocating headquarters in downtown Greenville. They are currently building a gorgeous, state-of-the-art office building in downtown next to the newly built Grand Bohemian Lodge.
The companies involved in the design and construction of this building include Harper General Contractors, McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture, BPA Engineering, and RMF Engineering.
The building is targeted for completion at some point in 2024. It will be four stories with 118,000 SF. It right down the street from the Camperdown development in downtown Greenville. United Community Bank will be the largest bank headquartered in South Carolina. They will have about 300 employees downtown once this is completed.
I wonder how they feel about work from home :). Any, it’s great to see the continued investment happening in Greenville, SC.
This article caught my attention today in the Post and Courier about a group of people that is looking to restore many of the forgotten cemeteries scattered throughout the Upstate.
If you are reading this from far away and haven’t spend much time here in the Upstate of South Carolina, one of the things that may catch your attention when you come to visit is how many cemetaries there are. It’s a testiment to the long history of the state and how many people were here long before us. It also often seems like they are found in random locations but that’s because they were here first and development sprung up all around these cemetaries.
Prior to coming to South Carolina nearly four years ago, I had lived in Minnesota and prior to that we were in California. As a kid I also lived in North Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois and North Carolina. I don’t ever recall seeing so many cemeteries. In the upper midwest things are planned out and cemeteries tend to occupy large plots of land. But in South Carolina, cemeteries might just be an acre or two of ground where the early settlers decided that’s where they wanted to bury their dead.
I don’t know about you, but I like cemeteries. I’m always amazed at thinking about how many people were here before we were and wondering about their lives and how challenging their lives must have been. History runs deep here in South Carolina and it’s one of the things I really love about the area.
There are some amazing cemeteries to visit here in South Carolina if you’re in to that kind of thing or maybe a history buff. Here’s some information on the historic cemeteries in Greenville. The Springwood Cemetery in downtown Greenville is incredible and worthy of a visit. There’s also quite the cemetery in downtown Simpsonville, SC as well.
The Greenville City Council recently approved for the building of a much needed parking structure in Greenville’s fast growing West End. According to the article in the Greenville Journal, “the council approved $5.6 million for a mixed-use facility in Greenville’s West End — an area that has long been lacking in adequate parking, according to council members — that would include 560 parking spaces to be leased to the city over 30 years.”
Additional development will also take place at this location with 250 apartment units and 15,000 SF of retail space. The Post and Courier published a story about this development back in February and has a few more details. Apparently there are plans to have a roof top plaza on top of the parking garage. I can’t quite visualize how all of this will come together but Seamon Whiteside is the architect. They do amazing work so I’m sure this will also be quite remarkable.
The garage will be located next to the Eggs Up Grill on Augusta St.
On the heels of the election results still being tabulated a couple of days past election day, we can safely say that South Carolina continues to be a deep red state and in fact may be more red than ever. I’ll see if I can get some more information on that. Florida has gotten all the attention in part because of how front and center they were during Covid and Gov. Ron DeSantis starlwart stance throughout. He deserves credit. But little South Carolina should not be overlooked.
My wife and I were one of those people who wanted to leave our deep blue state of Minnesota many years ago. We finally were able to make the leap and moved here the summer of 2019 and love it! We got out before George Floyd and ensuing riots and not the incredible rising crime there. This election seems to have solidified some states as remaining deeply blue while others particularly in the south remain red.
Here are the results for the 2022 midterms in South Carolina. You won’t find many elected Democrats and non in state level offices. In South Carolina we have 2 so-called Republican Senators – Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott. For Congressional House Representatives, South Carolina has 6 the 7 are Republican. In case you’re wondering why a big swatch across the center part of the state is blue – well that’s Rep Jim Clyburn’s district…no gerrymandering there! 🙂
But in all seriousness…if you need to get out and are searching or a place to land, consider the Greenville area otherwise known as the Upstate of South Carolina. We are 90 minutes to the mountains and 3.5 hours to the beach. The Upstate has a thriving and increasingly diverse business base. It is incredibly strong in manufacturing and distribution. Downtown Greenville is absolutely charming and may be one of the best small cities in America. Charleston is just a little over 3 hours away. There’s so much to do and see in South Carolina. It’s both business friendly and family friendly.
If you’d like a tour or are looking for an agent to help you find a home, I’d be happy to help. Just give me a call or send me an e-mail. John Murphy, eXp Realty, 864-276-1448, john.murphy@exprealty.com.
Opportunity Zones are designatured by the federal government as areas where they would like to see new investment to revitalize communities. The benefit is that if you make the investment and improve the property that meet their guidelines and hold the property for at least 10 years, then you won’t have to pay capital gains on the property when you go to sell it.
There are a number of areas here in the Upstate of South Carolina. You can zoom in on the HUD Opportunity Zone map and take a look.